Free Quinn's Woman by Susan Mallery

felt a tug to be home.

    He studied Gage. They looked enough alike that no would mistake them for anything but brothers. Older by a year, Gage had been the favorite son. A gifted athlete, smart, popular. For a long time Quinn had been right behind him, inching close to his sports records, sometimes beating them. He’d gotten as good grades in most subjects, better in a few, but it hadn’t mattered. Not to the man who raised them. In his eyes, Gage could do no wrong and Quinn could do no right.

    “You still miss him?” he asked. Gage looked at him. “Dad?” Quinn nodded.

    “Sometimes. Yeah, I guess. I can’t think of him as anything but my father.” He grimaced. “I did at first. When I found out the truth, I figured I’d lost my whole world. I didn’t know who I was or where I belonged.”

    “Five generations of Reynoldses in Possum Landing,” Quinn said.

    “Right. I wasn’t one of them anymore.”

    Quinn would consider that a good thing, but he knew his brother wouldn’t agree.

    “What changed your mind?” he asked.

    Gage smiled. “Kari. She pretty much slapped me upside the head and told me to get over it. It didn’t take me long to see that she was right. Dad might not have gotten Mom pregnant, but he was still my father in every way that matters.” His expression darkened. “Not comforting to you, I know.”

    Quinn lifted a shoulder. “He was who he was.”

    “There was a reason he hated you.”

    Quinn looked at him. “I already figured that out.”

    “What do you mean?”

    “You said they couldn’t have kids and that Mom got pregnant by Earl Haynes. That was the deal. But something happened, and she went back the following year. I don’t know if she went just to talk to him or if she had something else on her mind. Whatever the reason, she came back pregnant. I’m guessing Ralph didn’t appreciate that. You were the son he always wanted. I was the living, breathing reminder of his wife’s infidelity.”

    Gage sat up straight and swore. His reaction, not to mention his stricken expression, told Quinn he’d nailed it in one.

    Once he knew the logistics of his mother’s pregnancy, the rest hadn’t been hard to figure out. Funny how years ago he would have sold his soul to understand how the man he’d thought of as his father could love Gage so much and hate him with equal intensity. He remember being ten and crying himself to sleep. He remembered his mother holding him, trying to convince him that his father didn’t hate him. He’d begged her to tell him why his father acted the way he did and she never had. How could she?

    After all this time, he finally understood, only to realize that knowing the truth didn’t change anything. It hadn’t mattered then and it still didn’t matter.

    “I’m sorry,” Gage said.

    “It wasn’t your fault. I’m not sure it was anyone’s.”

    The old man was dead. The past was over. Quinn was more than ready to move on.

    “You and Kari set a date yet?” he asked.

    Gage hesitated, as if not sure he would accept the change in topic, then he grinned. “New Year’s Eve. She says it’s because it’s romantic, but I think she wants to be sure I never forget.”

    Quinn had seen his brother with the tall, pretty blonde, and he was surprised they were willing to wait so long to tie the knot. “Why the delay?”

    “Mom’s wedding. If Kari and I had picked an earlier date, Mom would have cut back on her own plans. She and John want to take a long honeymoon in Australia and neither of us wanted them to cancel. Kari and I have our whole lives together. Waiting a few months won’t matter.”

    Gage sounded like a man sure of his place in the world. But then, he’d always been like that. He was the one who fit in. Now he’d found the one woman who could make his world complete.

    Quinn was pleased. He still remembered his brother’s hang-dog expression when Kari had run off eight years ago. Gage had been planning