Interlude ~ Robbie
Mirage of Trust
New to Echo Canyon?
Whispers of Echo Canyon Begins Here
Start here with Book 2, Mirage of Trust: Chapter 1
Or go to the Table of Contents for the Chapter listing
Robbie
She read the message once, then again.
I may join Liz and Connie on a New Zealand cruise next week. Thought you should know.
She did not answer immediately.
Quinn rarely wrote anything without intent, even when she pretended she was only passing along information. I may join meant she had already decided. Liz and Connie meant Robbie was supposed to understand there were other people involved now. Thought you should know was the part that irritated her most. Not because it was rude. It wasn’t. That was Quinn’s specialty. She could place a boundary inside a perfectly reasonable sentence and then act as if nothing had happened.
Robbie held the comm in one hand and studied the message until the first response faded from her body.
No.
That was the only honest answer.
No, you are not going on a cruise with two women you barely know. No, you are not extending this trip. No, you are not using distance to practice being less available.
But honest answers were rarely useful.
Robbie opened the reply field.
That sounds perfect for you. I’m glad you’re getting out and enjoying the trip.
She read it once, changed good to perfect, then changed having fun to enjoying the trip. Fun sounded careless. Enjoying sounded generous. Perfect suggested approval without asking for anything in return.
The timing mattered too. Too fast would seem eager. Too slow would invite Quinn to wonder what Robbie was thinking.
Robbie waited another twelve seconds, then sent it.
The comm made the softest sound when the message left.
There. Supportive. Reasonable. Warm enough.
She set the comm on the counter and opened the linked travel screen on the wall panel.
Quinn’s itinerary appeared in its usual place. Sydney. Open dates. No onward booking yet.
Robbie stood still while she reviewed it.
Quinn was moving.
Not physically yet, but the movement had started. Robbie had seen it before. Quinn did not stay inside uncertainty. She moved toward action and called it clarity. She gathered facts, made plans, took a step, then another, and by the time she admitted something had changed, she had already built herself a new exit.
Robbie had learned to account for that.
She opened the settings menu, entered the secondary verification code, and waited for the panel to accept it. The screen shifted. She moved through the options without hesitation. Notifications. Shared access. Location permissions. Travel updates.
One setting had reverted after the last system update.
Robbie corrected it.
The change was small. A practical adjustment. Nothing Quinn would notice unless she went looking for it, and Quinn would not go looking. Not yet. She still believed their shared systems existed because they were convenient. She had always underestimated the usefulness of convenience.
Robbie closed the panel and checked the comm again.
No reply.
That was expected.
Quinn would read the message and feel relieved. She would tell herself Robbie was being gracious. She might even feel faintly guilty for assuming otherwise, which would help. Guilt had never been Quinn’s strongest lever, but it was not useless.
Robbie picked up her water glass from the counter. A faint ring had formed beneath it. She wiped it away with the side of her hand, then rinsed the glass and set it exactly on the drying rail.
A small disorder became a larger disorder when no one corrected it.
The comm lit again.
Not Quinn.
Robbie ignored the incoming message and reopened the travel screen, this time checking the cruise route. Sydney to Auckland. Twelve days. Multiple ports. Limited connectivity in some areas, according to the itinerary notes.
She did not like that.
Not the distance. Distance was manageable.
It was the women.
Liz and Connie had become a problem faster than Robbie expected. On paper, they were nothing. Retired. Ordinary. Socially harmless. But Quinn had been different after that day with them. Lighter in a way that made her less predictable. Less careful about Robbie’s expectations. More willing to let silence sit between them without rushing to repair it.
People misunderstood influence. They looked for dramatic persuasion, for speeches, for pressure. They missed the quieter danger of someone offering comfort without asking to be paid back.
Robbie understood that kind of interference.
She returned to Quinn’s message one more time.
Thought you should know.
Robbie almost smiled.
Yes. Quinn had thought she should know.
What Quinn had not considered was how much Robbie already knew. The accounts. The access points. The old documents Quinn never bothered to separate because practical women trusted practical arrangements. The shared address histories. The emergency files. The old answers people gave once and forgot they had given.
Quinn had spent thirty years understanding systems.
Robbie had spent years understanding Quinn.
That was different.
She closed the message thread and placed the comm face down on the counter.
For now, the answer would remain yes.
Yes, go on the cruise.
Yes, enjoy the trip.
Yes, believe this is your decision.
Robbie could be patient when patience served her. She had no interest in chasing Quinn across the Pacific like some abandoned lover with no discipline. That was not who she was. She would let Quinn move. She would let the cruise create its little illusion of freedom. She would let Liz and Connie believe they had offered something Quinn needed.
Then Robbie would arrive.
Not too soon. Not angrily. Not in a way Quinn could object to without seeming unreasonable.
A surprise.
That was better.
Quinn valued composure. She valued control. She valued the ability to prepare.
So Robbie would take preparation away from her.
She picked up the comm again and opened her own calendar.
There were flights to Sydney every day.
She did not book one yet. Booking too early indicated impulse, and impulse was for people who had not thought ahead. Robbie only checked availability, compared routes, and marked the cleanest option.
Then she closed the calendar.
Everything was still where it should be.
For now.
~~~~~~~
🛳️ Robbie has made her decision.
Quinn thinks she is going on a cruise with Liz and Connie.
Robbie thinks she is going to remind Quinn where she belongs.
The next chapter of Mirage of Trust continues Quinn’s cruise, where freedom begins to feel possible until Robbie arrives.
Paid Subscribers (aka Story Insiders) will keep reading as the truth beneath this relationship becomes harder for Quinn to ignore.
Come inside for the full stories, not just the beginning.