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She saw her brother’s car there along with her grandfather’s, Emma’s, Roark’s and Hunter’s.
She wasn’t expecting this many people to show up for dinner.
“What’s going on?” Lincoln asked her. “Is there a party we don’t know about?”
“No,” she said. “Or not one I was told about. You know my parents wanted us to watch the first episode with them tonight. Looks like they might have gotten others to do it too. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
She’d put off the family dinner as much as she could. Some of it wasn’t by choice. The other was she didn’t want Lincoln to feel any pressure.
For someone who didn’t move fast in life when it came to her dating life, she wanted to move faster than she was now.
That might be why she agreed to have him stay with her all last week.
When he’d shown her Saturday morning before she went to work that he’d put pavers in the backyard, she’d been stunned and thrilled.
He listened to her. Exactly what it was she wanted. He’d said he bought them in Boston, flew them over and then dropped them off when she was working on Wednesday. Now she understood why he didn’t want to go out by the beach Wednesday when she’d gotten home. He wanted to sit on the patio and relax.
Where they’d sat, she couldn’t see the pavers piled against the house.
Then Thursday and Friday she’d gotten home after dark and they just got ready for bed together. Saturday morning before she went to work was the first chance she’d get to see it. He’d pulled her out there before he left and she found herself crying and him panicking.
She wasn’t someone who cried often and least of all when she was happy.
But the fact he did this for her because he listened and remembered was more than anyone else ever had before.
He even found the exact stone she’d pointed out on TV one day when they were watching some show. If that didn’t tell her how much Lincoln loved her, she didn’t know what did.
And forget about her trying to pay him for the materials. He’d cut her off before she had a chance and she dropped it.
He wanted nothing from her but her love. She actually believed it.
He’d even told her about the conversation with Roxy and she realized if she’d felt any jealousy, it was gone. He’d admitted what Rob had told him and he explained he’d never felt that way and was sorry she might have, but he wanted Grace to know there was nothing to be worried about.
Did she think about the fact that she knew he’d been burned? Yeah, she had, but it was in his past and nothing for her to be concerned about. At least he’d told her that enough and she was starting to believe it. And him. Why wouldn’t he be honest if it was more?
“There isn’t anything to be embarrassed about,” he said.
“I guess you’re right. I’ve been more worried about this than anything. I feel as if I’ve hidden enough on this island and who I was and now it’s going to be that thirty seconds of fame.”
“More than thirty seconds,” he said. “Remember, you’re on every episode.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said.
They walked into her parents’ house and to the back where everyone was gathered in the family room. “I didn’t know there’d be so many people here.”
Jack came running to her. “Do you have cookies?”
“No, buddy. I didn’t cook anything. Aunt Melanie is doing all the cooking. I had to tell Lincoln not to compare or judge. It won’t be as good as mine.”
“Thanks,” her mother said. “I taught you how to make your first chocolate chip cookie.”
“And I’ve only improved since,” she said. “Really, is there a reason everyone is here?”
“Moral support,” Kayla said.
“We knew you were nervous about this,” Hunter said. “I appreciate you doing it.”
“I don’t think I had much of a choice,” she said dryly. Her eyes shifted to her grandfather. “Just like Lincoln didn’t about going with me.”
