True to Me - Kay Bratt Page 0,92

. . . Noah, is your wife here?” she asked, her voice a little wobbly.

Maggie and Liam went totally silent, the smiles disappearing from their faces. Quinn could feel the nervousness coming off Maggie in waves.

“Why, yes, she’s right over there,” Noah said, pointing at a small gathering.

Quinn turned and saw a woman handing out sandwiches from a box at her feet. Each person also took a bottle of water from the cooler beside it. They thanked her and quietly moved on. She was lovely, the angles of her face pronounced, her cheekbones prominent. Her long hair was still a dark brown but glittered with gray as it settled around her shoulders in soft waves that mimicked Quinn’s. She could see why Noah had fallen in love with her and had never left her side. The way she interacted with the people from the tents was something to see, her compassion etched in her movements and the gentle smile she gave each one. And they smiled back, some doing so in forced expressions that told of much sadness and regret but nevertheless thankful to be treated with respect.

Quinn wanted to know her. She needed to know her. There was a pull there that came completely unexpectedly.

“Can I talk to you both privately? And you, too, Jonah.”

Noah looked confused, but he nodded. Jonah only stood there, watching her carefully.

“Of course. Let me just get Jules, and we’ll meet you over there,” he said, pointing to a bare picnic table farther down the beach. “Let us hand out the rest of the sandwiches real quick. These people are hungry.”

Jonah studied her closely, trying to see beneath the reflection of her shades.

“I’ll wait over there,” Quinn said.

Then she turned to Maggie and Liam.

“Thank you both so much for doing this with me, but I think I need to finish it alone.”

Liam nodded, and Maggie enveloped her in a huge bear hug, almost lifting her off the ground before letting her go. “I am so damn proud of you, Quinn Maguire. Or whoever the hell you are.”

“You got this, Quinn,” Liam said. “We’ll hand out the supplies. You take all the time you need. I’ll keep an eye out, and I can be over there in ten seconds if you need me.”

Quinn felt their love and concern wash over her. She’d always thought she had only one good friend, but now Maui had given her another. She turned and headed to the table, psyching herself up to find the words to tell the Monroe family that they might need to add one more place to their holiday table.

Quinn sat at the picnic table facing the trees so that she could see Noah and Jules approach. She wanted to watch their body language. See if they acted like a couple. However, Jonah turned to follow her while they were emptying their last box.

He sat down in front of her, blocking her view of his parents.

“Can you take off the sunglasses?” he asked.

She took them off and laid them on the table.

“I know who you are,” he said, his voice resigned.

Quinn wasn’t surprised. It made sense that since he was the one who’d refused to believe she was lost at sea, he would be the one to submit to an ancestry site.

“Then why didn’t you stay and talk to me at the Sea House?”

“At first I thought it wouldn’t be true. Couldn’t be true. I’d said since I was a kid that you weren’t dead, but I don’t know if I even really believed it. Then when I saw you and how much you look like my sisters, I was scared out of my mind. My suspicion that the Lineage site could be wrong was shattered. It was you. I knew it, and I needed time to process it. To find a way to tell them before you figured out who we were.”

“So you’ve processed it now?” She hoped so, because she was about to blow his secret wide open.

He shrugged, but she could see his hands shaking.

“Looks like I don’t have a choice,” he said.

Quinn sighed. She felt sorrow. A deep, tender sorrow for the hurt she’d unknowingly and unwillingly caused him. And also a sorrow for whatever he’d endured in Iraq. She could see pain in his eyes that looked there to stay. How much of it was because of her?

“I’ve heard that it hit you the hardest. That you’re still suffering over the loss of Nama,” she said.

“Nama. You mean you?”

Now it was