Geoducks Are for Lovers Read Online Free Page A

York.
    “Good, better now that you've brought my one true love, Elizabeth the Second. Can I drive her?” Quinn looks at Maggie expectantly, though they both know she'll never let him drive Bessie.
    “You two can get reacquainted from the passenger seat.” Throwing his weekend bag in the trunk, they pile into the car, and she hands him the other baseball cap, which he refuses, brushing over his short hair to show he doesn’t need the hat.
    As they head back north to Mukilteo to catch the ferry home, Quinn reaches into the glove box to pick out a mix tape. Maggie has never updated Bessie’s sound system—it’s either a cassette tape or the radio. Her tapes from the 80s and 90s are a perfect soundtrack for the weekend ahead.
    Over the angst of Nirvana and the noise of the road, Quinn shouts, “When does everyone get here?” 
    “You’re the first. Ben and Jo arrive tomorrow. They’re driving down from Vancouver after his meetings end. Selah said she’ll get in tomorrow tonight as well. She's coming with a date. Any idea who the mystery man might be?” She raises her voice to be heard over the wind. 
    Silence greets her. Glancing over at him to make sure he heard her, she sees Quinn looking like he swallowed the cat who ate the canary.
    “Who is it? Oh, he’s not that horrible guy she was dating, is he? The one from the dating website who wrote her an email as Mr. Rochester? Please tell me it isn't him. Please?”
    “Nope. Guess again.” He seems delighted about Selah's mystery guest. 
    “New lover?” 
    “No, not a lover. Not so new.” Quinn smirks.
    It must be someone he knows. Maybe she knows Selah’s guest, too.
    “Someone I know?” 
    “Yes, someone you know.” He bites the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying more.
    “Will this person be at the Greener reunion?” She gets a sinking feeling.
    “Yep.”
    “No.” It can't be. The sinking feeling in her stomach begins to resemble the Titanic.
    “Yep.”
    “Could you please stop saying yep?” She gives him a sidelong look.
    “Yep.”
    She smacks Quinn on his shoulder and his oh-too-happy self. Brown eyes and shaggy hair flash in her mind.
    “It's Gil, isn't it? And don't say yep again!”
    “It is indeed Gil.”
    “Oh.”
    “That's it? That's all you have? ‘Oh?’ I thought I might get more than ‘oh’.” Quinn crosses his arms in disappointment.
    “She mentioned bringing someone with her when we started talking about everyone coming to visit before the reunion, but since she was vague, I figured it was Mr. Rochester and she didn't want the judging. So. Gil, huh?”
    “Yep.”
    She smacks him again.
    “What was that for?” Rubbing his shoulder where she hit him, he leans as far away from her as he can in the tiny car.
    “The yep and not telling me before about Gil.”
    Gil. At my house. Tomorrow. Her mind races.
    “You knew this all along, didn't you? Does everyone know?”
    “I may have had conversations with Selah about said matter, yes. You know she's the optimistic romantic in this group. I think she's always had a soft spot for you and Gil. In her mind, if the French Incident hadn't happened, it was only a matter of time before you two realized you both felt the same way and acted on it. Now you’re both divorced, and she’s back to drawing your initials on her notebook. No pressure or anything.” He laughs and ducks from another slap which doesn’t come.
    “Yeah, no pressure. Gil and I are friends. Just like the rest of us. It’ll be nice to see him again.”
    “Uh, huh. Friends. And 'nice to see him again.’ Keep telling yourself that, Magpie.”
    If only Quinn and Selah knew the truth. Gil and Maggie had acted on their feelings. And despite her hoping for a different outcome back then, they had remained just friends—friends, but no longer best friends.
    * * *
    When they pull into the ferry waiting lot in Mukilteo, she’s ready for a cocktail. They are far enough back in line to have one drink at