Hope on the Rocks (Rainbow Cove)

“Appreciate it. Both of you.” Abandoning my cleaning efforts, I hurried to untie my apron. “I might be able to catch him as he leaves his shift if I hurry.”

“Good. You do that.”

“I’ll do what I can.” There likely wasn’t much I could do, but I could sure as hell do my best.

Twenty-Three

Quinn

“Hey.” Adam’s voice interrupted my plodding walk to my SUV outside the clinic. I looked up, which took more effort than I wanted to admit, and found him parked right next to me.

“What are you…” I trailed off as I realized exactly why he was likely waiting for me. Damn it. I didn’t need a keeper. “Flint. Did he say something?”

“Yeah.” Standing next to the truck, Adam nodded. He didn’t reach for me, but his eyes were full of sympathy. “Don’t think he trusted you to tell me. Or anyone else. Said you insisted on working the rest of your shift.”

“Well, of course.” I forced myself to shrug, reaching deep for a pragmatic tone. “When I did my residency in Portland, we lost patients all the time in that ER. It happens. A shift doesn’t stop when things go sideways.”

“In the ER, maybe. But this is Rainbow Cove, and an urgent care clinic, not a full-scale urban ER,” Adam said reasonably. “These things are rarer here. And even if they were common like in a big city ER, you’re allowed to need a minute.”

“I do need…something.” A minute wasn’t it, but hell if I knew what was. We were the last two cars in the lot, and when he reached for my upper arm, I had to work to not collapse into him. “Honestly, I’m probably terrible company right now because all I want is to hibernate until I have to do it all over again tomorrow.”

“I get that, but you shouldn’t be alone.” He rubbed my biceps. Suddenly his appearance made more sense. He was likely worried about a repeat of me drowning my sorrows in a cocktail.

I made a frustrated noise. While I appreciated the concern for my well-being, I also didn’t need a babysitter. “I’m not at risk of a drinking bender, trust me.”

“I know that.”

“Oh.” I bit my lip. Him believing in me meant more than I would have thought. “Why are you here then?”

“Because you need a friend. And setting aside everything else, we’re friends now. Let me be your friend tonight.”

I nodded slowly because I wasn’t strong enough to turn him down. “I’m likely to be awful company. I doubt I can eat anything, and I’m not feeling very talkative.”

“It’s okay. We don’t have to talk.” He held my gaze, but hell if I could read his intense expression. I associated that sort of focus from him with Daddy scenes, but this wasn’t my bedroom. I tested out the idea of fucking away this nightmare of a day, but I wasn’t sure I had it in me.

“I’m not sure I’m up for—”

“I didn’t mean sex,” he cut me off. “Give me more credit than that. Come on. Let’s go. We’re gonna go walk the beach trail near your place while there’s still some light.”

“You’re going to walk on the beach with me?”

“Sure.” He shrugged, expression still rather enigmatic. “It’s what you do when you’re stressed, and it’s definitely healthier than me pouring you some shots. We’ll walk, and you don’t have to talk if you don’t wanna.”

“Okay.” Clearly, Adam had been listening when I’d talked about what I did in my downtime, and his plan was as good as any other. Operating more or less on autopilot, I followed him back to my condo, where we both parked. Adam had a flashlight in one hand and a small bag in the other as we made our way to the beach access trail.

“What’s in there?” I pointed at the bag.

“Water.” He handed me a bottle as we picked our way down the steep path. “You should drink if nothing else. And there’s food if you change your mind on eating.”

I took a sip of the water to appease him. We passed a few beachgoers on the trail, but they were all heading back up. The sky was already starting to shift, purples and pinks signaling the coming sunset. Once we reached the rocky shore and narrow beach, the expanse was largely deserted, a few human shapes off in the distance, but no one close by as we walked.

Adam didn’t press me to talk or try to fill the silence, which I appreciated. The longer we walked, the more my lungs seemed to expand, breathing free for the first time in hours. The rocky outcroppings that Rainbow Cove was known for were transformed by the twilight, becoming more austere.

“I usually come early in the morning,” I said as we approached one of the largest outcroppings, a tall, narrow tower featured on many postcards and tourist brochures for the area. “Funny how the same rocks can look so different depending on the time of day.”