8. Beau
8
BEAU
H alf an hour later, Beau stood in the upstairs hallway, listening for a moment as Zandy whispered a bedtime story to her stuffed horse. She was telling it the same bedtime story he’d told her, with all the details, and the whole thing made his heart feel full.
He definitely wasn’t a perfect parent yet, but it was good to see Zandy so clearly feeling happy and safe enough that she was ready to help her little horse feel the same. As he headed back downstairs, he pictured the scene at the front door when Zandy hugged Quinn and told her not to be sad about the trees.
But he knew better. Quinn was sad. She was watching a dream slip away when it was close enough to taste. And he understood that perfectly, because he felt the same way about the shop.
He still wasn’t sure why he hadn’t simply said no to Max’s offer. Obviously, he was going to have to say it eventually, and it would have been much easier to put an end to his stupid daydreams right away. It wasn’t like there was any real solution that would let him or Quinn hang onto their silly dreams.
Too bad we can’t just get married…
He’d said it as a joke, of course. But those words kept floating to the top of his mind—probably because he found grownup Quinn Allen fascinating. She was smart, beautiful, and she seemed to appreciate Zandy’s big personality.
And the way her cheeks turned pink when I said it…
The trouble was that he had barely pulled himself together from the last time he’d lost his head and heart to a woman. He definitely didn’t need to make an idiot of himself all over again—especially now, with a kid to answer to.
Get it out of your head, he scolded himself. You have real responsibilities now.
He made his way to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, then took it over to the table and grabbed the laptop. At least the dreaded books were online now. Quinn had been so excited to show them to him.
Honestly, he was mostly just distracted by her sweet smile and seeing her shyness fall completely away as she talked about things she clearly had a passion for.
Looking it all over, he honestly couldn’t believe how many elements of the business she’d laid out in a way that was easy to see and understand.
I would have been lost if I just had a stack of Dad’s old ledgers in front of me.
At least he now had a shot at running things by the numbers instead of just making guesses.
Though he suspected that he would never be able to run the farm with anything close to Quinn’s vision. And she wasn’t just inspired, she had the education to help her actually implement her ideas.
But for Beau, the most important element was how much she loved the farm. He might one day be able to follow the template she was leaving him, but he would never have the borderline obsession he saw in her eyes as she talked about every detail of the way the farm worked, and all the people who kept it running efficiently.
It made him think of how he felt when he was fixing something mechanical. He could lose himself for hours under a hood without a second thought. Maybe that was why he was so drawn to her. If things were just a little different…
It doesn’t matter. These are the cards we both were dealt.
He closed his laptop, stood up and stretched, then walked over to the front door, sliding his feet into his boots.
Stepping out into the frigid air on the front porch, he tried to let his negative thoughts float away on the breeze that rolled off the hillside and down across the valley below.
It had stopped snowing for now, and the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, illuminating the landscape. He could just see the cozy glow of a single lamp on upstairs in the big house where Mom was probably reading her book.
Otherwise, the whole farm was asleep. He pictured the horses resting in their stalls and the barn cats curled up in the hay bales above them. Even the trees were covered in a thin blanket of snow.
Beau was reminded of just how lucky he was.
This is the most peaceful place in the world, he told himself. You’ll be walking these fields every day of your life. You’ll never have to put on a suit or sit in a cubicle.
Trinity Falls was so beautiful, and the farm was a perfect home for him and his daughter. It didn’t take long for his heartbeat to slow and his thoughts to quiet.
He headed back inside, feeling much better about everything. He washed the casserole dish, turned out the lights, and headed upstairs, taking care to move quietly so as not to wake Zandy.
He managed to keep his thoughts on immediate things as he got ready for bed—Thanksgiving at the big house with Mom and any of the farm staff who didn’t have family nearby, shopping for Zandy’s Christmas, and maybe even painting her room in whatever colors she wanted.
It wasn’t until he was drifting off that Beau’s thoughts went back to Quinn.
Too bad we can’t just get married…