Page 95 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

“I know you’re worried about Kyle,” she said.

“I’m his father, so it comes with the territory,” he said, not wanting to get into this before the meeting.

“If you keep pushing school, he’s just going to keep pushing back,” she said, putting her purse in the drawer.

He took off his readers and looked at his seventy-three-year-old mother. She was tired. He couldn’t continue to have his mother work. Another glaring reason why he needed to help his family by getting a job that actually paid the bills. “You know who was the hardest on me about going to school?”

She stared at him because Ginny knew dang well who. “You were the one who had the drive.”

“And now I know Iamlucky. I know what a college education can do for people around here.”

It allows them to get out, he thought to himself.

So many of his friends and family had quit school. They hadn’t even made it out of high school to start earning money. Lobstering was a very lucrative business if someone was willing to give up their whole life for it. Aside from the danger, catching lobsters, dragging the cages up from the water and betting on nature, sometimes making bank, other times scraping just to get by, would wear a person down. The physical endurance of pulling and dropping the pots into the water. The changes of New England weather on a good day. The catastrophes that could happen at any given moment. A leg getting caught on a line, a loss of a finger in the mechanical pulley, the endless amounts of ways one could injure themselves or worse.

Not to mention the storms.

How many funerals had he been to for fishing accidents? Everyone knew someone in Blueberry Bay who’s loved one had died in some way out on the water.

It was the way of life. They were stuck together as a community through tragedy.

And he wanted more for Kyle.

He could send Kyle to a private school in Portland for his senior year. Get him out of here and forget the idea of fishing for a living.

“Some things you can’t fight,” Ginny said.

He laughed at that. “Like you forcing Meredith to stay.”

Ginny looked offended. “I’m not forcing her to stay.” She shook her head. “I’m showing her a second chance. A second chance at getting to know her roots. A second chance at community. A second chance with her sister. A second chance at a new way of life.”

“Is that what you’re calling it?” he said.

She walked to Quinn and squeezed his shoulder. “You are the best dad that boy could ever ask for. But being stressed and unhappy so he can go to some fancy school certainly isn’t what Kyle would want. He wants a dad who wants to go and fish with him.”

“It’s not what people want all the time, isn’t that your motto? It’s about what we need.” He stopped talking at that point, holding back so he wouldn’t come out disrespectful toward his mother.

He shut the computer screen and moved his chair back, getting up. He reached out to hug his mother. He knew she could feel his anger, but it wasn’t going to break their relationship. He still loved her whether they agreed about Kyle’s next steps or not. But the fact was, he was Kyle’s father, and he would do what he had to do for his son.

“Quinn, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said. “You’re doing the best you can.”

“Yes, I am.” He couldn’t continue with the conversation. He had too much to do. Once Bruce talked to Kyle, Quinn wouldn’t have any control in the matter.

“See you later tonight at the meeting,” he said.

She raised her eyebrow. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. He grabbed his stuff and threw it into the leather bag Lisa had bought him when he made partner. It was something casual and not too formal. It said that he was a partner at one of the biggest firms but had also shown that he was one of the youngest and most hip partners the firm had ever had.

When he turned the corner, he almost bumped into someone coming from the other direction.

“Quinn!” Meredith said, a smile across her face. “I was just about to see you.”

He looked down at his watch. He barely had enough time to run to the pantry if he stopped and talked.

“Hi Meredith,” he said, smiling. “What are you doing here?”

“Do you have a minute?” she asked.

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