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One more chance.
It was a risk, given his obvious workaholic tendencies, but there were so many great things about Quinn—he was sweet and sexy, smart and funny, and utterly devoted to his family—that made it impossible for Shelley to turn away from him just yet. Not without giving him one more chance to get things right.
“The wind really kicked up this afternoon. Was it this bad when you were sailing?” Sierra gathered her hair over one shoulder and held it tight so that it wouldn’t blow all over the place.
Shelley fished around in her purse. “Fortunately it was pretty calm. I know I have a couple elastic bands in here somewhere.” She pulled one out and handed it to Sierra, who made quick work of tying back her hair.
“This is why I need sisters,” Sierra said. “My brothers would probably take out a piece of rope and try to tie my hair back with some fancy boating knot. Ethan must know a thousand different knots, actually.”
Shelley laughed as she also pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Well, I wouldn’t mind having a sister or a brother. I’d take someone caring enough to tie rope in my hair any day over being cared for by nannies and dragged around like luggage.”
She was so comfortable with Sierra already that the words came before she could stop them. She thought about when she’d accidentally mentioned diamond mines on the boat with Quinn and how she’d seen him mentally putting the pieces of her childhood together. He obviously hadn’t mentioned it to Sierra, though, and she was glad he thought enough of her not to share it, to give her the chance to do so at her own pace.
“That couldn’t have been fun.”
Shelley tried to shrug it off. “It wasn’t that bad, just not the same as having a houseful of other kids to play with and parents who were actually around instead of working all the time.”
“I thank God every day for my parents. They’re so down-to-earth and real. It’s always driven my grandfather crazy that none of us play up our surname.” Sierra sipped her iced tea. “I probably shouldn’t share family secrets, but I feel like I’ve known you forever for some reason.”
“Don’t worry. I promise your family secrets are safe with me. And I feel the exact same way about you.” Shelley felt so lucky that she had connected with Sierra. Her parents’ lifestyle was so different from what most people had been exposed to that she was really glad for the kinship. “Your mom seems really nice. Everyone here does, actually. It’s one of the first things I noticed when I landed on the island. Any town that has a brag wall is officially fabulous.”
“Eleanor is so cute, isn’t she?” Sierra agreed. “She’s absolutely the perfect person to run the visitors’ center.”
“Did you know she has pictures of your brothers from when they were teenagers up on the board?”
“Everyone loves my brothers. Of course, what everyone else doesn’t see is what it’s like to be their sister. They can be a little overbearing to me sometimes, particularly Trent, Quinn, and Derek, but I try to remind myself that they’re only doing what they think is best. And beneath their workaholic sides, they’re fun. Especially Quinn. Back when we were kids, at least, he was always the one coming up with crazy plans for all of us.”
“I’m not surprised,” Shelley said. And she truly wasn’t, because she’d seen for herself how much fun he could be.
“Really? You’re not surprised to hear that he can be fun?”
Shelley smiled as she told Sierra, “We went clamming yesterday, and then of course he taught the sailing lesson today, which was great.”
“Wait.” Sierra pressed her palms to the table. “You got Quinn to go clamming? Like dig in the mud clamming?”
“He’s the one who suggested it, actually. I had no idea how to clam, but I had a blast.” She purposefully left out the part where she'd been rolling around on the sand making out with Quinn, of course.
Sierra’s brows knitted together as she leaned back and crossed her legs, her long cotton skirt waving in the breeze. “Shelley, Shelley, Shelley…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
But the mischief in Sierra’s dark eyes told Shelley there was a lot of something in that nothing.
On the one hand, Shelley loved knowing that Quinn was different around her than he’d been with other women...but on the other hand, she was also worried about how fast her feelings for him had already grown.
Her mind drifted back to the horrible feelings of the night before, when he’d taken the phone call and ignored her. Then she quickly fast-forwarded to the flowers he’d left on her porch and the deep regret in his eyes when he’d apologized—many times over.
Yet again she tried to convince herself that she still needed to be careful, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they not only generated a shocking amount of heat and passion together, but that they'd also been opening their hearts to each other since day one. And along with opening their hearts came learning, growing, and even sometimes experiencing old wounds as they set boundaries on what was okay and what wasn’t.
