Take the Long Way Home Read Free Page B

living right here in town. Working for her
dad.”
    “He owns that car place on Route One,” Maeve
said.
    More than one car place. Ashley’s father
owned multiple dealerships along the North Shore: Wright Honda,
Wright Buick-Cadillac, Wright BMW. “Get the Wright Car at the
Wright Price!” his ads used to scream from radio speakers, TV
screens, and billboards. “Looking for a new car? You can’t go wrong
with Wright!” Ashley had been one of the rich kids in town, living
in a sprawling mansion with an ocean view on the north end of town.
Now she lived in a condominium she was dying to show Quinn, but
he’d thought it best to avoid that, at least until he figured out
what he did or did not want to happen if he crossed the
threshold.
    “So…are you working in the area or just
visiting?” he asked.
    Her gaze flickered left and right before
centering on him again. She appeared dubious, as if not quite sure
how to answer, or why he’d even asked. He wasn’t sure why he’d
asked, either, except that he felt…something. A need to become
acquainted with her. A need to connect with her in some way. Just
because he’d never gotten to know Maeve Nolan, the cop’s crazy
daughter, in high school didn’t mean he couldn’t get to know her
now.
    “I’m not sure,” she finally answered. “I’m
planning to open a cookie store, but we’ll see how it goes.”
    A cookie store. That struck him as a little
strange. People might open a bakery, or a doughnut shop, or an
ice-cream parlor. But a cookie store?
    All right. She’d been weird in high school,
and she was weird now. Despite her weirdness, he was enjoying this
conversation. He felt that this moment, this meeting, was why he’d
taken the long way home. That made no sense, but not everything in
the world had to make sense.
    She peered past him once more, then gave him
a smile that tugged his heart in an odd way. “You should go back to
Ashley. She’s waiting for you. And I have to get back to work. Nice
talking to you.” She turned and reached for the door.
    He touched her wrist again, and her gaze
fell to where his fingers rested against her skin. “Nice talking to
you, too,” he said, then winced at the banality of their words.
She’d said them because she wanted to leave, to get away from him.
He’d said them because he meant them. He wanted to talk to her some
more. He wanted to prove to her that he was no longer a
self-centered dick who believed his value as a human being lay in
his ability to throw a football. He wanted her to understand that
he was open-minded now, and hard-working, and humble.
    Why impressing Maeve Nolan mattered so much
to him, he couldn’t say. But it did. He wanted her to see that he’d
come home a better man than the person he’d been when he left
town.
    She slipped her arm from
his light grip, gave him another smile that twisted something
inside him, and swung open the door. Watching as she vanished into
the rain, he thought, Cookies. Why
not?
     
     
Chapter
Two
     
    When the Torellis had owned the bakery,
they’d attached a bell above the front door so it would ring
whenever anyone entered the premises. Now that the place was hers,
Maeve had decided to leave the bell there. If she was back in the
kitchen and Joyce, the counter clerk she’d hired, was busy with
another customer, the bell would alert her if more customers
entered the place. Nothing she might be doing in the kitchen could
be as important as prompt service. Never leave a customer
waiting—one of the many lessons she’d learned during her years in
Seattle.
    Besides, she like the way the bell sounded
when the door opened. A cheerful tinkle. It made the place feel
homey and welcoming.
    Her shop—which she’d named Cookie’s after
her cat, who in turn had been named after the cookies Maeve loved
to bake—wasn’t yet open for business. But she must have forgotten
to lock the door after the delivery man had shown up with her
coffee and cappuccino machines,