Chapter 34
T hey had The Talk that night in bed, after they’d waited for the kids to go to sleep and then took a long, leisurely time to enjoy each other’s bodies.
“So. Plans.” Quinn was the one who brought it up. He’d waited as long as he could. Now, while they were both satisfied and relaxed, seemed as good a time as any.
“Right. Plans.” Delilah rolled onto her side to face him. “Let me just preface this by saying it’s awkward, because it’s only been two months, and we shouldn’t have to decide where this thing is going after two months.”
“But, special circumstances,” he said.
“Yes. Special circumstances.” Delilah sat up in bed, pulling the sheet up to cover her breasts. “The way I see it, we have three choices: I stay in Cambria, I move back to Connecticut without you, or I move back to Connecticut with you.”
“And there are choices within the choices,” Quinn added. “For instance, if you move back to Connecticut without me, we can either let each other go or try a long-distance relationship.” He’d said those things in the spirit of laying out all of the possible options. But he opposed this particular scenario so strongly he almost couldn’t get the words out.
“I don’t want us to let each other go.”
He let out a breath and relaxed. “Okay, good. I don’t want that, either.”
“Okay.” She nodded, grinning at him. “Okay, then. Next question: long-distance relationship, or do we stay close to each other?”
He sat up now, too, because this seemed like the kind of conversation you needed to be upright for.
“Long-distance relationships suck,” he said. “I mean, I’ve never had one. But I imagine they suck. They’d have to.”
“Agreed. We won’t do that, then.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her to seal the deal.
“I couldn’t do that long-distance,” he said.
“No. You couldn’t. And I couldn’t do this.” She put her hand on his chest and started sliding it downward.
“Ah … as much as I love where you’re going with that,” he said, “we have to work out the rest.”
Her hand stilled. “You’re right. We do.”
“Hold that thought, though.”
She brought her hand to rest on his forearm—a much safer location.
“So. Do you stay here, or do I go there?”
That was the question. Quinn loved Cambria—he loved everything about it. He loved the small-town atmosphere, the beaches, the pines. He loved the locals who called out to him every time he went out on Main Street. He loved the community spirit, the farmer’s market on Fridays in the vet’s hall parking lot. He loved the proximity to Big Sur. He loved the annual town musical the longtime locals put on. Hell, he even loved the steady flow of tourists.
But he loved Delilah more.
“Do you want to go back to Connecticut?” he asked in a bid to get his thoughts off of himself and onto her. He was just one person, but she represented three people. It seemed to him that her vote should, therefore, have more weight.
Delilah considered the question carefully and deliberately.
Part of her never wanted to go back there again. The memories from her marriage and its ultimate collapse were too raw, too fresh. But there was more to consider than just herself.
“My family is there,” she said. “My parents and my sister.”
“Okay.”
“Jesse and Gavin both have friends they’d be leaving behind.”
He waited.
“But,” she went on, “I think I need some distance from my family, especially right now. My mother hasn’t accepted the divorce. She still thinks Mitch and I are going to get back together.”
He nodded, still not speaking. She appreciated how he just listened, waiting for her to work through it on her own. Mitch never would have done that. Mitch would have had a hundred arguments to sway her in his direction.
“And,” she said, “the boys are so young. Friendships at this age are so changeable. Kids can be best friends one day and refuse to talk to each other the next.”
Still, he waited.
“I guess what I’m saying is … I think I want to stay here. With you.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
She hesitated slightly, then nodded. “Yes. It is.”
It wasn’t until the smile spread across his face that she realized how tense he’d been waiting for her answer. “Thank God.” He grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap, and she let out a subdued whoop at his sudden enthusiasm.
They kissed for a long time in this new place, this place where they’d both decided, at last, to be together.
When they finally broke the kiss, she brought up the rest of it. “I’ll have to figure out what to do about a job. I have enough money from the settlement that I don’t have to worry about it right now. But I’ll have to worry about it eventually.”
“Well, if you move in with me, you could save on rent. You could—”
“No.” She put her hand on his chest and shook her head.
“No?”
“No. Or, at least, not now. The boys have been through too much change. I can’t move in with you until I know you and I are forever. As much as anyone can know that. To move in and then have it not work out? I couldn’t put Jesse and Gavin through that. I can’t put myself through that.”
And she needed to find out who she was when she wasn’t living with a man. She thought that part but didn’t say it. She’d let Mitch swallow her whole until there was no Delilah left. And it would be so easy to let Quinn do the same thing. She couldn’t let that happen. She needed to be firmly herself long enough that when she and Quinn did decide to live together—or even get married—Delilah would be strong and firm and real enough that she wouldn’t fade, even under the bright glare of her love for Quinn.
“Okay,” he said. “Fair enough. So, we need to find you a place. Maybe one to buy this time, and not just a rental. If you want that.”
Delilah felt a surge of excitement at the idea. She’d never bought her own house, not without Mitch. When they’d bought their house together, it had been all about him and his image of the way they should live. The thought of choosing what she wanted for the new life she was building made her almost giddy with pleasure.
“I’ll want three bedrooms, and a big back yard for the boys to play in. And for the dog.”
“The dog?”
“Of course we’re going to get a dog,” she said, almost without pausing. “And I want someplace bright, with a lot of natural light. Not too close to the water, I think. Too foggy. I love some of the places I’ve seen on Lodge Hill. They have so much character. And the kitchen …”
Quinn listened to Delilah talk about the house she wanted, and he knew they’d made the right decision. If she’d been hesitant or scared at the idea of buying a house here, if she’d seemed to be pretending to be happy, he’d have worried that she was doing this for him and not because it was best for her.
But the joy he saw in her, the excitement—that didn’t lie.
She wanted to be here.
And he wanted her here, today, tomorrow, next year, and the year after that.
He sat back and listened to her and felt a greater sense of happiness—of peace—than he’d felt in a long time. Maybe ever.
Everything was going his way.
Now, they just had to hope to hell that her asshole ex didn’t screw with them any more than he already had.