Gillian's Do-Over Read Online Free PDF

person the thumbs down and slap another file on my desk.”
    “What are you going to do now?”
    “Look for another job, I guess.”
    “You don’t sound all that enthusiastic.”
    “The economy isn’t that great. After beating Nick to a pulp in the basement the last few days—”
    “My old clown?” Quinn interrupted with a bark of laughter.
    “Yes. I’ve spent most of two days down there. I found my old painting supplies. Cleaning closets, making the family room look a bit less like an exercise gym. As of yesterday, that old clown is looking pretty bruised. I’m not sure I can blow him back up again without him tearing along a seam and completely giving up the ghost.” She giggled. “It did feel good to hit him, though.”
    “What did you tell Nic k when he let you go?”
    “I’m not sure I said anything. I don’t remember much, after he said, ‘you’re fired.’ He seemed to take great pleasure in being The Donald.” She turned into the driveway. “Here we are. You said you wanted to talk. Tell me something I want to hear, like when you and Bianca are getting married.”
    “Give me a minute.” Quinn hauled his suitcase into his room and returned to the kitchen.
    He sat down and reached for the soup tureen after motioning for her to join him.
    She studied her son. He looked so serious, so unlike his happy-go-lucky self. “Something’s on your mind. What is it?”
    “We think Bianca’s pregnant.”
    Gillian’s heart seemed to stop. “You think? Don’t you know?”
    “She was going to take a pregnancy test this weekend.” Quinn spooned soup into his bowl and then into his mother’s. She handed him the basket holding the corn muffins. “We had a big fight about it.”
    “You don’t want children?”
    “It’s Bianca who’s wavering. She’s not sure she wants one now .” He set down his soup spoon. “We’re moving back here. Both of us. The reason I came up this weekend was to meet with my new boss and sign the papers. I’ve been hired on as manager at that big new place that overlooks Lake Washington, the Pacific West Hotel. Bianca’s coming up on Monday to talk to two different firms about a job. If they don’t pan out, she’s going to try to get on at the district attorney’s office.”
    Gillian took a too-large sip of her soup and sputtered. She wiped her mouth. “She doesn’t want a baby to mess up her job prospects here. Is that it?” Babies were not a convenience for committed professional women. Wasn’t that why she’d opted to stay home when she’d been married to Owen? Besides wanting to be Quinn’s full-time mother?
    Her son nodded.
    “Is Bianca wavering because you two aren’t married?” Why hadn’t she encouraged them? Because she didn’t know the woman that well? She’d never interfered in Quinn’s dating life. Well, almost never. That awful girl he’d been so enamored of four years earlier came to mind. A selfish diva, always expecting Quinn to do everything she wanted, never giving him a chance to say or do what he wanted. And the young woman’s comment that Gillian didn’t know how to dress still rankled. She’d always worn outfits appropriate for work. So what if she’d been in grubs both times Quinn had brought the girl to the house? But he hadn’t called first and she’d been working in the garden, now sadly neglected. Before she’d let it go to rack and ruin. What was Quinn saying?
    “… and she thinks if she mentions she’s pregnant in the interview, that she will be needing time off for maternity leave, they won’t hire her. She’s serious about getting established, Mom. Taking this job, and me wanting to move back home, didn’t exactly come at a good time for her. That’s mostly what we fought about. That and getting married.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She has this big case right now. That’s why she didn’t come with me this weekend. She has to be ready to represent the client. She’s first chair. You know what that means,