Mystic Park (Finding Home 4)

“Are you lost?” Ramona spoke from her reclining position on the sofa in the center of the rental cabin’s great room.

Quincy locked the front door behind him and strode to where Ramona lay on the couch reading a home decorating magazine. It was the first Saturday afternoon in June. Ramona hadn’t spoken to him in more than two weeks.

During that time, Quincy had accepted sanctuary with Megan and Ean. They’d been great hosts, but it was time for him to reestablish his place with Ramona. The first week, Quincy had given Ramona her space. But the second week, he’d called and stopped by every day. She’d frozen him out. He was growing increasingly concerned that she would never let him back in. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Enough is enough, Ramona.” Quincy stopped beside the sofa. “I didn’t come home to spend the time apart from you.”

Ramona turned a page in her magazine. Her attention was glued to its glossy paper. “We’re still not even. Your not spending time with me isn’t the same as my finding out you’re making plans to stay in Trinity Falls without me.”

“You want to move back to Trinity Falls.” That much he’d put together from the stingy words she’d given him over the past fifteen days.

Ramona looked up from her magazine and pinned him with her ebony stare. “That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point? Explain it to me.” Their disagreement had gone on for two weeks too long. It needed to end today. He wanted his Ramona back. He missed her too much.

Ramona closed her magazine. She sat up, swinging her long, bare legs over the side of the couch. She was wearing a white crop top and short purple shorts. Her hair hung loose and tousled around her shoulders.

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nbsp; She shifted on the sofa to face him. “You made me believe that you thought I was more than a decoration.”

Quincy frowned. “Of course I do.”

“Then why are you treating me like one?”

Quincy’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

Ramona drew her fingers through her luxurious raven hair. She seemed weary and frustrated. “Instead of coming to me so that we could decide together where we’re going to live, you decided on your own as though I don’t have the intellect to contribute to the discussion.”

“That’s not what I was doing.” Quincy was shocked at her interpretation of the situation. “I wanted to have a plan to offer you.”

“We’re a couple. We should’ve figured it out together.” Ramona’s sigh was thick with confusion. “Instead, you decided you needed to be the man with a plan.”

Quincy risked sitting an arm’s length from Ramona on the sofa. “I’m sorry, Ramona. I thought I was helping by coming up with a solution on my own.”

“Suppose we didn’t have the same solution?” She shrugged. “I want to come home to Trinity Falls. But what if I didn’t?”

“Then I’d need another solution.”

She arched a brow. “Another one you came up with by yourself?”

“No, we’d figure it out together, you and me.”

Ramona inclined her head. “Make sure you always remember that.”

“I promise I will. I’m sorry I upset you. It was never my intention.” He searched her eyes, hoping she believed him.

“I understand. Just don’t make that mistake again, please.” Ramona started to rise from the couch.

Quincy caught her arm. “There’s one more matter I need your input on. It’s just a question.”

Ramona sat again. Her ebony eyes were bright with curiosity. “What is it?”

Quincy pulled the ring box from his front cargo shorts pocket. He opened it, holding the case toward her. “Will you marry me?”

Ramona gaped. She stared, motionless, at the princess cut, nine-carat diamond as though it would do a song-and-dance routine for her.

Finally, she threw herself into his arms. “Doctor Quincy Spates, you’re a fast learner.”