Page 73 of A Newport Christmess

We walked to the car in silence. The chill of the night penetrated through my jeans and blew across my face. Landon opened the door for me and helped me into the truck before hurrying around and starting the engine. A strong gust of air blew out of the vents, and Landon quickly turned it down. “It will be warm in a few minutes, and I’ll turn it up.”

I nodded.

His gaze remained on me. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I have some things on my mind is all.”

“Want to talk about them?”

I blew out a breath that clouded in front of me. “Not really.”

“Does it have to do with the picture you posted of us?”

My gaze slid to his, my heart pounding in my chest. Of course he’d seen it. “Maybe.”

He leaned back in his seat and faced me, letting the truck idle.

I glanced down at my lap, too embarrassed to look at him. “Last night, before bed, I got on Instagram to respond to comments, and I made the mistake of looking at Cody’s feed. I thought, with how things were going between us, that maybe if I saw his pictures and didn’t care, I’d pass some kind of self-dictated test. Evidence I was moving on.” I paused, hating what I was about to confess. “I didn’t pass the test. Seeing him with his new girlfriend gutted me.”

Despite my hesitation, I met Landon’s gaze. “I posted that picture to hurt him like I was hurting. He must have seen it, because he texted a few hours ago. He told me he missed me. That he missed us. And he wants to talk.”

Landon gave a slow, thoughtful nod, but he said nothing.

“I’ve felt horrible about it all day. And then, knowing that we were going out tonight ... I like you, I really do, but I’m ...” I blew out a heavy sigh. “I’m confused about why I’m feeling this way.”

The cab was silent for a good minute or two, and I waited for him to tell me what a disaster I was. That he couldn’t believe I’d done what I did.

“We don’t need to rush anything, Quinn.” Landon grabbed my hand, not in a romantic way but in a gesture of reassurance. “The last thing I want is for you to feel guilty about anything. You’ve been honest from the start about where you are in your life. If you need time to figure things out, that’s okay.”

My aching heart swelled at his generosity.

He smiled, a touch of playfulness to it. “Though we may need to reestablish some of those boundaries for the time being. Until you know what you want.”

I laughed, and it was like a heavy weight lifted off my chest. “Thank you for understanding.”

He released my hand and put the truck in gear. “It’s one benefit of having recently been right where you are.”

EIGHTEEN

LANDON

Quinn’s eyes lit up at the sight of the extensive ballroom, and I couldn’t repress my smile. It amazed me how her joy brimmed out of her until it filled wherever she was or whomever she was with—especially me, it seemed.

Her hand came to my arm, and her light touch sent a tremor of pleasure through me. “Can you imagine having attended a ball here?” she whispered.

I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Sort of. We had our high school prom here one year.”

Her widened eyes turned to me, the candlelight glinting in them. “That’s amazing. Ours were always at convention centers and had the most awful themes. Our senior prom was decorated to look like a casino, and they gave us gambling chips when we entered. Whoever’s idea that had been obviously had not the slightest romantic inclinations.”

Quinn quieted when the tour guide explained how this floor had originally been built for stables and was later converted into a ballroom, but I missed most of what she said after that. I couldn’t take my eyes off Quinn or quiet my thoughts.

I wouldn’t pretend that Quinn’s confession about Cody had been easy to hear. I’d been falling so fast for her I hadn’t taken a moment to consider we might not be falling at the same speed. But I also knew where she was coming from. The hurt and self-doubt that came after divorce was all-consuming. Some things just took time. I could give Quinn that.

“Are you coming?” she asked, her voice pulling me from my thoughts. The group was moving to the next room, and we trailed behind at a leisurely pace.

“So, what do you think?”

“It’s amazing, though I definitely wouldn’t want to live here either. To think of sharing a house with ghosts.”