The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,142
tonight,” he said into the phone.
She didn’t come back at him with a joke of her own, like usual. He thought he heard her sniff. Was she crying?
“Taylor? Are you okay?” he asked, immediately concerned.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t know if any of us will be okay.”
His heart lurched into his throat. “What do you mean? Have you been in an accident or something? Nothing’s wrong with the baby...”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” she said. “But you—you’d better not come over tonight.”
Taken aback, he straightened. “Why not?”
“My dad’s home.”
Those three words hit Quinn like a strong right hook. “What?”
“When we got home from the restaurant, my dad was here waiting for us.”
“How? I mean...where did he come from? Where’s he been? And why was he gone for so long?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know anything except...he and my mom are out in the apartment, talking.”
Suddenly weak in the knees, Quinn leaned on the counter for support. He knew Taylor was awaiting his response, but he had nothing. Maybe Nick’s return was good news for her, but it definitely wasn’t good news for him.
What was he going to do?
“Uh-oh, I hear them. They’re coming in. I have to go.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” he said, mechanically, but he was pretty sure she was already gone by then.
* * *
Autumn felt like roadkill by the time she settled onto her mother’s couch so that she and Nick could speak to their children. She couldn’t remember ever being quite so emotionally exhausted, and that included all the crying she’d done after Nick went missing.
Her mother sat down beside her and took her hand. Grateful for Mary’s constant support, Autumn squeezed, and somehow her mother managed a smile—but that only brought her back to tears.
“It’s going to be okay,” Mary murmured, but Autumn couldn’t see how. How could she give up her marriage—break up her family—when they’d been so happy together?
On the other hand, how could she walk away from Quinn? Just the thought of that made her feel as though someone was tearing her heart from her chest.
“What’s happening?” Caden was watching them both closely as Taylor came out of her bedroom to join the gathering and perched, as tentative as a bird ready to take flight, on a side chair.
Nick sighed but dug deep enough to produce a smile, albeit a tired one. The two of them had spent the past hour talking, but they hadn’t achieved much—just that whatever happened, they didn’t want their children to take the brunt of it. “Wow, have I missed you,” he said.
“We missed you, too,” Caden said, but Taylor didn’t comment. She just looked worried. Autumn felt sorry for her. She knew her daughter had to be wondering how Nick was going to react to her sexuality and her pregnancy. He’d sunk onto the bed and dropped his face in his hands when she’d told him about both, but then he’d said he’d love her just as she is.
He didn’t mention either of those things now, thank goodness. Autumn supposed he was planning to speak to Taylor alone later. This wasn’t the time or place for a heart-to-heart about those things, not when they were still reeling with shock to find that he was alive.
Autumn sat in silence as he allowed the children to drill him with question after question, many of them the same ones she’d asked in the apartment over the garage. And Nick patiently explained what’d happened to him—how he’d gone over to Ukraine at the request of the FBI to discover if the SBU had a Russian spy, how someone became suspicious of him and a group of armed men dragged him from his bed one night and took him to a prison cell at a military base, where they treated him poorly for almost two years.
“So...how’d you get home?” Caden asked.
“Once they released me, I contacted the American embassy and told them what happened. They must’ve verified my story because, the next thing I knew, they were putting me on a plane headed for home.”
“Why didn’t you call us?” Taylor asked.
“I guess I thought it would be too hard to explain everything over the phone. I just wanted to get here, where I could see you and be with you and tell you in person, so I rushed home as soon as I was released. I never expected...” He started again. “I never expected that to be a problem.”