Chapter 26
QUINN
Ford:
Make sure my dinner’s warmed up when I get home.
Quinn:
Excuse me?
Ford:
Your pussy, kitten. Make sure your pussy’s warmed up for me. I’m starving.
Quinn:
omg
A smile twitched on my lips at Ford’s last text, but even filthy messages from my husband couldn’t make this day better.
I should have known Dr. Dicknose’s stipulation was too easy.
That he would never agree to sell his practice if I simply showed up with a marriage license.
Not with the way he viewed women as second-class citizens.
He’d only told me that because he assumed it was never going to happen for me.
So imagine his surprise when I’d taken it to heart and actually found a husband.
But our time was almost up. I’d tried not to think about it when Ford and I were together—especially when it had started to feel a little too much like it was real—but the expiration date Ford and I had set at that first dinner was days away. Which meant it was now or never.
After weeks of avoidance on my boss’s behalf and an official offer on mine, I’d finally confronted him this morning.
Told him I was tired of waiting. Tired of tiptoeing around what we both knew was the entire reason I’d agreed to come here in the first place.
The entire reason I’d agreed to help him dig himself and this clinic out of the hole he’d placed himself in.
Sitting behind his desk with his hands folded neatly on top, that fucker had looked up at me with a pitying expression and told me point-blank he had no intention of fulfilling what he’d promised.
He didn’t want a woman taking over his practice—married or not.
And that was it. End of.
Everything I’d worked for…my dream… Gone. In a flash.
The smart thing would have been to confront him at the end of the day, but since I had done it first thing this morning, I’d had to sit with this for hours, making my anger increase by the second. And I was certain it was written all over my face.
Thankfully, Ford had a shift at the fire station today, so he wouldn’t be by to take me to lunch. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him. Worse was that I did .
I’d never had the kind of relationship Ford and I shared. Never had someone to confide in. Someone to count on. Someone who saw me for me.
Someone who took me as is, flaws and all.
Those were the good things my brain told me. But more often were the all too familiar whispers that had been with me my whole life. Telling me that I wasn’t good enough. That the only reason he was in this with me in the first place was because of that contract. That he couldn’t wait to get out.
But lately…I’d begun to wonder if maybe he didn’t mind being married to me. Had begun to wonder if he might actually like it.
And now, somehow, I was going to have to tell him we’d done all this for nothing.
We hadn’t needed to get married to attend Chelsea’s wedding and show her Ford wasn’t who she claimed he was. It didn’t matter anyway—she’d thought what she wanted to, despite us showing up as a committed couple, but Ford hadn’t seemed to care.
I’d known from the beginning that this was an unbalanced partnership, but I’d jumped in without thought. I figured he owed me, considering my entire life trajectory was off course because of him. But now, none of it mattered.
I wasn’t going to get this clinic, whether Ford was my husband or not.
Which meant there was no longer a reason for us to stay married.
That thought pierced my stomach, sending it rolling. Where I’d once detested him—or more accurately, detested what he stood for because it was something I thought I could never have—now, I couldn’t see my life without him. I didn’t want to see my life without him.
In the short time we’d spent together, he’d become my best friend. And somehow, I’d done the dumbest thing in my life and fallen in love with him.
When we’d entered into this, I’d snorted when he’d suggested that I’d fall in love. But I’d had no idea the difference he’d make in my life. No idea how easy it’d be to fall for the man.
Well, the joke was on me, because I was well and truly fucked now.
I glanced at the clock, realizing it was fifteen minutes after closing time.
Since I hadn’t had any patients this afternoon, I’d shut myself in my office, trying to figure out how I was going to go home and tell my husband he no longer needed to be.
That the expiration date on the contract we’d scribbled on the napkin didn’t matter because this wasn’t going to happen anyway.
I didn’t want to tell him. I wanted to stay in this fairy tale a little longer.
But I couldn’t avoid it forever. Eventually, Ford would come looking for me, wonder what was wrong—I’d never be able to hide that from him. The guy was more astute than he looked, and it would be better if this came out on my terms.
I gathered my things and grabbed my purse before heading out of my office.
Walking down the hallway, I raised a brow at the light coming from Dr. Dicknose’s office.
Since he didn’t like to stay two minutes past closing time, it was highly unusual for him to be here this late—especially when Alicia was already gone and all the lights in the rest of the clinic had been shut off.
With my luck, he’d stayed just to rub it in again before I left. One last dig at stupid little Quinn, who actually thought her father’s oldest and dearest friend would welcome her into the fold with open arms.
Well, fuck him. I was going to walk by with my head held high and not even spare him a glance.
I knew this wasn’t sustainable. I wouldn’t be able to weather this for the next who knew how long. Because eventually, he would find someone to buy the practice, and I’d have to sit back and watch someone else living my dream all over again.
Maybe it was time to look for something else.
Maybe it was time to leave Starlight Cove.
Just the thought of that had my stomach twisting, an ache settling in the back of my throat.
Growing up here, I hadn’t loved it. I’d struggled to fit in.
To find my place. Always feeling like an outcast, even with my peers.
But now that I’d been back, I was beginning to wonder if that hadn’t had more to do with my parents and what they told me—what I believed—than it did with the town. Than with me.
Because in the few short months I’d been back, it had begun to feel like home.
An image of Ford popped up in my mind, and I amended my thought. It wasn’t Starlight Cove that felt like home. It was him. He was the one place I felt free to be unapologetically myself. He was my safe place to land.
And I was going to have to find a way to tell him we no longer had to be together without letting him in on the fact that I’d somehow, beyond all reason, fallen in love with him along the way.
Even though I swore I’d walk by Dr. Dicknose’s office with my head held high and not spare him a glance, curiosity got the better of me, and I looked inside his office.
It took me long moments to register what I was seeing.
The man who’d been a constant thorn in my side since moving back…
On the floor.
His feet peeking out from behind his desk.
Body still and unmoving.
It was one of those split seconds that felt like an eternity. The moment at the beginning of an emergency when you had to decide the best course of action.
I didn’t think. I didn’t pause.
I dropped my bag, rushed over to him as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and dialed 9-1-1. And then I dropped to the floor next to his still body and started compressions.
* * *
Ford
Hearing the clinic’s address as the scene we were being dispatched to was one of the scariest moments of my life.
I knew, logically, that Quinn wasn’t the one who was having an emergency.
It was a doctor’s office, for fuck’s sake, so needing emergency services there wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
But logic didn’t have a place when I was in love.
And I would never admit it out loud, but when I’d stormed into the building, eyes scanning for her, and found her over Dinsmore doing chest compressions, I’d never been more relieved in my life. She’d been sweating, out of breath, and had looked up at me with a flurry of emotions in her eyes.
I’d taken over to give her a rest. But in the end, it hadn’t mattered. He was gone.
I’d called his death—grateful I’d been able to do that for her—statements were filed, the body was removed, and then I took Quinn home.
My shift wasn’t technically over for another twelve hours, but the chief had told me to take my wife home and take care of her. That she’d need me by her side as she decompressed from this.
The entire drive, I’d kept shooting her glances out of the corner of my eye. Her forehead had been pressed to the passenger side window, her gaze unfocused as she stared at the passing scenery.
There was a lot to be said about living in a small town. Sometimes it was a pain in the ass, but tonight, I was grateful for it. Word had already gotten around about Don, which meant we had come home to a spread of food, courtesy of Beck.
Quinn hadn’t been interested in eating much—okay, at all—but I forced her to have at least a little, knowing she’d need it.
And though I’d tried to engage her in conversation, she’d responded with one-word answers only. I hated seeing her like this. Hated seeing that fire in her eyes dimmed to only smoldering embers.
I wanted to help her come back to herself, but I didn’t know how. She’d said no to a bath, a walk on the beach, and even an axe throwing competition. The one thing she’d agreed on was a cuddle party with season four of Schitt’s Creek playing in the background.
So now we lay in bed, Quinn’s body curled against mine much like that day weeks ago when she’d had her period. I ran my fingers through her hair, and I lost count of how many kisses I’d pressed against her temple, hoping my comfort was enough to soothe her.