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“Which he probably already has,” Jack said, looking grim.
“We have to go soon,” Luke said. “We can’t leave him.”
“We will be doing a DNA test,” Dylan said. “I don’t trust that woman to play things straight.”
“How long will it take us to get to Lyntacky?” Joe asked.
“Six hours minimum,” Luke said.
This wasn’t her business. She needed go, Quinn thought.
“I don’t want him on his own for that long,” Luke said.
“My guess is he’s used to being alone. Six more hours won’t make that much difference.”
“And what?” Luke glared at Joe. “That’s a good enough reason to not get to him as fast as we can? Don’t tell me you can’t remember what it was like to be alone!”
“We’re not continuing this discussion here where anyone can hear,” Joe said. “It will get around town soon enough, but for now we’ll go to the main house. I’ll tell the others, and we’ll make a plan.”
Luke nodded, then walked away from them and out the door without a backward glance.
Quinn needed to leave too; this was none of her business.
“Bye, Benji. I’ll catch you soon to see the end result, okay?”
He gave her a wide smile. She picked up her shopping and walked out the door while the remaining Trainers, Chief Blake, and Dylan talked. Inhaling a deep, steadying breath, Quinn took the steps onto the street.
There was another Trainer brother out there.How had they found out? Clearly Chief Blake had told them about him, but how had he heard? Walking back up the street, she held the bag with her mother’s wool balanced on the top of the box as thoughts came and went.
“Hi, Quinn. I’m buying you at the bachelorette auction!”
The man who had yelled the words was, to her estimate, nearing ninety. He was walking by with a group of people all dressed in matching exercise clothes with the words Ryker Roadies on the front.
She raised a hand, because she had nothing else. Why did that man think she was going to be in the bachelorette auction when she hadn’t committed? She had a sinking feeling her mother was involved.
Thinking of her mother brought her father into her head. He’d come into the house this morning while she was eating her breakfast, angry and confused over one of his machines being broken. He’d told her that machine had been working fine just two days ago.
Her mother had shot her an I-told-you-so look, so Quinn had told her father he was going to the doctor. She’d then got him alone and told him that at least that would shut her mother up, because the tests would prove Ivan Harper was of sound mind.
Was her dad losing his mind? Passing shops all decorated for Halloween, she had to say he seemed fine to her, but there was evidence mounting.
“Hi, Quinn.”
She raised a hand at the middle-aged woman who was passing her, oblivious to who she was. She remembered how inclusive this town was now. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone’s business was your business. Luke and his brothers would not want anyone to know yet what they’d just found out.
She tried to imagine how hard it would be to realize the woman who’d left you when you needed her most had another son. A brother to Luke, Jack, and Joe, and they knew nothing about him until now.
She saw him then. Luke Trainer was down by opening between the shops. His hands were braced on a wall and his head lowered between them. He wore his firefighter uniform of navy blue pants and shirt. It suited him, she’d thought when she’d first seen him today. More than suited him; it looked really good on him. The shirt was fitted over those wide shoulders and hard chest.
She debated with herself for two seconds whether to go and see him or walk on by. Lowering her shopping to the side of the narrow opening, she moved closer slowly.
He looked defeated. The big strong firefighter looked broken.
What did a person say to someone who’d just been told he may have a brother out there?
“Hey,” she said softly. He didn’t lift his head. Didn’t move, just hauled in large breaths, his big shoulders rising and falling.
“I thought that woman had stopped fucking with our lives.”
