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He was not the kind of man who would hold something over a woman in exchange for sex.

And anyway, it wasn’t like she was so sexually appealing that a guy would do that just to get with her.

Here she was, thinking about sex again, after something that might well not actually connect up to sex.

It stood to reason. She was, after all, a twenty-five-year-old virgin, which was pretty old, but it was intentional on her part. Not out of morals or anything like that, just because she had been focused.

And afraid.

If she were very honest.

Because how could you ever forget the feeling of gravel cutting into your feet, the hot tears streaming down your face and the unending ache in your chest, as you chased your dad’s car down the drive, begging him not to leave.

You didn’t.

She’d never wanted to chase a man again.

She got out of the car and turned the engine off. The headlights had obviously alerted Fia to her appearance, and the porch light flicked on, and the door opened.

And there her sister was, looking hard out into the darkness.

She got out of the car.

“Good news,” she said. “The easement is ours.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. I went and helped him with his paperwork, and after he saw how good of a job I did, he agreed. He will be happy to work with us.”

“Is that it?”

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s it.”

“Are you okay?”

How was she going to encapsulate everything that was Levi Granger and what had happened with him today? It was a full emotional roller coaster. She felt like she had lived three lives in the last four days, and she didn’t know how to communicate that to Fia. Most especially not without exposing him, and suddenly she felt as if she would protect those things that were harmful to him with her life.

Because he had told her. He had told her about himself, and the way that teachers had made him feel, the way that he had felt about himself, and the way that he been taken advantage of. He had told her about it, and she couldn’t violate that. She wouldn’t.

“I’m going back over there tomorrow to do a little bit more admin. The easement is contingent on that.”

She walked up the front porch and into the house. “And then we really will be on our way to getting the store open.”

That was why she was doing this. And somehow, it all kind of felt lost. Lost in the happenings of the last few days. Lost in everything. But, of course, this was about Sullivan’s Point. It was about the farm store. It was about proving...

Proving herself.

Proving herself to...just herself.

Because she wasn’t a kid anymore.

And she knew better than to blame herself for her dad leaving. She did.

But still, her stomach felt like acid when she thought about it.

“Are you okay, Quinn?”

“I’m fine,” she said.