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“Let’s promote Joseph and give him most of my current responsibilities, including negotiating the fair trade issues I was coming back to deal with. He’s been a loyal employee for years, and right now, with the way my life has changed course, he’s exactly what our company needs—a gung-ho employee who wants to take it to the next level.” While I focus on creating a life with Shelley. A life she deserves with a man who is there for her. A life both of us deserve.
The flight attendant motioned for him to turn his phone off as they taxied out on the runway.
“I’ll have a remote office set up next week. From here on out, all of my conferences will be virtual. I’ve got to hang up because we’re taxiing out on the runway, but I have faith that Joseph is the right man for the job. Oh, and I’m taking the weekend off, but we’ll talk Monday about the merger.”
Quinn ended the call feeling like the luckiest guy on earth—and also the biggest fool. He gazed out into the dark sky as they flew toward Rockwell Island and wondered how he could have been so blind, so stupid, to have left the woman he loved?
Anyone with half a brain would have grabbed at this type of true love with both hands and done everything within their power to nurture it and keep it strong. Which was exactly what he was going back to do.
To nurture Shelley’s love and keep it strong. Forever.
AFTER GRABBING A bite to eat with Abby and Sierra, Shelley hadn’t wanted to go back to her empty cottage. Sierra’d had to go back to the restaurant, and Abby had gone home to Griffin, though, so she’d come back to the gristmill and worked until her arms felt like wet noodles. At least the windows on the first level were clean and she no longer kicked up dust with every step.
It was already after ten o’clock and she hoped Quinn was okay. But she was worried that the reason he hadn’t called yet was because he was so horribly overloaded with all the work and pressure waiting for him in Annapolis. She only wished she could be there with him at the end of his stressful day to hold him in her arms and help him relax.
She’d never been in love before, and she’d questioned the validity of people saying their hearts ached or they felt empty when they weren’t with the one they loved. She’d never imagined feeling any of those things because she’d been so sure that true love would never hurt. But now she realized that this complexity of emotions—feeling hollow and full at the same time, strong and weak, like she could make the world spin on its axis or just as easily fall into a well of tears—was the beauty of love.
How could she treasure the incredible highs if she didn’t accept the depths of missing Quinn when he was gone?
Shelley had begun mopping again with renewed vengeance, when she heard the sound of the bushes at the edge of the property rustling. Through the window she could see a figure illuminated by the faint moonlight emerging from between the two tallest bushes.
She was wondering who the heck could be out there at this time of night when Quinn’s face suddenly came into focus amid the dim light.
“Quinn!” Her breath caught in her throat as she dropped the mop and ran outside to leap into his arms. She kissed his lips, his forehead, his cheeks. Everywhere she could. “You’re here.” She could hardly believe it. “You’re really here.”
“Yes, I’m really here.” His smile shot straight to the center of her chest. “And I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my life.”
Their hearts hammered in time with the other’s, and they were both grinning like the lovesick fools that they were, when it finally occurred to her to ask, “Why are you here?”
“Because you’re here, Shell. While you were falling in love with the island, I was falling in love with you. I realized on the way back to Maryland that it wasn’t signing the takeover papers that had the power to change my life, Shell. It was you. The whole flight back, I was planning to stop to buy you a ring and get champagne, and then I was going to take you out on one of my boats filled with roses to profess my love for you and show you how much you mean to me. But, Shell...” He stroked her cheek and held her emotional gaze. “Once I touched down on the island, I couldn’t wait another second to be with you. And then I realized what you’ve known all along. Things can’t prove my love for you. There’s only one way to do that, by being with you. I’m here, Shell. And I have faith in us, too. Because when I’m with you, I’m home. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing as long as we’re together. This is where I belong. With you. Every day. And every single night.”
