Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay by Babette Jongh (best fantasy books to read TXT) 📕

The sour taste of regret filled Quinn’s mouth, ruining the taste of the gourmet sandwich. He swallowed, wishing he’d spent more time out in nature with his son when he’d had the chance. “My best friend’s dad had a fishing boat. We spent hours on the bayous outside the city. Even spent the night on the boat a bunch of times.”

“You mean JP?”

“Yep.” JP, his once-best friend and business partner, who’d forgotten all about morality in the pursuit of greed. Quinn tossed a chunk of his sandwich into the water for the fish, then put the rest back in its fancy beeswax-and-cloth wrapping. Then he hoisted his paddle and dug it deep into the tea-brown water. “Sun’s skimming the treetops; we’d best get back now, or the bugs’ll get us.”

Back at the pool house, they hosed down the boards and life jackets, then left them by the pool to dry while they lit the burn pile of branches that had accumulated from Quinn’s land clearing. Before Sean left that day, he hugged Quinn; a real hug, not one of those sideways bro hugs. “I had fun, Dad.”

From way up by the mailbox, Melissa honked the car’s horn again; she had texted Sean that she didn’t want to drive her new car down Quinn’s rutted driveway. Fair enough. Quinn didn’t necessarily want her all up in his business anyway. He patted his son’s back, feeling a rush of love, not only for the child Sean had been, but for the man he was becoming. Quinn might have a lot of problems with Melissa, but the way she’d raised Sean wasn’t one of them.

“I’ll talk to Mom about working here sometimes,” Sean said.

“That would be great,” Quinn answered. “I’d love to see more of you.”

“Me too, Dad.” Sean bumped shoulders with Quinn, an awkward show of affection after years of anger and resentment. A lot of the strife between him and his son had been planted and fertilized by Melissa, but he had to admit, he’d doled out some of the same bullshit fertilizer himself. Hurt feelings on both sides had led each of them to react with hostility rather than to act with love. Quinn walked with his son down the long driveway and vowed to himself that he would make up to Sean—and to Melissa, if she’d let him—for the fact that he’d been an absentee dad too much of the time.

He had worked long hours from the beginning; at first so he could establish a solid financial foundation for his new family. But slowly, so slowly that Quinn couldn’t remember when and how it happened, the reasons for his workaholic tendencies had shifted.

Melissa and Sean had become their own little universe, from which Quinn often felt squeezed out. At the same time, Melissa had started getting snarky about him not helping out enough—but when he tried, nothing he did pleased her. After a while, the only time she asked for his help was when Sean needed more discipline than she could provide. So Quinn became the bad cop Sean dreaded to see coming home some days. Maybe now that Quinn and Melissa were officially divorced and living separate lives, he and Sean could start fresh building a new father-son relationship, unencumbered by the past. This weekend gave him hope that they’d already made a good start.

“Next time you come, we’ll go paddleboarding again.” It occurred to Quinn that he could build a storage shed at the far end of the yard and install a gate so launching the paddleboards or other water toys from the public launch would be easier. “We’ll explore around here some more.”

In a way, Abby’s broken foot had helped Quinn to make more time for Sean this summer. So that he could stay nearby and help with the farm chores, he had taken on a custom cabinet-building job that he could work on in the estate’s garage. All he’d had to do on-site was measure the people’s kitchen, and once he’d built the cabinets to fit, he would deliver and install them.

“I’d like that,” Sean responded. When they reached Melissa’s car, Sean turned toward Quinn. “Dad?” With his back to Melissa’s car, he spoke so quietly, Quinn had to lean in to hear. “Thanks for making my room so nice and everything, and for buying the Xbox and stuff.”

Quinn clapped Sean on the shoulder. “You’re welcome, Son. I’ve missed you, and I want you to know that you can come here whenever you want, as long as your mom doesn’t object.”

Sean nodded. “I do know that, Dad.” He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. He almost looked choked up. Then he turned away, and the moment evaporated. “See you Wednesday,” Sean called over his shoulder as he got in the car.

“Bye.” Quinn lifted a hand to wave, but the tires on Melissa’s car peeled out so fast and loud that Sean could’ve neither seen nor heard Quinn’s goodbye. Quinn turned toward the pool house, though Abby’s presence next door pulled at him like a strong undertow.

Three days ago, he’d have thought that undertow was possibly a dangerous one. But after spending this weekend with Sean and Abby together much of that time, he was beginning to wonder if he should rethink his options. Why couldn’t he renovate this property and just stay? Why couldn’t he see what sort of relationship might be possible with Abby, a beautiful, gentle, sweet woman whom his son obviously liked, and who seemed to like his son? Maybe he didn’t need to flip this estate after all.

* * *

Abby wasn’t snooping. She had just happened to decide to sit on the wraparound front porch that afternoon instead of the concrete patio out back. She had only recently discovered that while the patio was great if you could get in the pool, when you were reduced to pushing a scooter everywhere or hobbling around with crutches, the shaded front