Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay by Babette de Jongh

Author:Babette de Jongh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Quinn stood in the living room of the sprawling, Craftsman-style estate house, taking stock. He’d been running the AC, so a little of the musty smell had begun to dissipate. A good deep-cleaning might remove the rest of the odor, and a few coats of paint and varnish would bring out the timeless beauty of this old place. Even the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms didn’t look too bad to regrout and refinish. The place was starting to look good, but that didn’t mean he should fall in love with it, or with the idea of staying once he’d completed the renovation. He needed to remain committed to his goals.

He knew the idea of putting down roots here was pie-in-the-sky thinking brought on by a better-than-imagined weekend with Sean, the first time they’d really connected in years. Quinn tried to stop his imagination from spinning out impossible scenarios, but they kept coming back, so he let himself dream a little dream that could never come true—not if he planned to make any money. Maybe if he won the lottery…

He didn’t mind the animal noises and the school field trips quite as much as he had at first.

No, scratch that. He couldn’t fool himself about the field trips. But at least those subsided during the summer months, and if he decided to stay and live at the estate, he’d be out working during the weekdays anyway. And after spending a significant amount of time with the animals, their braying and honking and crowing and barking and clucking and meowing didn’t bother him anymore. Worn out from staying busy all day, he even slept right through the rooster’s early-morning alarms.

So yeah, if he won the lottery, he could see himself staying here and building a bayside paradise, not for an imaginary retired couple, but for himself, for Sean, and maybe even for Abby, if that worked out. He and Abby and Sean could plan and renovate the estate house together, then they’d all live there, happily ever after. Abby would be next door to her aunt Reva, so they’d each have a built-in support network right next door.

And Reva would probably retire sometime, right? So the field trips would be a thing of the past one of these days. Meanwhile, Sean could have a cool part-time job that would keep him close to Quinn. During the summer months—to supplement his lottery winnings—Quinn could take more cabinetry jobs that would allow him to work at home, make his own hours, and spend even more time with his son.

The more he thought about it, the more possible it all seemed. (Well, except for the lottery part. For that, he’d have to buy a ticket, though he knew that would only just barely improve his chances of winning.)

Tomorrow, he’d be back down to earth. But today, he let himself believe. The weekend he’d just spent with Abby and Sean made him think that anything was possible. And maybe it was, as long as

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