Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay by Babette Jongh (best summer books .TXT) 📗

He couldn’t relax. He kept glancing over at the place next door, wondering how Abby was doing. He’d stayed till she got ready for bed, then made her promise to call him if she needed any help after he left.

He kept looking out his sliding glass door toward her bedroom window, which he could see now that the goats had cleared out that section of hedge. The light had been turned out a while ago…

But wait! Light bloomed behind the gauzy curtain, and a second later, his phone buzzed. He muted the TV. “Abby?”

“It’s JP.” Quinn’s high-school buddy and sketchy ex-business partner.

Shit. “What do you want, JP?”

Quinn heard a faint whispering sound: JP rubbing his palms together, a nervous tic that meant he wasn’t being entirely honest. “I heard that you just bought a reno property. I’m guessing that after your divorce, you’re about skinned, and I thought I’d offer an olive branch. I might be willing to take that old estate off your hands for the right price. You’d still make a hefty profit, mind you. Save you some time and trouble in getting it, though.”

Quinn ended the call.

His phone buzzed again. He ended the call.

The third time, he picked up. “I have no interest in anything you have to offer, JP.” And yet, he’d picked up the phone because he couldn’t blame the guy entirely. Though JP was guilty of using substandard materials and untrained work crews while charging a premium for top-grade materials and licensed workers, he wouldn’t have gotten away with it if Quinn had been paying attention. “I’m only hearing you out because I’m not blameless. I shouldn’t have let you do the ordering and billing when that was my job.”

“I can tell that you’re still pissed, and I guess you have a right to be. I’m sorry I wasn’t more up-front with you.” JP gave a nervous-sounding laugh. “I know I made a mistake, and I want to officially apologize and try to make it right if I can.”

I guess? One mistake? “You made quite a few mistakes, JP. You made a whole barge-full of mistakes that drove our business over the dam while I wasn’t looking.” He hadn’t been looking, because he had confessed to JP that his marriage was in trouble and he needed to spend more time at home. JP had clapped him on the shoulder and given him a bro hug, then told him to take all the time he needed. JP would handle the business end of the business till Quinn got his personal life sorted out. After all, JP had said, what are friends for?

All Quinn had to do was show up from eight to four at the dried-in job sites and work his magic on the baseboards and the fancy crown-molding and the custom carpentry projects. Meanwhile, behind his back, JP was swindling the clients Quinn had hoped would be the foundation of their growing reputation as premier contractors for high-end construction projects.

Quinn took another swig of his beer; it tasted like spit. “Yeah, you brought us both down.” Ruined Quinn’s life, in fact. “And I was the stupid fuck who didn’t see it coming.” Sure, he’d already been standing at the precipice of a bottomless pit, but JP’s unexpected kick in the rear had pushed him in. “I was too busy focusing on my family to see that the business my family depended on was going under.”

“Melissa would’ve left you anyway, so I hope you’re not blaming me for that, too.”

Quinn rubbed the back of his neck. “No, JP, I’m not blaming you for that, too.” Though going bankrupt sure hadn’t helped to bring any spark back to Melissa’s dark, damning eyes. “What do you want, JP? Absolution? Forgiveness?” They had been friends since high school, after all. “Fine, you’ve got both. Are we done?”

“I hope not,” JP said. “I screwed up. I screwed up royally. I’m admitting it and apologizing from the bottom of my heart. I want to make it up to you, if you’ll let me.”

Quinn looked out the sliding glass doors at Abby’s bedroom window; the light was still on.

“We’ve been friends forever,” JP reminded him. “I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but damn, man, I’ve got something new going—totally legit and aboveboard—and I hope you’ll let me make it up to you by bringing you in on the team. I’ve scoped out the land, and I already have investors ready to bankroll the whole thing. We’re talking millions of dollars plus investment dividends—and you wouldn’t have to invest your own money; I’d pay for us both to have a continued interest in the profits going forward.”

Quinn couldn’t help but laugh. JP was always full of grandiose ideas that never panned out. “Yeah, sure.”

“No, for real,” JP assured him. And this time, Quinn couldn’t hear the telltale sound of JP rubbing his palms together. “For a couple years’ work, you’d be set for a lifetime. Melissa would be begging you to take her back.”

Quinn scoffed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but that ship has sailed.” He was surprised JP hadn’t made a move on Melissa by now, and he realized with a shock that he wouldn’t care if that happened.

“You could be in charge of the building project—head carpenter, HMFIC, whatever—and you can examine the books anytime you want. I want you to be comfortable with this deal, if you decide to make it.”

Quinn did have to admit that the lure of selling as-is for a quick profit had its allure. “I’ll take all that under advisement, JP. I’ll think about it and get back to you, but right now, I’ve gotta go.”

He had to get up early and feed Abby’s damn farm animals, then spend the rest of the day doing his own work of laying the new flooring in the master bedroom of the pool house. He should quit looking at Abby’s window and go to bed; she had probably started reading a book and had fallen