CHAPTER 36
“Good. You’re here.” Ramona’s pronouncement broke Megan’s concentration.
Megan glanced up from her year-end accounting report to find her cousin striding into her office at Books & Bakery. It was Saturday morning, four days before New Year’s Eve. She laid her pencil on her desk. “It’s good to see you, too.” And she meant it. Girl talk was a powerful thing. It had healed a decaying family bond. It could probably forge a bridge to world peace.
Ramona settled into one of the dark blue visitor’s chairs in front of her desk. “I’ve already spoken with Doreen, but I wanted to talk with you about this myself.”
A sliver of unease grew in her gut. “About what?”
Ramona crossed her legs, smoothing her purple velvet maxiskirt over her thigh. “I’ve decided to withdraw from the mayoral race.”
Megan’s expression felt frozen. “What changed your mind about running?”
“I’ve thought about this a lot since Doreen announced her campaign.” Ramona wrapped her hands around the overstuffed arms of the guest chair. “I don’t really enjoy being mayor. I never have. But Doreen has a passion for that kind of responsibility. So I’ve decided to withdraw my candidacy and endorse her campaign.”
Megan’s eyebrows rose. “I’m sure she’s thrilled to have your support.”
Ramona waved a dismissive hand. “She deserves it. I told her I wished her every happiness and great success. And I meant it.”
Remarkable. Megan examined her cousin’s features and listened hard to her voice. She didn’t detect even an ounce of regret in Ramona’s expression or her tone.
“What are you going to do with all your spare time?” Do I really want to know the answer?
Ramona’s shoulders rose and fell in a movement that was almost theatrical. “Well, now that someone who actually wants to be mayor is running, I’m going to follow my own dream.”
“You’re moving to New York.” Megan answered her own question.
“I haven’t decided yet. I’d like to try a cosmopolitan city, but New York isn’t the only big city out there.” Her cousin’s eyes were bright with excitement.
Megan wished she could feel the same. “I’ve heard Philadelphia is nice.”
A faint blush filled Ramona’s cheeks. “I’ve heard that, too.”
Megan coughed, trying to dislodge the lump building in her throat. “I’ve known this day was coming. Now that it’s here, I don’t feel prepared.”
“It’s not as though I’m leaving next week or even next month.” Ramona offered her a smile that wasn’t quite steady around the edges. “It’ll take me a while to figure out where I’m going and what I’m going to do once I get there.”
“Why are you leaving?” Megan’s voice faded at the end of her question.
“I need a bigger playground, Megan.” Ramona’s response lacked conviction. “I need more excitement. I wasn’t up for the challenge before, but my experiences over the past six years have given me more confidence. You’ve become more confident, too.”
Megan nodded, buying herself time to clear the burning mass from her throat. She looked away, blinking rapidly. She wouldn’t cry. That would be too ridiculous. “I just feel as though, now that we’re growing closer, you’re moving away.”
“Something tells me you’ll be too preoccupied to even miss me.” Ramona’s voice was thick with amusement—and a hint of sorrow.
Megan couldn’t hold back the tears. She swiped them angrily away. “I don’t know about that. Ean and I haven’t seen or even talked to each other since the night you announced the center’s sale.”
“That was five days ago.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t even speak on Christmas Day?” It was Ramona’s turn to gape at Megan. “Why are you giving each other the silent treatment over such a small misunderstanding?”
“It’s not that small. He doesn’t think I trust him.” Megan pulled a tissue from the box on her desk and wiped her nose.
“Because you wanted to know why he was meeting with his former bosses?”
“And because I didn’t want to move in with him.”
“Oh, Megan.” Ramona sighed. “Does this have anything to do with your fear that he’s not going to stay in Trinity Falls?”
Megan nodded. “But now I really do believe that he’s going to stay.”
“Then tell him.”
“I did. He didn’t believe me.” Megan rubbed her forehead. “I have to figure out a way to show him that I believe him. But I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s going to have to be something pretty big. I mean, the man did just buy the town center for you.”
Megan blinked. “He didn’t buy it for me. He bought it for the town.”
Ramona chuckled. “I’m pretty sure your involvement went a long way toward swaying his decision.”
Megan dropped her head into her hands. “If that’s true, now I feel worse.”
“You’d better find a way to make it up to him soon. There’s nothing worse than living with regret.”
“Trust me. I don’t want to live with this feeling any longer than I have to.”
Megan slowed to an easy jog along the sidewalk three blocks from her home. She’d pushed herself during her New Year’s Eve jog this Tuesday morning, adding an extra mile to her workout. The air was cool against her heated cheeks. Sweat dripped incongruously from her brow. She’d hoped the exercise would clear her thoughts and help her come up with a plan to win back Ean. But her mind had remained painfully blank.
Her gaze slid toward Doreen’s house. Was Ean inside? Maybe she should cross the street and check. Doreen was probably awake. She wouldn’t have to ring the bell. She could just knock....
“Megan McCloud, get out of the cold!” Ms. Helen’s admonishment shot like a bullet from her porch.
Megan jumped a foot above the sidewalk. She pressed her hand to her chest and stumbled to a stop in front of the older woman’s home. “Ms. Helen, you scared ten years off my life.”
“Good.” The older woman stood shivering in her doorway. “I hope I scared some sense into you, too. Now come inside before you freeze to death.”
Her muscles were still recovering from the surprise attack. Nevertheless, Megan hurried to obey Ms. Helen’s order. She wasn’t far from home, nor was she cold—thanks to her run. But the older woman was in maximum-fuss mode. Experience had taught Megan that Ms. Helen would continue to target her until Megan surrendered. She toed off her shoes before entering her neighbor’s home.
“Good Lord, child. What would your grandparents think to see you out running in the cold?” Ms. Helen continued the chastisement as she let Megan into her foyer.
The room was warm and cheerful with the holiday spirit. Christmas greeting cards were suspended from a cord Ms. Helen had tied across the top of her windows. The air was fragrant with the scents of pine from the thick, natural Christmas tree and apples from a nearby candle.
“Ms. Helen, you worry like this every time you see me jogging in the winter.” She would have taken an alternate route home, but Megan had secretly hoped to run into Ean.
Ms. Helen grunted. “And you never listen. Come on back. I’ll fix you some tea to warm you up.”
Megan pulled off her ear warmers and tugged off her gloves. She followed her neighbor through her living and dining rooms, and into her kitchen. The older woman looked comfortable in a red velour lounge suit that picked up the healthy blush of her cheeks. Her oversized, fuzzy purple slippers were silent on her hardwood flooring.
Ms. Helen had enhanced the kitchen’s white-and-yellow color scheme with hand towels, pot holders and Christmas curtains that added the season’s green-and-red accents.
Megan settled into a chair at the table and watched her hostess prepare their tea. “Happy New Year, Ms. Helen.”
“Happy New Year to you, too, baby.” Ms. Helen spoke with her back to Megan as she pulled mugs, tea bags and sugar from her cupboards.
With a smile, Megan shook her head at the familiar exchange. “Did you have a good Christmas?”
“Oh yes. This year, all of the cousins returned to Trinity Falls with their children. They left yesterday. It was a good visit.”
Megan nodded. Ms. Helen’s relatives were scattered across the country and took turns hosting the family’s Christmas reunions. “Will they come back for the Founders Day celebration this summer?”
“They’d better.” Ms. Helen’s tone was stern. “This one’s the sesquicentennial. It’s too important to miss.”
“I hope Jack Sansbury feels the same way.”
The kettle boiled. Ms. Helen turned off the burner and poured the hot water into two mugs. “He’s the last member of the town’s founding family. He’ll come around by then.”
Megan accepted the tea from her hostess. “Thank you.”
“I haven’t seen Ean running with you for a few days now.” Ms. Helen settled into the chair across the table. “When are you two going to settle this foolishness and make up?”
Megan dropped her gaze. “I wish I knew, Ms. Helen.”
Ms. Helen grunted. “I was young and stupid once. But I didn’t know it at the time. Well, I knew I was young. Didn’t know I was stupid.”
Megan smiled. “How did you come to find out you were stupid?”
“I fell in love.” Ms. Helen laughed at Megan’s expression. “You’d never imagined that I’d had a torrid love affair, did you? Actually, I’ve had more than one.”
“Why didn’t you ever marry?” Megan looked with new eyes at her elderly neighbor.
Ms. Helen blew into her mug of hot tea. “I came close to marriage during my first love affair. I met him while I was teaching at the college. Well, it was a college then. It’s a university now.”
“Was he a professor, too?” Megan recalled Ms. Helen had taught physics at what was then Trinity Falls College. She’d been Dr. Helen Gaston in those days, decades before the town’s children began calling her “Ms. Helen.”
Ms. Helen nodded. “He taught political science.”
“What happened?” Megan prompted. Ms. Helen wasn’t telling the story fast enough.
Ms. Helen’s gaze became distant as though she was reviewing the events from her past. “He was a fine man. Tall, lean, broad shoulders. He had a great butt. Far too sexy to teach political science. And I told him so.”
Remarkable. Megan had known Ms. Helen her entire life but had never heard the story of her lost love. Had anyone?
“What happened?” She prompted again.
Ms. Helen’s gaze came back into focus. “He wasn’t from Trinity Falls and didn’t want to stay. But I didn’t want to leave. I was born here. I grew up here. I’d attended universities in big cities, but Trinity Falls was my home.” She arched an eyebrow. “Sound familiar?”
Megan nodded. Ms. Helen’s story was her own. “So he left.”
“He left. He became a campaign advisor to a political candidate in Chicago.” Ms. Helen sipped her tea. “I was devastated for a long time. A very long time.”
“I’m so sorry.” Megan could only imagine the older woman’s heartache. She was experiencing a smaller version of it now.
Ms. Helen seemed to shake off the memories. “I heard he married a stunning young woman with excellent political connections.”
“Oh no.”
“A few years later, he went to prison.”
Megan blinked. “What?”
“He was caught embezzling from that Chicago politician’s reelection campaign fund.” Ms. Helen propped her chin on her fist and lowered her voice. “I’d always wondered if he stole the money to please his wife. She looked to be used to the finer things.”
“Oh.” What else could she say?
“‘Oh,’ indeed.” Ms. Helen lowered her arm to the table. “Do you know the difference between my lover and yours?”
“Besides the fact that Ean would never embezzle money?”
Ms. Helen chuckled. “Yes, besides that.”
“What is it?” Am I really having this conversation with Ms. Helen?
“My lover left Trinity Falls. Yours came back. Your fear of losing him became a self-fulfilling prophesy. He didn’t leave Trinity Falls, but he did leave you.”
The words were hard to hear. “I shouldn’t have given in to my fear.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
Megan felt worse. “Do you have any advice for me?”
“Yes, I do.”
Megan’s heart jumped. “What is it?”
“Don’t wait too long to make things right.”
“This isn’t much of a New Year’s celebration.” Quincy’s voice rumbled into Ramona’s town hall office Tuesday afternoon.
Ramona’s heart lurched. She spun her chair away from her computer monitor and pointed it toward her doorway. Even after several blinks, the suddenly sexy university professor didn’t disappear like an apparition conjured by her secret fantasies.
“It’s New Year’s Eve.” Her response was faint. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I thought you were in Florida.”
“I got back this morning.” Quincy paced forward.
His long legs were clad in dark blue jeans. His broad-shouldered torso was gift wrapped in a sage green crewneck. Ramona’s heart thudded in her chest. They were the only two souls in the building. Everyone else had the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day off. She swallowed hard.
“You usually stay until after the New Year.” She couldn’t pull her gaze from him as he drew closer.
Quincy settled into the visitor’s chair in front of her desk. “I hadn’t realized you’d noticed.”
Neither had she, until this moment. Ramona’s gaze dropped to her desk. It was sturdy . . . sturdy enough to bear the weight of two people.
She raised her eyes to Quincy. “What made you come back early this year?”
Quincy cocked his clean-shaven head. “What made you drop out of the mayoral race?”
His coal black eyes locked with hers. Was he trying to read her thoughts? Funny, today she wouldn’t mind that.
Ramona crossed her arms. He wasn’t to know she was giving in to him so easily. “Did Darius tell you that?”
“I read it in the Monitor’s online edition.”
“Oh.” She regarded him stubbornly.
Quincy’s rugged features softened into a smile. His dark eyes brightened with humor. “Are you going to tell me?”
Ramona dropped her arms and looked away. “You were right.”
“What did you say?”
“You were right.”
“Excuse me?”
Ramona smothered a smile. “Shut up.”
Quincy’s chuckle strummed the muscles in her lower abdomen. “This is a historic event. As a professor of history, I have to make sure it’s properly chronicled.”
Ramona rolled her eyes. “I’ll give you some injuries to chronicle, if you don’t stop making fun of me.”
Quincy flashed a grin. “What was I right about?”
“You said I was using Trinity Falls as a crutch. I am.” She dug deep for the fortitude to hold the history professor’s gaze. “It’s safe here. I have followers, even if I don’t have friends. So when I do screw up—like I did as mayor—most people won’t tell me.”
“You put the town on the right track, so stop saying you screwed up.” His dark eyes glowed with irritation. “Because of you, Trinity Falls is becoming more economically stable, and long-awaited repairs have finally been completed.”
Ramona blinked. “Then I guess it was all that success that made the good people of Trinity Falls want to make me a one-term mayor.”
“Honey, people only spoke out against you when you started to take a wrong turn. But you were smart enough to hand the wheel over to someone else.”
“Thanks for that.” Ramona nodded, although she hadn’t heard a single word he’d said after “honey.”
“Now that you’re not running again, what are you going to do?”
Ramona shrugged. “Move.”
“Where?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” She frowned. The look in Quincy’s eyes and the tone of his voice were guarded. What had he wanted her to say?
Quincy tightened his grip on the arms of Ramona’s cushioned guest chair. He didn’t want her to know he was growing desperate at the thought of her leaving Trinity Falls, and the possibility he’d never see her again.
His shrug felt unnatural. “There’s no rush, is there?”
“Of course not. I don’t have a timetable. Besides, I don’t want to move in the middle of winter.”
“Good.” The word emerged with more force than Quincy had intended.
A glimmer of a smile twinkled in Ramona’s ebony eyes. “I’m glad you approve.”
Act cool. “Since you don’t have a timetable or a particular city in mind, maybe you’ll consider Philadelphia in the spring.”
She gave him another one of her long, slow blinks that mesmerized him. “Philadelphia? With you? Has Penn offered you the job?”
“No.” Quincy struggled to put the brakes on his accelerating anxiety. “But the telephone interview went well. I’m hopeful they’ll invite me for an on-campus interview in the spring.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to follow you to Philadelphia.”
“I didn’t say—”
“I can paraphrase what you said.” She crossed her arms again. “You said—and I’m practically quoting now—that I was an independent, capable, intelligent woman, who would do fine on her own.”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“So have you changed your mind? Am I no longer a capable, independent, intelligent woman? Do I need you now?”
Quincy rubbed his hands over his face. He felt her rising tension. Why was it so hard for him to communicate with her? Because I’m afraid.
He tried harder. “I didn’t want you to move to Philadelphia with me if you were only interested in Philadelphia, not me.”
Ramona tilted her head, causing her loose raven tresses to slide to her right shoulder. “Are you asking me to move to Philadelphia with you so that we could live together? Before we’ve even dated?”
“We’ve been on a date.” His palms were starting to sweat. “I brought you food from Trinity Falls Cuisine; salmon, your favorite.”
She laughed at him. “Eating takeout in my dining room is not a date.”
Quincy briefly considered texting Darius for advice. He was certain the reporter would know how to handle this volatile situation. “What would you consider a date, then?”
Irritation was edging out amusement in her eyes. “Quincy, you’re thirty-two years old. I’m sure you’ve been on at least one first date in your life. And I’m sure it didn’t involve eating salmon out of a Styrofoam container.”
His cheeks were growing warm. “No, it didn’t.”
“I’m talking roses, music, a meal with silverware and plates. A kiss.”
“A kiss”? Quincy stood and strode around her desk as Ramona continued her list. She was up to tablecloths and fancy clothes. But she came to an abrupt stop when he spun her seat to face him and gripped the arms on either side of her chair. Her eyes widened as he lowered his mouth to hers.
He’d wanted to kiss her silent for years. Hell, he’d wanted to kiss her for forever. He’d gone out of his mind wondering what she’d taste like. Now he knew. Her taste was a mix of contradictions, like the woman herself. Sweet and spicy. Sharp and tender. Hot and cool.
Quincy reluctantly drew back. His gaze lifted from her moist, plump lips to her dark, dreamy eyes. “Ramona McCloud, will you go out with me?”
Her lips parted with a smile. “Oh yes. I’ll go out with you, Quincy Spates. But I’ll plan the evening.”
“Fair enough.” Quincy stepped back, drawing Ramona up and into his embrace. Her eyes drifted closed as he lowered his head to hers. “As long as we start right now.”