CHAPTER 30
“I’m proud of you, Mom.” Ean broke the comfortable silence as he walked with his mother to her home after the association’s meeting Wednesday night.
“Thank you, Ean.” Doreen sounded startled.
The farther they traveled from the center of town, the fewer pedestrians they passed, and the darker the night became. They’d first accompanied Megan home, stopping to make sure she entered safely before continuing to Doreen’s house.
“I’m nervous.” His mother chuckled. “But I’m excited, too.”
“I’d be worried about you if you weren’t nervous.” Ean tossed her a grin. “You’re going to be the best mayor this town has ever seen, and I’m going to do everything I can to help you get elected.”
Doreen linked her arm with his. “That means a lot to me.”
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t supportive of your decision right away.”
“Megan reminded me that you’re adjusting to a lot of changes.” Doreen glanced at him. “I know I’m not the mother you remember.”
Ean smiled. “That’s an understatement.” He sobered and held his mother’s gaze. “But I like this assertive, independent businesswoman. I always thought I’d inherited my stubborn ambition from Dad. Now I wonder whether I got it from you.”
Doreen’s dark eyes twinkled with mischief. “You got your stubbornness from your father and your ambition from me.”
Ean chuckled. “My change of mind is purely selfish, you know. Now that I’ve moved back to Trinity Falls, I have to make sure that my taxes are spent responsibly and that I’m getting the services I need.”
Doreen placed her free hand on her heart. “I promise that if I’m elected, the roads will be maintained. The mail will arrive on time and the water will be properly treated.”
Ean nodded, satisfied. “You’ll have my vote.”
Doreen sighed. “I wonder if I’ll have Leo’s.”
“Coach is pretty old-fashioned, but he cares about you, Mom.” Ean patted his mother’s gloved hand. “He’ll come around when he sees that this is what you want to do.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
They were quiet for a time. The neighbors’ porch lights eased the creeping dark. Several of them had banners or flags announcing the town’s upcoming 150th birthday. Ean breathed in the fresh, cool scents of Trinity Falls at night.
“After your father died, I was so lost.” Doreen’s voice was low. Ean had to strain to hear her. “It’s unfair that your father got sick one year after he retired. He’d worked hard all of his life. His retirement was supposed to be our second honeymoon. Instead, he suffered with cancer for a year, then died.”
Ean’s stomach muscles knotted with the thought of the pain his father had endured. “I wish I’d known.”
“He didn’t want you to see him like that. He said there wasn’t anything you could do, anyway.”
“I know. But I still don’t understand.”
“Your father had his reasons.” Doreen sniffed several times before continuing. “After Paul died, I felt as though, at the age of sixty, I had to rebuild my life from scratch.”
“I’d have come home sooner if you’d called me.” Ean’s response was just as quiet.
“It’s my life, Ean.” She cleared her throat. “I had to rebuild it on my own.”
But she hadn’t been on her own. Megan had been there, presenting her with a career opportunity. Leonard had offered her a new love life. Ean had been on the outside, unaware of what his mother had been going through. Could he ever forgive himself for allowing his career in New York to keep him so disconnected from his family and friends? Only if he never let it happen again.
“Do you think that you’ve rebuilt your life now?” His mother’s house was paces ahead of them. Ean glanced across the street. Lights shone in Ms. Helen’s house.
“Not yet. But at least I have a direction.” Doreen released her hold on Ean’s arm to dig her house keys from her handbag. “What about you?”
“I’m on my way.” Ean followed his mother up the walkway to the front steps. “I should be able to open my practice soon.”
“Congratulations.” His mother’s grin made him feel even prouder than when he’d earned his college scholarship.
“But I wish my relationship with Megan was as easy to figure out as my law practice.”
Doreen held the door open for Ean. “Uh-oh. Is there trouble in paradise?”
Ean unzipped his coat as he crossed the threshold. “Sometimes she seems a little distant, as though she’s not quite sure whether things between us will last. I think she’s waiting for me to leave Trinity Falls again.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would you open a law practice here if you were planning to leave?”
“I wouldn’t. That’s what I told her.”
“I know she cares about you.” Doreen shrugged out of her coat and hung it in the closet. “Give her time, Ean. Actions speak louder than words. When she realizes you’ve settled in, she’ll stop pulling away.”
“I hope so.”
But how much time would Megan need? He was growing tired of being under suspicion. What more would he have to do to earn her trust?
Ramona knocked three times on Quincy’s office door Thursday morning. “Am I interrupting?”
The suddenly sexy university professor rose to his feet. His penetrating stare remained on her face as he gestured toward the guest chair in front of his desk. “No. Have a seat.”
His unexpected welcome made her eyes sting. Why was she so weepy? It must be fatigue. She’d barely slept last night. She drew in a deep breath, filling her lungs with the stench of stale coffee. How much of that stuff did he drink?
“Thank you.” Ramona settled onto the uncomfortable oak chair. A nervous giggle popped from her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Quincy sat down again.
“The last time I was here, you didn’t ask me to sit. You didn’t stand, either.”
“The last time you were here, you were buried under makeup and hair spray.” His eyes smiled at her. “The new look suits you.”
Ramona touched her face. A blush crawled up her neck. “Thank you.”
Quincy’s eyes sobered. “What’s on your mind?”
Ramona made several false starts before the words came. “You asked why I’d left New York. I left because I wasn’t good enough for Ean’s world.”
Quincy’s coal black eyes ignited with anger. Was it at her or for her? “Who said that? Ean?”
Ramona’s eyes stretched so wide, they hurt. “No! Oh no! No, of course not.”
“Then from where did you get that idea?”
Ramona stood to pace the office. What little space he had was crammed with bookcases and file cabinets. She had to move carefully. The two-toned blue carpet was faded, thin and worn. It should be replaced. She was pretty sure the eggshell walls had once been white. The room needed a fresh coat of paint. The garbage can was in the wrong place. She picked it up and moved it to the other side of his desk.
Quincy gave her a dubious look. “What are you doing?”
“That should improve your feng shui.”
He arched a brow. “Stop stalling.”
Ramona turned to wander the room, carefully. “Ean was my ticket to the big city. But he did his job too well.”
“What do you mean?” Quincy gently prompted.
She flexed her shoulders and drew in another breath of stale coffee. “When it was my turn to step into the bright lights, I got stage fright. The female lawyers and the partners’ wives were so fashionable and polished. And they were smart and well-read. They made me feel like some hick who’d just bounced off a hay wagon in the middle of Madison Avenue.”
“You’re polished, fashionable and smart. You were keeping up with those other women . . . until you came to the well-read quality.”
Ramona gave him a wounded look. “This isn’t funny, Quincy. I’ve never felt so out of place or alone.”
Quincy was desperate. Ramona seemed broken and lost. What should he say to make her feel better?
With her face bare of makeup and her hair pulled into a simple ponytail, she reminded him of the young woman who’d gone to New York full of confidence, then returned to Trinity Falls in defeat. How could he help rebuild her self-esteem?
He crossed to her. He cupped his hands around her slender upper arms and resisted the urge to draw her into his embrace. “Did you tell Ean how you felt?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not?”
She lowered her gaze. “I was too proud.”
Quincy sighed. “He may have been able to help you.”
“I didn’t think so at the time. So I came home. I’d only meant to stay a little while, just until I got my courage back. But then my grandfather died and I couldn’t leave Megan alone.” Ramona’s shrug was restless. “Or maybe I didn’t want to be alone. Then the mayor’s term was up, and no one else wanted the job.”
Quincy released her before he hugged her. “Why did you run for office? You’d never been political before.”
“Did you see the state the town was in?” She shook her head in disbelief. “The roads were falling apart. The mayor had been in office two terms too long. Doreen was doing a great job rallying the town to raise money for the schools and clinic, but we needed infrastructure help.”
Quincy’s lips curved into a smile. “So you stayed because you thought your cousin needed you. Then you stayed longer because you thought your town needed you.”
Ramona turned away, dragging the scrunchy from her hair. “Before I knew it, six years had gone by.”
“You once asked me why I’m in love with you.” Quincy deliberately paraphrased Ramona’s earlier words. “It’s because you have a big heart.”
Ramona blinked—a slow, sexy reflex that squeezed his heart. “You’re the only one in Trinity Falls who thinks so.”
He paced to within an arm’s length of her. “They don’t see the real you.”
“But you do?” She didn’t sound like she believed him.
“I always have.” Quincy relaxed, allowing his eyes to show the love he’d hidden in his heart for fourteen years.
Ramona looked away. “You’re scaring me.”
Her words chilled him. “How?”
“I don’t know who I am.” She blurted out the words.
“Who do you think you are?”
“All my life, I thought I was a displaced New Yorker. When I finally got my chance in New York, I failed. I thought I was the mayor of Trinity Falls, but the town’s trying to replace me. I’ve failed again.”
“It’s not personal, Ramona.”
“It sure feels that way. Now you’re telling me you know who I am, and you always have. How is that possible? How can you see the real me when I don’t even know who that is?”
The tears in her voice tore him apart. “Don’t allow New York or Trinity Falls to define you. Don’t even allow me to tell you who you are. Only you can decide who you are.”
Ramona’s ebony eyes were watery. “How do I do that?”
Quincy approached her. He drew the tip of his index finger down her soft, café au lait cheek. “Step one, you’ve already removed your mask.”
“And step two?”
He lowered his arm. “Stop hiding from yourself and everyone else. Start following your heart. Then you’ll figure it out.”
For the first time, Quincy allowed himself to hope that her plans could include him.