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Chapter23
Quinn had a shower and felt a lot better after that and the sandwich she’d made herself. Her eyes were bruising up nicely, but her nose wasn’t bad, just a bruise across the bridge.
Hearing her father itemize everything had scared her. She’d seen the look in her mother’s eyes too, that maybe she’d been wrong to dismiss this.
“Maybe we need to stay home?” She was driving them back into Ryker Falls at her mother’s insistence.
“We always go to the pumpkin rolling and festivities after,” her mother said. “I have pumpkin muffins to sell on the Girl Scouts table.”
“If someone is coming after us, we’re not letting them scare us from doing what we love,” her dad said. “Besides, I have the Morley boys there today cleaning up the mess in the houses. I told them to keep an eye out and let me know if they see anything.”
“I dismissed it,” her mom said as Quinn parked behind other cars. “I’m sorry now for doing so. But you never pushed it with me, Ivan.”
“You didn’t want to listen to me, Shelly. Maybe because I’m your husband, you should have. Maybe if you gave more time to that instead of trying to marry your daughter off and run your kids’ lives, you would have seen what was happening around you.”
“Dad.” Quinn touched her dad’s clenched fist before he got out of the car. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not. But for now that’s enough.”
They walked in tense silence.
“You guys go find your friends. I’m going to see who won the pumpkin competition and get more food,” Quinn said. “I’ll find you.”
Her dad nodded, but her mother looked worried and guilty, not something you usually saw on Shelly Harper’s face. She was a woman who believed every thought and word she had was justified.
She watched them walk away, the distance between them a gulf. Her father had been right; her mother should have listened to him. Reaching the first stall manned by kids, with a sign that said Support Our Playground Expansion, she bought a large wedge of chocolate cake thick with frosting which she devoured. Next, she bought two candy bars and a soda.
“Ladies and gentlemen who are competing in the pumpkin rolling, please head to the start line.”
Quinn found a smile. She hadn’t rolled pumpkins down the main street of Ryker Falls since she was a child.
“Hi.”
Drat. She hadn’t been looking. Sam was behind her.
“Hey, Sam.” Quinn wiped her face, then winced as she brushed her nose. She hoped she didn’t have frosting smeared all over it.
He wore chinos in a pumpkin color, a black V-neck sweater with no undershirt, and black leather loafers, the same outfit he’d had on at the rec center. It did nothing for her. She liked Luke’s look more. The way he filled out those worn jeans and sweaters. The easy smile he usually had on his face.
“Aren’t your ankles cold?” She looked down.
“I don’t feel the cold. I have the kind of constitution that adjusts to any temperature.”
Were there people who could do that? Quinn couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, but doubted it.
“We didn’t really get a chance to talk much the other night, or today at the game. So I thought I’d head into town and see if I could find you. I’ve booked a table at the lodge for us for dinner.”
“I’m busy sorry, Sam.”
“Your mom said you were free.”
Drat.
“Come on, don’t be shy. We need more contestants!” Mayor Gripper roared into a megaphone.
“I have never rolled pumpkins, but I’m sure I’d excel at it,” Sam said. “Want to be my partner?”
“I don’t think so.”
