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Because the thought of allowing himself to cleave so fully to Sadie again was...frankly terrifying. And she was looking at him now as if she could see all the way into his head. He had to push her back, establish boundaries, find a path forward so they could co-exist and parent their son.
Before he could say another word, though, Sadie was speaking. ‘It’s been a long day and I’m tired. I think I’ll say goodnight.’
Immediately Quin felt remorse. What was it about this woman that scrambled his brain so effectively?
‘Of course. We can talk again about where we go from here.’
She looked about as eager for that conversation as he was. She just nodded and left, and Quin watched her slim, pale legs through the window as she walked down the garden. She cut a lonely figure, and he couldn’t help but think of the life she’d lived—essentially on her own, always.
He could empathise. Even though he’d grown up within a family, he’d always felt somehow apart. He’d had no mother and a distant father who hadn’t been his father at all. A brother who had been invested in taking over the family business. He couldn’t even blame his brother, because they’d never really been encouraged to bond.
Quin had to curb the very strong urge to follow Sadie.
And do what?asked a voice.Make love to her again and muddy the waters even more?
Quin turned away from the view of Sadie disappearing into the trees. No. The attraction would fade. He needed to put down boundaries but he also needed to think about the best way to move forward while incorporating Sadie into their lives.
Sadie had had to leave quickly. The air between her and Quin after that conversation had been taut with tension and a million swirling things. The attraction she’d felt, and the need for him to touch her and take her into his arms, had been so overwhelming that she’d been terrified he’d see it on her face, or she’d blurt something out...
She’d not really felt tired when she’d used that as an excuse to leave, but a wave of weariness moved through her now. It had been a tumultuous twenty-four hours.
Clearly it was going to take time for Quin to absorb all this. She could understand that. She’d had four years to deal with it every day and she still couldn’t quite believe what she’d had to do, or how she’d had to live.
But hopefully, after tonight, they could leave the past behind and start to move on. To where, Sadie had no idea. But as long as she got to be a mother to her son—that was the most important thing.
Yet when she went to sleep that night, her dreams were filled with images of her and Quin at the beach house. And when she woke the next morning her cheeks were damp from shed tears and her heart was sore.
‘I have to go to San Francisco tomorrow, for a conference where I’m a keynote speaker. I’m taking Sol and Lena—she has a daughter there, so it’s an opportunity for her to pay her a visit too. You’re welcome to come with us.’
Sadie looked across the lunch table at Quin. It was the weekend, and Sol was outside kicking a football around with some friends who had come to play. She’d been enjoying the banal domesticity of it all after the intensity of the previous day and evening, but now her insides clenched a little.
She couldn’t read Quin’s expression. Did he want her to come? After all that had transpired?
‘I don’t mind staying behind if you want to have some time with Sol on your own.’
As much as she would have loved to suggest leaving Sol here so she could look after him, she knew that would be a step too far, too soon.
‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I have a favour to ask.’
Sadie blinked. She could do something for Quin?
‘Of course. What is it?’
He made a face. ‘There’s a social event that I have to host. I set up a charity foundation a few years ago, to help kids from disadvantaged backgrounds get scholarships into tech courses. But every year the speculation about my relationship status, or lack thereof, overshadows the work of the charity. I could do with a date.’
Sadie blinked again. ‘You’re asking me to be your date?’
Her silly heartrate went up a notch.
‘If you don’t mind?’
Sadie was confused. ‘But... I thought I’d be the last person you’d want to be associated with?’
‘There’s a little more to it... I think we need to tell Sol who you are. He’s already growing attached to you, and he’ll start to get confused. I thought it might do no harm for us to be seen in public together. We can put out a statement saying that you are Sol’s mother, and then we can suggest at a later date that our brief reunion is over. But by then it’ll be established that you are Sol’s mother, and hopefully the story will die a quick death in the social columns.’
This was almost too much for Sadie to take in. She stood up from the lunch table and started to pace back and forth. She tried to articulate her tangled thoughts.
‘So...we’ll appear in public? Pretending we’re together?’