Page 55 of Full Coverage (Boys of Fall)

Randi took a deep breath and turned. There was something in Teresa’s face that told Randi Teresa wasn’t at all surprised to see her. In fact, she looked ready for a fight.

“How did you know I was here?” Randi asked.

“Beverly told Monica that she heard Corinne was ordering some dresses for a big party in New York. It didn’t really take much to figure this out.”

“And you asked Corinne to call you when I came in for the fitting,” Randi guessed.

Teresa gave her a small, fake smile. “Don’t you love small-town life?”

Randi lifted her chin. “Actually, yes, I do.”

Teresa’s smile disappeared. “I know.”

“And that’s the problem, right? I’m not good enough for Nolan. Just like Quinn isn’t good enough for Nolan.”

“Right.”

Randi blinked. Not even a bit of subtly or hesitation. Okay, so that meant she didn’t have to try to be nice either. “I make your son happy, Teresa. That should matter to you.”

“Nolan had a crush on you in high school. Now he’s just caught up in having a chance with you.”

Randi laughed at that. “Wow, you almost gave me a compliment. You better be careful.”

Teresa frowned. “If you care about him, you’ll end this. You know how talented he is. He deserves a chance to do everything he can with that. And you know that chance won’t come in Quinn.”

Randi didn’t reply right away. She heard what Teresa was saying. And she wasn’t wrong. “Nolan is writing a book. He can do that anywhere. He can fly to New York when he needs to just like he does now.”

“And what if the book doesn’t do well? What if he only has two books in him?” Teresa asked. “He has to keep his job in San Antonio.”

“There are stories here,” Randi said. But the niggle of doubt grew with Teresa’s words. It wasn’t like Randi hadn’t thought of all of these things. But she’d been ignoring them. Because two weeks was too short of a time for any of it to matter, for one thing. For another, she was assuming a lot in thinking that Nolan was thinking about moving back to Quinn.

“And who is he going to tell the stories to?” Teresa asked.

Strangely, her voice lacked any disdain. She almost seemed sympathetic.

“Teresa—”

“Go to San Antonio with him.”

Randi frowned. “We fly out of San Antonio on Saturday morning.”

“I mean after. When he goes back.”

Randi felt her heart rate speed up. “What?”

“I saw you together at the Valentine’s dance,” Teresa said, hugging her arms to her stomach. “I saw how he looked at you.”

Randi wet her lips. Over Teresa’s shoulder, she saw the girls coming back with shoes. Lela gave her a look that said “do I need to kick someone’s ass?” Annabelle gave her a look that said “are you okay?”

She tucked her hair behind her ear and said, “How did he look at me?”

It was more for her friends than for Teresa. They got the message and moved back out of sight. But she knew they were there, listening, ready to jump in if she needed them.

“Like he never wanted to be anywhere else.”

Randi’s breath caught. God, she wanted that to be true. So much.

At least, she thought she did. She wanted him to be where he needed to be. Where he was happiest.

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