The Part She Could Tell
Quinn finally tells Riley part of what happened in Australia. But some truths still refuse to come into the light.
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By the fire pit, Quinn tells enough of the truth to sound honest. And hides enough to keep the shame alive.
Chapter 3 - Mirage of Trust
She had told Riley everything was fine.
It wasn’t.
A drone crossing the canyon valley wasn’t fine either. It was a large one, probably delivering groceries to someone in the lower flatlands. Drones weren’t supposed to deliver anything to the residents of Echo Canyon. She’d make sure she told Riley.
This was the first morning she had been up before Riley. Quinn stood on her veranda, coffee cooling in her hand, the early sun painting streaks of gold across the desert floor. She continued scanning the canyon sky. When she was satisfied that everything was quiet again, she relaxed back into her chair. Holding the mug between both hands, she ran her fingers slowly around the rim, lost in thought.
I’m not fine.
Quinn was already on her second cup of coffee when she heard her friend moving inside with the rhythm of someone who trusted mornings.
Quinn used to move like that, too. Certain and decisive. These days, she wasn’t so sure.
The truth was, she didn’t know why she kept rushing back to Robbie. Or maybe she did. But knowing wasn’t the same as admitting it.
Growing up as an Air Force brat, Quinn had always felt safe no matter where they lived. She spent as much time outside as possible, running through grassy fields and jumping from rock to rock in streambeds, always moving, always independent.
She loved the flowers in Hawaii when her mother was stationed there. Even in Germany, the summers were short but slow and comfortable.
Her favorite memory, though, was in southern Arizona. What was she? Maybe five or six?
Her father warned her not to waste her allowance on flowers. The intense sun would kill them. But Quinn’s fascination with plants had started early. She begged her parents for a small place to grow something, anything. They compromised with window boxes on the stoop.
She planted marigolds from seed and saved her allowance for geraniums. When the heat grew too intense, she convinced her father to borrow a wagon from the base so she could cart the planters to the shade of a mesquite tree. Her mother gave her a bucket to carry water to them.
She cried when they had to move again. She had named every flower.
Years later, that same independence carried her into a career that moved her across the world. It was during one of those assignments in Hawaii that she met Robbie.
Quinn met Robbie more than twenty years ago while stationed in Hawaii. From their first conversation, something clicked, like a door opening neither of them knew existed.
They spent evenings going out to dinner and exploring new places. Long conversations often turned into friendly debates as they stretched each other’s thinking and deepened their understanding of one another. That was one of the things Quinn liked most about Robbie. She wasn’t afraid to express her opinion. She did it directly, instead of flirting the way so many women Quinn dated had.
Within months, Robbie invited Quinn to move in with her at the elegant Big Island home.
Barefoot and sun-warmed, the women dreamed of a future that seemed to stretch endlessly ahead.
In the early days of their relationship, they raced from the house to the beach, challenging each other to be the first into the water. When they surfaced, they fell into each other’s arms, laughing.
“I won,” Robbie shouted above the crashing waves.
“No, I did. By an arm’s length.” Quinn raised her long arms in the air to prove her point.
But five years later, life intervened.
Quinn was offered a critical post in Vermont. She had only a month to relocate. At the same time, Robbie was being transferred to Japan to oversee a major resort development, one of the few women leading projects of that scale. It was a prestigious move for her.
Their timelines split like tectonic plates.
They tried to imagine making a long-distance relationship work, but the reality was sharp and unforgiving. With aching hearts, they parted.
That day had been horrific.
Robbie kept pleading with Quinn to stay. But with tears streaming down her face, Quinn shook her head.
“I don’t want to leave you. But I have to.”
Quinn had always been the practical one. Both careers demanded everything. As painful as it was, she boarded the plane and forced herself not to look back.
Years passed, and Quinn rose steadily through the ranks. Life became busy and complicated. Their paths diverged, yet the memory of that time together never fully faded.
At first, they VID-called often, the conversations usually ending with one of them in tears.
Eventually, Quinn decided she could no longer live inside that hope. There was no future for them together.
Hating that she had to be the one to say it aloud, she finally told Robbie.
“What are you saying?” Robbie shouted through her tears. “You don’t love me anymore? You probably never loved me. If you did, you never would have left.”
Quinn tried to explain, but Robbie couldn’t hear her through the tears. There was a crash. Robbie must have thrown the comm. The last thing Quinn heard was a scream before the line went dead.
Movement pulled Quinn out of her thoughts as Riley stepped onto the veranda.
“Well, look at this,” Riley said. “I can’t believe you’re up before me. What’s it been, five days now?”
She gave Quinn a friendly punch on the arm.
“I just wanted to say how glad I am you’re here. Do you have any ideas about what you’d like to do today?”
“I was just thinking about the past.”
Riley chuckled. “Well, that could be a long story, considering your advanced years.”
Quinn shot her a sideways glance. “Hey. I’m only a couple of years older than you.”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Riley didn’t press further. Quinn had spent thirty years protecting secrets. She would talk when she was ready.
“So,” Riley asked gently, “what’s on your mind?”
“Remember when you came to my retirement party in Vermont, and I told you I was going back to Robbie? You were pretty mad at me.”
“You mean the girlfriend who convinced you to retire early?” Riley said. “Yes. I questioned the rush. I barely knew her, and you rarely talked about her. Sorry, but you shut me down with one look.”
“I know,” Quinn said quietly. “And I’m the one who should apologize. Looking back now, I think the doubts were already there. I just refused to listen.”
“You tried to tell me,” Quinn said quietly. “At my retirement party. You said I was rushing.”
Riley started to speak, but Quinn lifted her hand.
“You were right. I gave up thirty years of work, walked away from everything I’d built, because Robbie said she wanted me to.”
She looked down at her coffee.
“I’m that woman. The one who abandons her whole life for someone who…” She couldn’t finish.
Riley reached across and took her hand.
“You’re not ‘that woman,” she said firmly. “You’re the woman who had the guts to leave when it wasn’t working. That’s different.”
Quinn wanted to believe her.
“Years back, when Robbie and I were first together in Hawaii, everything felt idyllic. We explored the island, built a home together, and imagined what our lives might become.”
“When the job opportunities came up, we both knew what we had to do. Going our separate ways was the only real option.”
Riley studied her friend carefully.
“When you visited Echo Canyon last summer,” she said softly, “I felt like you were saying all the right things. You admired the canyon. My house. Even my life here. But something in your eyes didn’t match your words.”
“I know,” Quinn admitted. “And honestly, I’m glad you didn’t say anything then. I wasn’t ready to face the possibility that things with Robbie might already be over.”
Riley waited.
“So,” Quinn said quietly, “I think I’m ready to tell you what happened. Can we get some more coffee and sit out here? I need some open air for this.”
They settled back into their chairs with fresh coffee. Riley quickly put together a small plate of croissants, cheese, and fruit.
Quinn took a deep breath.
“First, I need to be honest with you,” she said. “When I called you from Hawaii and asked you to pick me up in Sabáka, I didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
Riley stiffened.
“I’m glad you called,” she said carefully. “But what did you lie about?”
“I left Australia early and went back to Hawaii.”
Seeing Riley’s expression darken, Quinn lifted her hand.
“I know. Just… let me start from the beginning.”
“Okay,” Riley said, shifting slightly.
“After my retirement party, I flew to Tokyo to meet Robbie.”
Riley nodded but said nothing.
“I arrived on a Thursday and spent a day recovering from the long flights. That weekend, we explored the area around Robbie’s apartment and talked about traveling around Japan whenever she could get away from work.
“We talked about everything. The years apart. How much we had both changed. How we would have to get to know each other again.”
“It was beautiful,” Quinn said quietly.
“We explored the city and took a trip into the countryside. At one point, we got lost and stopped to ask a woman for directions. She didn’t speak English, and we didn’t speak Japanese.”
“She showed us her geo-map, but of course, that didn’t help. Eventually, she brought out her daughter, who spoke excellent English. The daughter launched a drone and told us to follow it back to the main road.”
Riley laughed.
“You never told me that story.”
“Don’t give Channing any ideas,” Quinn said with a faint smile. “She’ll be running drone-led canyon tours.”
They both laughed briefly.
Then Quinn’s expression shifted.
“Within a few weeks, Robbie’s job began taking more and more of her time. Suddenly, she had meetings on days we had planned to do things together. I started going out on my own.
“Now you know me,” Quinn continued. “I can travel independently.”
She stared into her coffee.
“But after a while it started to feel different.”
“Different how?” Riley asked.
“It felt like I had become a burden,” Quinn said quietly. “Like Robbie didn’t want me there.”
Riley stayed silent.
“There were nights when Robbie called to say I shouldn’t wait up. I’d sit in the apartment looking out over Tokyo while dinner grew cold on the table. Eventually, I would throw it away and go to bed.
“The next morning Robbie acted as if nothing had happened.”
“You both discussed expectations, though?”
“Yes. She promised she would make time. She said the project was just intense at the beginning.”
Quinn shook her head.
“One night, I waited all night. Robbie never came home.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Tokyo was supposed to be the easy part,” Quinn said.
She could still smell the sea air from the bay that first morning. Robbie laughing. The sound of gulls fighting over scraps.
Quinn blinked and returned to Riley’s veranda.
“That’s when things started shifting,” she said. “Eventually, I told Robbie I was going back to Hawaii.”
“And?” Riley asked.
“She barely reacted.”
“When I arrived in Hawaii, it was hard. I thought maybe I just needed time to settle again.”
“I tried to go back to my routines. I worked in the garden. You remember the place. The bougainvillea had taken over the back wall.”
Riley smiled faintly.
“I started hiking again, too. I thought the trails might clear my head.”
She paused. “I even began fixing things around the house. The lanai door had been sticking for months.”
Riley waited.
Quinn slowly shook her head.
“But everything felt hollow.”
“It was like the house had emptied out while I was gone. Same walls. Same view. But none of it felt like my life anymore.”
“Where was Robbie?” Riley asked quietly.
“Tokyo.”
“And you talked?”
“Not really.”
Quinn looked down at her hands.
“For thirty years, I protected identities. Now I’m not sure what my own looks like without my badge.”
“I was sitting in a beautiful house in Hawaii,” she continued, “and I had never felt more alone.”
Riley reached across the space separating them and squeezed her hand.
“That’s when I booked the flight to Sabáka.”
“I wanted to come back to Echo Canyon. I knew you would be here.”
“I took the first available flight. I even spent the night at the airport because I didn’t want to stay where I wasn’t wanted.”
Riley squeezed her hand again.
“I’m so sorry, Quinn.”
She paused.
“Quinn… how can I help?”
Quinn shrugged.
“I don’t even know yet. It just feels good to be here. To have space to figure things out.”
Riley nodded. “And you can stay here as long as you need.”
Quinn relaxed slightly.
“I’m really unsure about Robbie and the house in Hawaii. I don’t even know who I am right now or what I’m going to do next.”
She gave a small shrug.
“But this isn’t like me. I didn’t create this situation, so I’ll figure out how to move forward.”
Her voice hardened slightly.
“I’ve sent text after text over the past few weeks and haven’t received a single answer.”
She exhaled sharply.
“That’s not how you treat someone you supposedly love.”
Riley remained quiet.
“Part of me wants to call Joe, the house manager in Hawaii, and have him ship the few things I left there. But that feels like running away.”
“And I don’t run.”
Riley nodded slowly.
“You deserve so much better, Quinn. Does Robbie have any idea you might not be going back?”
Quinn went still.
“Well… I still haven’t told you the other half of the story.”
She looked out across the canyon.
Then she turned back to Riley.
“Because Robbie didn’t just stop answering me.”
Riley frowned.
Quinn stood suddenly.
“She abandoned me in Australia.”
Riley blinked.
“Quinn… what in the world happened?”
Since you’ve made it this far, you’re already at the front door.
Story Insiders sit with the women of Echo Canyon on the veranda, as the story continues.