“Yeah.” He couldn’t even muster a cordial greeting for Rich.
“It’s on, Quinn. You’ve got to get on the next flight out if you want this merger to happen.”
He’d worked his ass off to bring the merger to this point. He’d thought the legal teams had handled any issues revolving around the Sherman Antitrust Act, but now that monster was rearing its ugly head again. If he wanted the merger to take place, he had to be on-site, elbow deep in the legal issues. It would take weeks to work through the legal channels.
He peered into the empty hall. Shelley must have gone downstairs. So then why did it feel like she’d gone a million miles away?
They’d agreed to the long-distance relationship. They knew it wasn’t going to be easy—he just never imagined it would be this hard. And he hadn’t even left yet.
But, damn it, he’d built this business from the ground up. He couldn’t just let it falter, could he?
“I’ll be there. I’ve just got to wrap up a few things first.”
Wrap up a few things. His gut twisted as the words echoed in his head. Because how was he supposed to tell the woman he loved that he needed to leave for what was, at the very least, a few weeks? But probably even longer.
“Hey, look at the bright side,” Rich said. “Now you have a legitimate excuse to get off the island.”
Rich was right that if Quinn could have turned around and walked back onto the plane last Friday, he would have done it without as much as a look back.
But that was before Shelley. Before he’d fallen so deeply in love with her that nothing else seemed to matter anymore.
He ended the call and pressed his fist against his breastbone, but it did nothing for the tightening in his chest. He wished he could grab Shelley, head back to the big stable tree and see the gorgeous afterglow of their lovemaking in the pink of her cheeks and the sweet, sultry gaze of her green eyes one more time before he left.
But there wasn’t time for that right now. Wasn’t time for anything but saying goodbye.
He found her out on the deck, standing at the railing. Her thick dark hair tumbled down her back in carefree waves. She turned as he approached, her eyes full of love as she reached for him and pressed her cheek to his chest.
He gathered her in his arms, opened his mouth to speak, and hesitated, riding the wave of conflicting emotions that surged through him. He’d worried that he’d dim her light if he got involved with her, and here he was, about to throw sand on her flame.
Shelley took a deep breath, then hooked her fingers in the waist of his pants and smiled up at him. Someone else might not notice the sadness hovering in her eyes, but he’d always noticed—and loved—every single thing about her.
“Okay, I’m ready for you to tell me you need to go back to Annapolis.”
She might have been ready for it, but he wasn’t.
He’d faced down fierce competitors, gone head-to-head with the savviest of businessmen in boardrooms across the country. He’d crushed his classmates on the curve at college and graduated top of the class. And yet now that he’d found the one person on earth he never wanted to hurt, he was powerless to keep from hurting her.
He’d never felt powerless before, and it sucked.
“I need to leave right away,” he confirmed in a raw voice as he held her gaze.
“Don’t worry about me, Quinn. Take care of what you need to take care of.”
She was the person he most wanted to take care of. He wanted to stay here longer, so that he could laugh with her and love her while holding her in his arms, instead of doing all of that from a distance.
But since he couldn’t stay, he knew he needed to explain the whole situation. “I’m afraid this isn’t going to be a quick trip. We’ve got legal issues to deal with pertaining to the merger, and I’ve also got to deal with an employee who’s threatening to leave. I’ve been putting it off, but...it will be weeks. Probably several.”
She swallowed hard. “Several weeks.” She paused and dropped her eyes to his chest. “Well, that’ll give me time to get things ironed out with my business.” She shifted her feet a little wider, as if she were trying to ground herself again. “We’ll both be busy.”
“Shell.” He lifted her chin and nearly broke at the depth of sadness in her eyes. “We’ll Skype, and text…” But they were all poor substitutes for holding her in his arms.
“Of course.” She pulled her shoulders back as he’d seen her do so many times before, and he watched as she forced herself to smile up at him. “So...can I help you pack?”