Book 16 Light After Dark #3
After a long pause in which he never blinks, Big Mac says, “Good enough.” Shifting his gaze to Mallory, he adds, “Let me know when you’re back on dry land.”
Once they’re in the dinghy heading out to Quinn’s sailboat, he asks if he passed some kind of test with her dad.
He notices Mallory crying. That was the first time she had introduced a man to her dad, and she was touched by his protectiveness.
On the boat, Mallory makes a friend for life in Brutus.
They enjoy the day on the water and return to land, so Mallory can get ready for the welcome home party for Evan and Grace.
At dinner, Mallory ends up sitting next to Mac and Hailey. He asks if she’s dating Quinn. “There’s something about him that makes me think he has secrets,” Mac says. “He’s closed off. Remote.”
Mallory suspects she already knows most of Quinn’s deep, dark secrets, and since he’d been forthcoming about what he’d already told her, she had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be about other things, too. “Just because someone isn’t an open book like you are doesn’t mean they’re a bad person.”
“I know. It’s just that I’ve worked with him for months, and I don’t feel like I know him any better than I did on day one. That gives me pause.”
And it gave Mallory further insight into how someone who’s usually reserved with strangers had shared a lot with her on their two dates.
“Just be careful, okay?”
“Are you playing the part of the big brother, little brother?”
“Nah. Maddie told me to stay out of it, but I needed to say something to you.”
“I appreciate your concern. I really do. I’ve never had brothers to look out for me before.”
“I told my lovely wife that you’d appreciate me looking out for you.”
“Looking out, yes. Interfering, no.”
“Gotcha.” He wipes Hailey’s face and helps her with a sippy cup. “I get that this family thing is all new to you, but being the little brother is all new to me. It’s not just you who’s had to do some adjusting.”
“I know. You’ve all been very generous about welcoming me into the family.”
“I hope you know that we’re all very happy to have you. At first, it was strange and surprising and…”
“Weird?”
“Yeah, that,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s not weird anymore. You fit right in like you’ve always been here.”
Mallory is touched by the bond that’s forming with her brother.
They’re hearing about Evan’s female fans throwing panties at him during his concerts when Alex and Jenny arrive with Jared, Lizzie and Quinn, who zeroes right in on Mallory. They end up around the fire pit, listening to Evan play.
Later, Quinn goes to hang out at Lizzie and Jared’s while he waits for Mallory to leave her sister’s house.
When he’s getting ready to leave, he steps into a hole and ends up face-first on the ground, painfully wrenching his prosthetic.
Jared is beside himself that Quinn is injured and upset that he never told their family about losing his leg.
David comes to check on him, and once Mallory hears he is hurt, she comes rushing to his side. Since they determine he can’t use his prosthetic for a few days and he cannot get to his boat, Mallory invites him and Brutus to stay with her.
When Mallory gets Quinn settled at her house, she gets ice for his injury, asking him if he wants it directly on his leg or over his pants. He hesitates and then glances up at her, looking madly vulnerable. “If you see it, you won’t forget that you like me, will you?”
“Of course, I won’t. Don’t forget I’ve seen far worse.”
“I… I haven’t shown it to anyone except doctors.”
“Is this why you’ve been celibate so long?”
Nodding, he said, “I couldn’t bring myself to go there with a woman. Until now.”
“I promise you there’s nothing about your injury or what it looks like that could make me change my mind about whatever is happening between us. I realize it’s the biggest thing to ever happen to you, but it doesn’t make you any less attractive to me. As long as you’re comfortable, so am I.”
He takes hold of her hand and brings it to his lips. “There’s nothing you could’ve said that would be better than that. I seem to have frequent cause to thank you for being you.”
Mallory wakes up with Quinn wrapped around her. She sets him up with breakfast and coffee and heads to her first shift as a paramedic. Quinn calls on Jared to gather the things he needs from his boat. After he arrives at Mallory’s house, Jared assigns himself to chauffeur Quinn around for the day.
Mallory meets with Mason, and he introduces her to the rest of the guys on her shift, Shorty, Boner and Trip.
After the morning of going over procedures, Mason and Mallory attend their morning AA meeting.
When they return to the fire department, she helps prepare lunch and goes on her first call.
As she finishes her day, she realizes she’s at least ten years older than the guys she’s working with. They give her the nickname of Mom.
Once Mallory and Quinn are back home together, they make love for the first time. Quinn hasn’t been with anyone since his injury. His leg is only a part of him, and while it’s a big deal to him, it doesn’t matter to her.
The following week, Quinn leads Jared and Lizzie around the medical facility, showing them the renovated space. “Where are we with hiring?” Lizzie asks.
“I met with the recruiter last week, as you know, and I’ve offered the director of nursing position to someone we’d be very lucky to have.”
“Anyone we know?” Jared asks.
“Maybe,” he says, smiling as he thinks of Mallory.
“Are you going to tell us, or keep us in suspense?” Lizzie asks.
“I know better than to try to keep you in suspense.”
“You’re learning, bro,” Jared says. “She’s worse than a CSI investigator when someone holds out on her.”
“I suppose that’s better than when he says I’m like a dog with a bone,” Lizzie says with a long-suffering sigh. “Now spill the beans, Quinn.”
He smiles at her feistiness. “I asked Mallory if she’d be interested.”
“Mallory, as in your girlfriend, Mallory, who you are currently living with?” Jared asks.
Quinn isn’t sure if his brother is expressing approval or disapproval, but he honestly doesn’t care either way. “One and the same.”
“She’d be fantastic,” Lizzie says. “I heard she ran the ER at one of the big hospitals in Providence for years.”
“She did,” Quinn confirms. “Not only does she have management-level nursing experience, but she’s also a medical school graduate and a certified paramedic. In fact, she’s probably overqualified for the job.”
“We can make it worth her while, can’t we, Jared?” Lizzie asks.
“Of course, my love,” he says indulgently. “Whatever you want.”
“Seriously! We can’t let someone like her slip through our fingers.”
“I’ve made the offer, and she’s asked for some time to think about it. She was laid off in May and is still getting her bearings while she works on the rescue for the summer. I’m trying not to push her to decide anything before she’s ready.”
That’s true for their personal relationship, as well.
In all the time they’d spent together recently, they hadn’t once spoken of what would happen at the end of the summer.
He keeps thinking they have plenty of time to figure that out, but with every minute—and every night—he spends with her, he wants more.
He wants to know that what they’re building together is more than a summer fling.
However, as much as he wants those answers, he knows better than to push her to make decisions before she is ready.
Mallory, following Linda’s advice, has been meeting with her Uncle Kevin about her frustration and anger with her mom, along with the guilt for feeling that way when she really loved her.
He suggests she write a letter to her mother, telling her how she feels, to get it off her heart and mind.
They discuss the dilemma of a job offer from the man she’s now dating and, even though he wouldn’t be her boss, if things went south, she’d be out of a job.
Kevin speaks to her as her uncle and not a therapist when he urges her to take the job. With her qualifications and expertise, she could get another job anywhere.
“You say that as if it’s simple.”
“It is. You’re still in that early career mindset of having to hold on to a job at all costs because you might not be able to find another.
We both know the shortage of qualified nurses would make you a hot commodity anywhere you chose to go.
So go into the new job with the new man holding your own set of cards. Play them as you see fit.”
“You’re good at this. You might want to consider a career.”
Blaine and Tiffany Taylor travel to Providence to meet with her ex-husband, Jim Sturgil, ahead of his upcoming trial. He interrupted Dan Torrington and Kara Ballard’s engagement party, attacked Dan and turned on Tiffany when Blaine arrested him.
“You asked for this meeting,” Jim says in the snide tone she’d become accustomed to from him in the last few years of their marriage. “What do you want?”
“I would like for you to consider accepting a plea to spare your daughter the humiliation of a trial.”
He snorts. “She’s four. What does she know about humiliation?”
“She’ll be five soon and going to school with other kids whose parents will be talking about how, in a drunken stupor, you pulled a knife at an engagement party and assaulted Dan. Is that what you want your daughter to be confronted with on the playground in kindergarten?”
To his credit, Jim had the good sense to seem chagrined. “No, that’s not what I want.”
“Take the plea, Jim. Spare her the embarrassment and ridicule of having your sins thrown in her face. We live in a very small town. This will stick to her forever as it is. Why make it worse than it already is?”
As they left, Tiffany told the prosecutor that she’d done what she could to convince him to take the plea deal.