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She laughed. “I’m going to finish organizing the office. Levi... Thank you, for the easement.”

“In the end, it’s the best thing to do. I really do believe that having a road that circumvents the town would’ve caused harm. I haven’t changed my mind about that. I do have concerns...”

“I swear, we will find ways to invest back into the community. Really. I don’t know what to do about the fact that we’re such a big ranching operation, or the fact that people feel a little bit distrustful of us. I understand now, though, because knowing you like I do... It’s forced me to look outside of our whole thing. It’s easy for us to get caught up in who we are, and the fact that we know each other. The truth is, we all went through things with our parents. I would say the Sullivans had it the best, and you know my dad, so you know that’s saying something.”

“Yeah. Well, I remember hearing all about Seamus McCloud.”

It was rumored that the McCloud patriarch had been horrendously abusive.

“He was everything that you’ve heard and more. Maybe worse. That’s where... Anyway. It’s just that when my sister and Sawyer and Denver and Gus came together to really reinvigorate Four Corners, it wasn’t to try and take over anything. It was to try and save us. To save us from all this stuff that our parents were just letting go to waste. Maybe they were the Death Star. The Evil Empire. But we aren’t. We actually do care, and we want to succeed without hurting anybody.”

“I really do believe you.”

He kissed her on the cheek and got out of bed, pushing back against the unfamiliar feeling that was invading his chest.

“I’ll see you later.”

He got dressed, and Quinn was still working her way out of bed, and he decided that it would be best if he left as quickly as possible.

Because it was one thing to have a conversation with her, it was one thing to have sex with her, but it was quite another to indulge the strange feelings that were expanding inside him. Those, he couldn’t quite come to terms with. Those, he couldn’t quite understand.

And so he found it best to just go and work. Because that was what he was good at. And that was what he understood.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

QUINN SPENT THE day in the office, and she was happy for the reprieve, even though she missed him at the same time. She didn’t care if that made sense. Making sense wasn’t really the name of the game at this point.

She just felt things.

And she could honestly say it had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to do that.

Even before the anger.

Because the anger had just been a cover for other, more complex feelings.

The anger had been her putting a filter on her feelings so that it was easier to grab hold of them. Easier to understand them. To control them.

And then her solution had been to be...determined. To be the one who always knew what was going on, to be the one in control. But none of those things had made her happy.

When she really thought about it.

She was happy enough with her life, what was in it. She was happy to be at Sullivan’s Point. Happy to be Fia, Rory and Alaina’s sister.

She was excited about the farm store.

But there were things that were missing. From her life, from her experiences. She knew that for sure.

And she was trying not to get all excited about the idea that Levi was giving her something new. She was, though, and maybe that was the triumph of hope over experience in her life.

When had a man ever done what he’d said? Her father was so disappointing on so many fronts. She hadn’t even known everything that he had done to Levi until recently, and it was alarming to believe that one man could be responsible for the emotional scarring of so many people that she cared about.

Her sisters. Her. Her mother. Levi.

Levi.

Her heart had hurt for him the whole time she had worked on the office. All she could think was how hard he must work. She was so proud of all the work-arounds. The way he had accessibility set up on his computer, the way that he had figured out his own brain.

He didn’t actually need her. But if she could make something easier, she wanted to. Because being able to help and accept help in that way was something she and her sisters had had to figure out a long time ago. To play into their strengths, and let the strength of other people cover their deficits. That was really what was happening here. Levi had so many strengths. When she really looked through his business plan, she could see that he was actually brilliant. On more levels than she had realized.