Reason to Breathe by Deborah Raney

Author:Deborah Raney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gilead Publishing
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

It was almost ten when Quinn got home from delivering Melvin. He collected three days’ worth of mail from the box at the end of his drive. Maybe if he ever got anything exciting, he’d remember to check the box more often.

He unlocked his front door, and the smell of fresh paint and tile adhesive greeted him. Almost as good as a pot of stew simmering on the stove. Almost. Mabel galloped from the back bedroom to meet him. He squeezed through the unframed doorway with the mutt jumping for joy even as she sidestepped toward the mudroom where her food dish was.

Stepping over a pile of baseboard and trim that still needed to be installed, he dropped the mail on the kitchen counter and went to the mudroom to scoop dog food. He was halfway back to the kitchen when his phone buzzed from his pocket. He glanced at the caller ID. T. Chandler.

Interesting. Except for a couple of brief business email exchanges, he hadn’t talked to Turner for over a week—which was rather unusual. Before Turner had left for Florida, they’d talked on a daily basis, even when Turner was working in the Langhorne office. It had actually crossed Quinn’s mind that his boss might be on his honeymoon. Until Phylicia had told him tonight that her dad and that woman had broken things off.

He quickly shrugged out of his jacket and pressed Accept. “Hey, there. How are things in the Sunshine State?”

“Sunny. At least it was a few hours ago. I hope I’m not calling too late. Am I catching you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. I just came from your daughters’ place, actually.”

“Is that so? Which daughter?”

“Oh, no,” he corrected quickly. “I meant daughters, plural. The cottages.”

“Oh? How are things going out there?”

“Good. They got the beds moved in tonight, so this will be their first night to sleep there. They have it looking really nice.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Phylicia and I took Melvin out there just a little bit ago.”

“How’s ol’ Melvin doing?”

“I’m not much of a cat person, but it seems like he’s doing okay. I didn’t hang around to see how he took to the new house, but he handled the car ride out there okay.”

“He was strange like that. Never did mind riding in the car, as long he wasn’t caged. Stupid cat. Myra was crazy about him.”

“Well, I know he’ll be well taken care of out there. I think the girls were going to let him have a go at the smaller cabins as soon as he settles in. We saw a mouse in one of them the first time they looked at the place, so they were anxious to put Melvin to work.” He smiled to himself at the memory.

Turner chuckled. “Oh, I bet that caused a ruckus.”

“And then some.”

Turner laughed harder at that, but still not the familiar belly laugh that had always characterized the man. He’d changed. Quinn understood Phylicia’s sadness a little better, realizing how different Turner had been since Myra’s death … and even before that, when she’d been so ill.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.