Four
WADE
I nodded at Owen. My mum had worked with his mum for decades, and he was the closest I had to a brother.
We stayed in touch while I was travelling the world and he was moving around the state.
I was very much aware that he’d moved home in the last year, and that he was blissfully happy in a relationship with the woman he’d loved most of his life.
That was what gave me the courage to plan my own move home and finally let Quinn know how I felt.
My attention kept straying toward the auburn-haired beauty.
It had been years since I’d seen her dressed up, and she was breathtaking.
Don’t get me wrong, she was beautiful wearing shorts and a t-shirt, too, but there was something about the black dress she wore that gave her confidence an extra boost that oozed out in spades.
“So, are you finally going to tell her?” Owen asked as he nodded toward Quinn.
“Tell her what?” I feigned ignorance, my acting so bad that even I didn’t believe it.
“Trust me, I’m telling you this from personal experience,” Owen told me conspiratorially. “The only two people you’re fooling with this charade are Quinn and yourself.”
I considered what he said for a moment, but was saved from replying by a very enthusiastic Hannah McCarthy tapping a wineglass and calling everyone to attention. She and Ian gave a small speech before a large cake was rolled out.
Quinn looked radiant, maybe even slightly embarrassed, as we sang Happy Birthday to her.
Her confidence was magnetic, swanning around in her element, chatting with her loved ones.
As much as she felt isolated when she was a teen mum with an asshole baby-daddy, she was now enjoying the company of everyone who had rallied around her.
Her parents had always been supportive, but she had stubbornly tried to make a go of cohabitating with Max’s dad.
I’d never liked the man, and the best thing he ever did was leave Hartwood Bay.
The night wore on, and my anxiety increased. I’d spent most of the party catching up with locals that I’d grown up with. Not quite avoiding Quinn, but being mindful that I shouldn’t monopolize her time on her special night.
As Quinn’s parents bid her goodnight at the door, taking Max home so she could continue to party with her friends, I gave them a hug and then hooked my arm in hers.
“What are you doing, Wade?” She laughed as I directed her to the path, opposite to the one her parents walked, toward a bench with a view of the beach.
“Just going for a short walk; we can go back to the party in a minute.”
I nervously took her hand, and she sighed. “It’s been such a beautiful night. I really need to thank Mum. She knew what I needed, and did it.”
Squeezing her hand, I directed her to sit down on the bench and close her eyes. I quickly lit the candles I’d left in a semi-circle on the ground around the bench, took my position, and asked her to open her eyes again.
Quinn took me in, her smile falling from her face as her brows furrowed in confusion. I took out the ring box and attempted to say the words that I’d rehearsed. “Quinn McCarthy, would you do me the honour—”
“What the actual fuck, Wade?” Quinn stood up in anger.
“I’m trying to propose here, Quinn.” I rubbed my forehead and stood up to face her.
“I’m aware of that. It’s pretty bloody obvious.” She pointed to the candles and the ring box before raising her hands and letting out a grunt of frustration. “What I mean is why, Wade? Why are you proposing out of nowhere? We’re not even in a relationship! We’ve never even really kissed!”
Quinn then touched her lips, and I knew she was remembering the moment we shared our first kiss.
“We’ve kissed, Quinn,” I said firmly, holding onto that memory myself.
“That doesn’t count. We were at a party at the Marin house, and we needed to prove to Bella’s idiot boyfriend that you weren’t gay.”
“We both know that kissing a woman doesn’t mean a man isn’t attracted to men as well,” I countered because although that was my excuse at the time, I’d grabbed that opportunity to finally kiss her.
“I know that now, but I was fifteen, and I wanted that idiot to stop bullying you.”
“That was your reason for kissing me, Quinn.” I took her hands in mine. “I just really wanted to kiss you.” She looked at the gently crashing waves behind me and pulled away slightly.
“Okay…” her voice was low, “you wanted to kiss me when we were fifteen—that doesn’t explain all of this.” She pointed at the candles again.
I took her by the hand again and sat us both on the bench. “Do you remember that October when we turned sixteen, just before you left school to start your apprenticeship?” Quinn nodded. “We were at the beach every day, and we felt like we didn’t want the school holidays to end?” She nodded again.
“The one where you’d bring your guitar to the beach, and sit there strumming and singing tunes as all the girls ogled you?” Quinn replied sarcastically.
“I don’t remember that; I just remember one afternoon, when we didn’t want to leave, but it was getting late and the spring winds were getting a bit chilly. I wrapped you up in my hoodie, and on our walk home, we promised each other one thing.”
Quinn’s eyes widened in recognition. “The pact…” Quinn gasped. “That wasn’t—”
“We said that if we weren’t married by the time we were thirty, we’d marry each other.” The words hung in the air for a moment before Quinn reacted.
“So I’m the fucking consolation prize? You have all those women throwing themselves at you, and you can’t find one to settle down with?” The venom in her voice hid her obvious insecurities.
“I don’t want those women, Quinn.”
“No, you want the woman who’s your backup plan, the one who’s still single because she fucked up the one relationship she tried to make work? I’m not your silver medal!” Quinn glared at me. “Wade, what made you think this would work?”
“It was something we’d—” I didn’t have time to answer her before she turned and started walking back to the party.
“You know what? I can’t deal with this right now…” she called over her shoulder. I watched her as she stormed back into the function room.
Rubbing my chest involuntarily, I quickly snuffed out each candle, collecting them to take back to my cabin where I could figure out how I fucked this up so completely.