Page 4 of His Forgotten Colton Fiancee
Quinn gave him a playful poke. “If you want dramatics, try out for summer stock. We’ll get by.”
“Such an optimist. Did you pay the rent yet?”
Although the apartment rent was due later than the store rent, Quinn got a discount paying both all at once. “I will.”
If necessary, she’d dip into her savings account.
Austin set down the knife. “Quinn, do you want me to take care of it? I’d hate to see Larson start eviction procedures.”
Noel Larson wouldn’t evict. Not right away. He’d gloat over the fact she owed him, and then squeeze harder, putting pressure on her and humiliating her. Noel and his twin brother were real estate tycoons in Red Ridge.Their reach and their power made them nearly invincible. You didn’t want to mess with them.
“No. Stay away from him. I have the money, Austin, and I don’t want Larson thinking I’m dead broke.” She softened her tone. “I appreciate your offer of help, but you know me. I refuse to hand Larson that kind of power.”
“Pride goeth before homelessness,” he quipped.
She smiled. “Don’t worry.I’d never let that happen.”
Quinn felt warm inside as her thoughts drifted to West. By winter, perhaps she’d be married. Maybe even on her way to starting a family. Humming, she bustled around the kitchen.
Austin’s blue eyes twinkled behind the thick glasses. “You look so...glowing this morning. New boyfriend?”
She wished she could scream about her romance with West from the rooftops,but she couldn’t. For his safety. “I had a love affair with a nuclear reactor,” she teased back. “And a good night’s sleep.”
“I’m glad someone’s happy,” he muttered morosely as he set down the knife and scooped the greens into a bowl. “I can’t seem to get a date with everything going on in this town. At this rate, I’ll be more celibate than a monk on Mars.”
She laughed, and the laugh cutshort as she suddenly remembered. West hadn’t used a condom this morning...
They’d been so eager, so tired from their jobs and so careful to make sure no one saw them together, they’d forgotten to be careful that way.
Anxiety arrowed through her. She checked the calendar on her Android phone. Too close to call. Pregnancy wasn’t on her to-do list. No Bullet Journal for that, she thoughtas she tucked her phone back into the pocket of her apron. Never mind the fact that West stated he didn’t want children, and she did. She longed to have two children, a real family with a mother and father who stuck around, unlike her shiftless dad, Rusty.
Maybe she could change West’s mind about having a family.
I need breakfast if I’m going to deal with this.Quinn opened the stainlesssteel refrigerator and gathered the ingredients for a blueberry-peach smoothie. When it was finished, she took it outside in the cool morning air.
Up and down Main Street, shopkeepers were opening their stores and starting business for the day. Summer business bustled in August with tourists who wanted some late-season fishing or hiking, taking kids to see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hillsbefore shuttling them off to school. But not this year. Maybe the visitors heard about the Groom Killer and decided to stay elsewhere.
The brick facade of her little shop was aged, and gave Good Eats a small-town charm, along with the flower boxes lining the big windows overlooking Main Street. Her store, at the very edge of town, backed onto a wide-open field where there had been talk ofdeveloping a shopping center.
Those plans had been abandoned by the developer after business started going south in town.
Quinn had dug into her slim savings and purchased wrought iron bistro tables and chairs where customers could sit outside and enjoy a hot cappuccino or a cold smoothie in the warm weather. Once, the drinks were icing on her store’s financial cake; now they were theentire cake and frosting.
If she didn’t get a big order soon, she and Austin would be in financial trouble.
Never. Austin was her bestie. She needed him in her life as much as she needed West. And her brothers and sister.
Where was Demi?
She had constantly wrestled with worry over her kid sister. A bounty hunter, Demi was tough as nails, fierce, and Quinn couldn’t help wonderingif her half sister really had snapped and killed her ex-fiancé and the other grooms. Her ex had been the first victim. There had since been many more. According to the RRPD—many of whom were related to Demi and Quinn in some way—Demi was guilty. Others said she was being framed. All Quinn knew was that Demi was alone out there, supposedly trying to prove her innocence. At least, she’d texted asmuch to their brother Shane a couple months back.
Since then: radio silence.
What Quinn couldn’t stop thinking about was that when Demi had fled town, she’d been pregnant. She must have had the baby already. Or was about to.
Quinn sipped the shake and set it down on the table. Her phone buzzed and she reached into her apron to pull it out when a tremendousKA-POWsplit the air, startlingher into dropping the cell phone and spilling her drink.
Shaken, she stood up, staring in the direction of the explosion. Her father’s bar was down that way...
In the direction West had taken when he’d kissed her goodbye and then headed for work.
