Bonus Scene 1 Quade’s Special Email

BONUS SCENE 1: QUADE’S SPECIAL EMAIL

(Set Some Time During Chapters 30-33)

Quade finished an extra late dinner in the dining room, surrounded by beautiful Talley women everywhere he turned. He had to admit, the inn in Masterson was one of his new favorite places to be. People accepted him there, for one thing. Let him be him.

And he didn’t have any memories of Ashley there. At home, in L.A., everywhere he turned he remembered something with her. And it hurt. More than he could have imagined.

Maybe that was why Slater would no longer stay at a Barratt hotel, even though they had always stayed at Barratts since meeting Tucker several years ago? Quade’s oldest brother had been in love with a close family connection of the Barratts. He had met her in the Barratt-St. Louis and had spent time with her there. Now, Slater refused to step foot in a Barratt unless he absolutely had to.

Quade completely understood.

He was worried about Slater. Slater had been dating a woman for a few weeks, and Quade had thought his brother was on his way to healing—but then Slater had abruptly ended things with her. Saying it didn’t feel right.

Quade was almost one hundred percent certain it had been because that woman wasn’t Slater’s precious Sydney. Hard for Quade to forget Sydney, too. She was best friends with one of Quade’s younger sisters. A sister Quade hadn’t ever even met.

He put in his order with the Talley sister on duty. She was a beautiful woman, too, and there was no denying she and Dylan were sisters. After she left his drink, he grabbed his phone. He hadn’t had a chance to check his emails in several hours, and he was waiting on one from Finley Creek, too. His best friend Tucker Barratt was handling some of the reshoots for the woman they’d cast to play Charlotte, after the previous actress was arrested. The woman hadn’t had a huge role to begin with, but Quade was still wanting to know how it went. Tucker had been really stressed.

But…he had several other emails waiting. The first was from Royal. His middle brother liked to fuss, even though he wouldn’t admit it. Not Royal, Mr. Hardass, as the media liked to call him. Everyone always said Royal was cold and unapproachable and arrogant. Probably because he was also considered one of the most beautiful men on the planet, according to some tabloids.

Royal wasn’t cold and arrogant at all.

Unapproachable, yes. Royal was shy. He was just really good at hiding it.

Royal wanted to know what Quade was doing, where he was, who he was with, and if Quade was behaving himself, or needed anything. It made him laugh. Royal and Slater had raised him from the age of fourteen. Royal had always been the mother hen.

The next email was from Dylan. She was bubbling all over the words—he could almost hear her speaking to him right now. She’d included photos of some type of seeds and a list of what she and Fletcher were going to do with the rest of the night.

Fletcher Tyler was a lucky, lucky man. Quade didn’t doubt that for one moment. Once the two of them figured things out it would be fun to watch. Maybe Quade would get to be a groomsman or something.

“What has you smiling?”

His waitress was back. Her tag read Devaney . “Your sister, actually. Dylan just emailed me. Fletcher took her to a seed lab or something. She sent me photos of lettuce seeds, and spinach seeds. Then they are going to go fly drones, go eat lunch, do something he says is a surprise, and then an evening at the Barratt-Finley Creek for dinner. Just her and Fletcher.”

“Really. How interesting. You good with that?” She was eyeing him with those same green eyes Charlotte and Dylan had, too. “Since you and my sister are so hot for each other and everything.”

Quade was an actor—he was good at not reacting. But a smirk slipped out. “What? The fact that my friend Fletcher has a real thing for my friend Dylan? You’d better believe it. Those two will be good for each other, I think. If they ever figure it out.”

“Agree one hundred percent. Thanks for the update. I’m glad she’s having a good time. I’ve been worried about her, you know.”

“Me, too. But I think she’s going to be okay.”

After Devaney went to the next table, Quade continued his emails. There was one from someone he didn’t recognize—not all that unusual. He had a separate folder where emails from fans were supposed to go, but the filter wasn’t all that sophisticated, and it didn’t work every single time.

He clicked on the first one. It was a jpeg of one of the printables for the Wonkus McBubbles website. Quade had drawn the coloring page himself. The next one was new, though. Not one he had drawn at all.

Well, those were a bit different.

Wonkus had been put in a giant cauldron. A girl witch with wild curly brown hair was next to the pot, stirring it. The space at the top of the coloring page for NAME and AGE had been filled in. Princess Jo-Jo, 20. Another page showed Wonkus being chased by what he thought were mutant butterflies. Wonkus was only eight inches tall, after all. Butterflies could be quite ferocious. It was not a drawing he had done. Apparently, this Princess Jo-Jo had.

She was very good—she almost had Wonkus perfect. She’d messed up his cowlick a little, though. She’d put it on the left of Wonkus’s head instead of the right.

Quade replied quickly, thanking her for the artwork. He tried to reply to a good portion of his emails himself. Sometimes that didn’t happen, but he really did try. Other times, he had a personal assistant do it. Just so that there was real interaction for the kids. He thought it made it more fun for them.

But 20? With that kind of art skill? That was definitely not from a kid. She was as good as the illustrator he’d hired to do the Wonkus McBubbles books. Maybe even better.

To his shock, the next email was also from Finley Creek. That made four emails from one city—Tucker’s, Dylan’s, Princess Jo-Jo’s, and now this one.

Princess Jo-Jo’s email had come from [email protected].

This one wasn’t from FCU.

Quade began to read.

Dear Quade,

I hope this isn’t too presumptuous of me, but I am emailing on Heather’s behalf. Thank you for the cards and flowers and stuffed animals you sent. They made her smile. It was very kind of you. Heather is recuperating now, and has been released from the hospital…

Quade just sat there for a moment as he read the email from the aunt he had never met. He clicked the link. Photos appeared. Of a man…who looked just like him. His grandfather. His history.

If the man in the photos had never existed, Quade wouldn’t exist. And he knew nothing about him. Nothing really at all.

For the first time, he realized how much it mattered. He just looked at all the photos his new aunt had included while he ate his dinner.

He went back, and replied to Dylan’s email. He thanked her again for agreeing to check on his aunt Heather for him. Then he moved on to his next email. And the next.

The waitress put a piece of pie on the table next to him. Quade looked up into Dylan’s sister’s beautiful face. “I didn’t order?—”

“I know. But for a moment there, you looked like you needed it, Mr. Davis. And…thanks for being there for my sister. I think she’s needed a friend like you.”

Well, as Devaney left, Quade thought one thing to himself: he’d needed a friend like her, too. And like Rowland, and Hunter, and Tucker, too.

He opened up a blank email as he dug into the pie. It was time to check on all the friends he had.

Quade would never take a single one of them for granted ever again.

Life was too short for that.

That was a lesson Ashley had taught him forever.