Book 16 Light After Dark #4
Energized after her conversation with Uncle Kevin, Mallory decides she wants to stay on the island, take the job and be with Quinn.
She races home to tell Quinn, but he’s not home yet.
When he doesn’t answer her texts, she contacts Jared to ask if Quinn is with him.
When they realize he isn’t, Jared offers to go to the medical facility to see if he’s there.
Quinn comes to at the bottom of the basement stairs, in pain and bloody, with his bad leg bent at an awkward angle.
His head is pounding, and he can’t find his phone.
He recalls hearing a noise and coming to check it out.
He must’ve fallen. Jared finds him and calls for the paramedics to transport him to the clinic.
Mallory meets them there, but Quinn has decided she deserves better than someone broken and damaged.
He pushes her away. After helping tend to his injuries, she leaves his room and goes into the waiting room.
Lizzie comforts her, and Mallory tells her that she loves Quinn and asks that when he’s released, Lizzie and Jared don’t invite him back to their house, forcing him to come home with Mallory.
When they arrive back at her house, Quinn is still being difficult and asks her, “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere? You don’t have to babysit me if you’ve got stuff to do.”
“I don’t have anything to do.”
“But you had plans?”
“We were both invited to a bonfire at the Harrises’ house.”
“I’m sorry you had to miss it.”
“I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“Again.”
Mallory shrugged. “Shit happens.”
He takes a drink of his water and puts the glass on the table. “This is the Summer of Mallory. You don’t need to be taking care of an invalid.”
She snorts out a laugh.
“You think this is funny?”
“Only the part about you being an invalid. Clearly, you don’t have much experience with invalids if you think you are one.”
“You know what I mean!”
“I know that you’ve had two recent setbacks that have you thinking this is how the rest of your life is going to unfold, and surely no reasonable woman would want to be part of that.”
He stares at her, seeming taken aback that she’s zeroed in on the heart of the matter so quickly.
“What happened to you, in both cases, was a freak accident that could’ve happened to anyone.
Does it occur to you that if you’d never lost your leg, you might still have stepped in that hole in the dark and maybe torn your ACL or MCL and needed surgery to fix it?
The prosthetic probably saved you from a more serious injury, and yes, a week on crutches was a drag, but it wasn’t the end of the world as we know it.
In fact, that week gave you a good excuse to stay here with me, and if I’m not mistaken, that week was pretty great.
Or maybe I was the only one who thought so. ”
“You weren’t the only one.”
She asks Quinn to be her plus one at Dan and Kara’s wedding the next weekend. He says yes for that weekend and every weekend.
The day before the wedding, Mallory asks Big Mac and Linda if she can read the letter she wrote to her mom to them.
After hearing her letter, Big Mac tells her how proud he is of her and that he loves her.
She returns home and tells Quinn that the Summer of Mallory is turning out better than she could have hoped for.
“Hey, Mallory.”
After closing the blinds, she turns to him. “Hmm?”
“Thanks for everything over the last week.”
“Having you here has been a terrible hardship,” she says with a teasing glint of humor in her eyes.
“I’ll be out of your hair soon.” Only because he’s watching her so closely does he notice her face fall with disappointment.
“Really?”
“Brutus and I don’t want to outstay our welcome.”
“That’s not possible. I like having you guys here. In fact… If you want to stay indefinitely, that would be fine with me.”
“Would it?”
“Yes, it would. I could look at this sexy man chest every day and never get tired of the view. You wouldn’t want to deprive me of my favorite view, would you?”
“I wouldn’t want to deprive you of anything.”
“Good answer.” She runs her hands from his well-developed pectorals to his broad shoulders. “You and Brutus are fun to have around. I’d be sad if you left.”
“We can’t have that.”
“Unless you miss living on the boat and would rather be there. The star-gazing is so much better out there.”
He looks down at her. “The overall view is way nicer here.”
“So, you’ll stay?”
“I’ll stay.”
“Quinn?”
“Hmm?”
“About that job you offered me.”
“What about it?”
“If the offer is still on the table—”
“It is.”
“Then I’d like to accept.”
“Really?”
She nods. “I talked to my Uncle Kevin about it, and he made a good point. If it doesn’t work out, I can go anywhere I want with the credentials I have. We’re both professionals, and we can separate our work life and our personal life.”
He holds her tight, his heart full from knowing she’s going to stay after the summer, that they will live and work together to make a go of the facility—and their relationship. “It’s going to be great, and you’re not going anywhere. I need you far too much here with me.”
She raises her head from his chest to gaze into his eyes. “So, we’re really going to do this, huh?”
“We’re really going to do it.”
Epilogue
Mr. & Mrs. Torrington: A Gansett Island Short Story
The morning Kara and Dan are due to be married, Dan walks into the police station to bail out Kara’s brothers, Keith, Kieran and Kyle, who were arrested for fighting at the Rusty Scrupper.
Blaine orders them to pay restitution, or the owners will press charges.
Dan urges them to keep it together for Kara’s sake.
Dan heads home to get ready for his wedding. His best man, Grant McCarthy, is waiting for him to go to the Chesterfield, where the wedding will take place.
Stephanie McCarthy, Kara’s matron of honor, comes in to tell her it’s time to go.
Kara’s father meets her to escort her down the aisle.
Her dad is sorry for the way they handled the situation with her sister, Kelly, who has been told to stay away from the island and the wedding she wasn’t invited to.
Kara is grateful for her father’s apology and to know her sister won’t intrude on her big day.
Grant’s Uncle Frank presides over the brief ceremony, where Dan and Kara exchange traditional vows and rings.
“It’s my great pleasure,” Frank says, “to introduce for the first time as Mister and Missus… Dan and Kara Torrington.”
While their guests applaud enthusiastically, Dan escorts his wife down the aisle and ducks into the secret garden inside the hedges to steal a better kiss.
Surrounded by fragrant flowers, Dan takes her into his arms and kisses her passionately, thrilled to finally be married to the woman he loves more than life itself.
“Finally,” he whispers against her lips.