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Knowing Sierra loved to get the scoop on her brothers’ love lives and that she wouldn’t relent until he told her something, he admitted, “She is great. Really great.” Really great felt like the world's biggest understatement when it came to Shelley. “But I completely screwed up with her yesterday, so unless I can find her and convince her to accept my apology today, there’s nothing to tell.”
“Figures you’d screw things up with a beautiful woman,” Derek said, clearly unimpressed as he shook his head.
Quinn shot his brother a narrow-eyed stare as Trent frowned and said, “I’ve started to wonder if that’s how we weed out the ones who matter.”
It sounded to Quinn like that was a question Trent had been asking himself a lot lately. About Reese, maybe?
“If she doesn’t matter,” Trent continued, “you’ll let things lie. But if she does matter, you’ll grovel yourself back into her good graces. And you’ll do anything you can to get her back. And keep her.”
Quinn wasn’t above groveling, not where Shelley was concerned. Hell, if there was any way he could get her back, he swore he’d do it. But first he needed to tell his siblings what he’d just heard standing outside of Chandler’s office.
Ethan was the one who got them back on track. “What did Chandler say that you think we need to know?”
“First of all, Didi…” Quinn was still amazed at the way she’d stood up to their curmudgeonly grandfather. “That woman has a spine of steel.”
“Oh no. What happened?” Sierra’s smile immediately faded as their grandfather became the focus of their conversation again.
“Didi said something to Chandler about how we’re as determined as he is.”
“Looks like it’s on to nurse number five,” Derek said, but he didn’t look at all happy about it.
“No, that’s just it,” Quinn told them. “Grandfather agreed. And when she pushed him further about how we’re agreeing to stay on the island and run the resort just to support Dad and the island residents, he didn’t refute it.” Quinn leaned his palms on the table and lowered his voice. “She also said that we were just as devoted to family as he is.” All of his siblings looked as shocked as he still felt. “That tells me two things. Either she knows him better than any of us do, which seems impossible. Or…I wonder if his heart attacks had more of an impact on him than we’re giving him credit for. Do you think there’s any chance this nonsense with the resort could be his sneaky way of bringing the family back together?”
Derek laughed so loudly the people at nearby tables turned and looked at him.
“You honestly think Chandler gives two hoots about family?” Derek said, no traces of humor left in his voice at all. “When Grandma was around, he treated her like she came third—after the resort and after his high school sweetheart left him in the dust well before Grandma even met him.”
“Please don’t bring Grandma Caroline into this,” Sierra said. “She loved Chandler to the ends of the earth, and she never seemed to blame him for treating her like she was his second choice.”
“She was a saint,” Derek agreed. “But that doesn’t make it right. Everyone knew that he never got over Eloise Fisher. He married Grandma Caroline because, for whatever reason, she adored him and he wanted to have an heir. She was probably the only woman who would put up with him. All I’m saying is that I think Quinn’s way off base. Chandler wouldn’t know about family loyalty if it bit him in the ass.”
“Actually,” Quinn pointed out, “he did take over the family business, so he obviously knows something about family loyalty. I’m just wondering if maybe somewhere over the years he got screwed up in the head”—and the heart, he thought silently as he went back to how stupid he had been with Shelley the night before, all because he’d been too focused on work to remember what really mattered—“and forgot how to treat people.”
“Maybe you misheard him?” Trent suggested. “Or misunderstood what he meant.”
“Maybe,” Quinn said, “but I just thought you guys should know what I heard.”
With that, Quinn said a quick goodbye to his siblings, then sprinted out of the resort and across the pool area toward Shelley’s cottage. But just as he’d expected, she was already gone for the day.
The flowers he’d left on the mat for her the night before were gone now, but for all he knew, she’d thrown them away when she’d realized they were from him. She’d been so excited about the island that he assumed she was off on another adventure. Without him, damn it.
Quinn’s heart was heavy, but as he glanced at her cottage one last time, he finally noticed a vase filled with the flowers he’d left for her. She hadn’t thrown them away.
