Harlequin Special Edition October 2015, Box Set 1 of 2 by Christine Rimmer Page B

it became crystal clear from the tight, furious expression on Linda Winchester’s face that she already knew about Quinn.
    Chloe’s steps faltered. Only for a second, though. She quickly caught herself, straightened her shoulders and kept right on walking. “Mom. I don’t remember you mentioning that you would be dropping by.”
    â€œOh, please.” Her mother gave her a truly withering glance. “Let me in. I have a few things to say to you and I’m not going to say them on your front step.”
    Chloe froze with her key raised to unlock the door. “Look, Mother. I don’t want to—”
    â€œOpen the door. Now, please.”
    The temptation was so powerful to tell her mother right then and there that this was
her
house and
she
would decide who did or didn’t enter it.
    But then again, well, Linda Winchester wasn’t the only one who had a few things to say. And she wasn’t the only one who preferred to have this out in private.
    So she unlocked the door. Her mother brushed past her as she disarmed the alarm.
    Carefully, quietly, Chloe shut the door. Her mother stood beside the formal dining table, her blond head high, bright spots of color flaming on her cheeks, her lips bloodless with tension.
    Chloe almost felt sorry for her. “Look, Mom. Why don’t you sit down?”
    Linda whipped out the chair at the end of the table and sat in it. She put her hand to her mouth and shut her eyes.
    Chloe took the nearest chair. She waited until her mother dropped her hand away from her mouth and opened her eyes again before she said gently, “You’re obviously very upset. Please tell me why.”
    Her mother sucked in a gasp and snapped, “Don’t you play coy with me, Chloe.”
    â€œI’m not playing coy,” Chloe said with a calm that surprised her. “What I’m doing is trying my best not to jump to conclusions.”
    â€œAll right.” With two sharp tugs, Linda straightened the sides of the linen jacket she wore. “Agnes Oldfield dropped by to see me an hour ago. She says it’s all over town that you’ve been seeing Quinn Bravo. She says you went to the Sylvan Inn with him last Friday night, where you told Monique Hightower right to her face that you were...
attracted
to that man ever since high school. Agnes also says that you’ve been seen having ice cream with him and that child of his. She says that everyone says how...intimate you seem together, that it’s obvious something serious is going on between you.” Linda pressed her hand flat to her chest, and shook her head fiercely. “I do not believe this. Tell me that none of it is true.”
    Chloe just stared. God. She’d known this would be bad. But somehow, now that it was actually happening, all she could think was
What are we doing here? How could I have let it get his far? Why didn’t I back her down years ago
?
    The questions were all too familiar to her. They were the same ones she’d asked herself over and over about her ex-husband.
    â€œWell?” her mother demanded. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
    â€œYou know, Mom. I don’t think I have to say anything. But I would like to know what happened to
you
? I just don’t understand how you got so messed up.”
    Another indignant gasp. “Excuse me?”
    â€œIt’s not going to work on me, Mother. Not anymore. All your trumped-up outrage, your sad, small-minded ideas about who’s okay and who’s not. Your judgments about the right kind of people and the ones who just don’t measure up.”
    â€œWait just a minute, now—”
    â€œNo. No, I’m not going to wait for you to try and fill my head with more of your small-minded garbage and your snobbish, silly lies.”
    â€œWell, I have never—”
    â€œStop. I mean it. I don’t want to hear it, never again. Quinn Bravo is a fine man and I’m not