The smile dropped from her face, and she pinched his arm. “Ouch.”
“You said no one knew but your brothers and then your parents.”
Lincoln laughed even harder. “I told you he’s like a brother and Griffin knows. But Lincoln isn’t talking aboutthat, right?”
“Nope,” Lincoln said. “That’s your guilt coming out, but I get it. I meant how happy he is to have an assistant. Boy, he was whining for a solid month when he found out Blair was leaving.”
“Oh.”
“See,” he said, pulling her close and giving her a kiss on the forehead. “You’re the one that is going to give it away, not me.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Don’t be. This is Nora’s virgin flight. She’s a little nervous. I said you’d distract her and take it easy.”
“I’m your man,” Lincoln said. “Climb in. We’ll get the headsets on. If we had Egan’s baby we wouldn’t need them, but only he gets the joy of that one.”
“You get Betty now and again,” he said of his brother’s favorite aircraft. “When he isn’t using it.”
“This one is mine now,” Lincoln said. “I only get Betty when things are tight and Egan is off. Your brother has us running nonstop now and I love it. Makes the time go by faster.”
He helped Nora up, buckled in the back when normally he’d ride in the front, then put the headsets on while Lincoln talked her through everything.
By the time they landed, she was laughing, her shoulders not as tense and the lightness in her eyes visible for all to see.
“Thanks,” he said, waving to Lincoln, then moving out of the way while other people came out from inside. The island charter getting ready to take off.
“Is someone picking us up?” she asked. “Or is there an Uber?”
“My parents left their car and they will bring us back later for them to keep it.”
They climbed in and he drove the fifteen minutes to his parents’ home. Only a few miles away on the water.
“Holy cow. I’m not sure what I thought this house would look like but not that.”
He laughed and looked at the massive colonial. It didn’t look like a normal one to him. Not with the additions on each side that jutted out making it look more like a U shape now.
“It wasn’t always this big. It started square, but when my parents bought it they had an addition put on one side, the garages under, then their primary suite over it. When I was about eight, they put the other addition on for us boys to give us separation. There is another primary on the first floor that they are in now, but upstairs turned into our area away from everyone else.”
“I’m not used to this. Not that my father is hurting by any means, but places in Boston aren’t like this. How big is their Boston home?”
He got out of the car after he pulled into the garage, then smirked. “Bigger. Victorian on the outside and most of the inside but modern at the same time.”
She inhaled and then exhaled, then did it again. She was still sitting there.
Maybe he should have warned her, but didn’t think he needed to.
He opened the passenger door and put his hand out. She grabbed it and he pulled her up and into his arms, just holding her, his hand rubbing her back.
“I’m being a baby and I know it. You’re probably thinking where the heck did that confident woman go?”
He was, but he got it. “She’s in there and needs a moment to reset herself. This is new to you. I know. It’s complicated on top of it.” The garage door quietly opened and he shook his head over her to his mother, hoping she knew to give them a minute.
“I’ll be fine. Just your hug was enough.” She stepped out and shook her arms, put a smile on her face and said, “Okay. I’m good. I’m being silly.”
“You are, but I get it. Meeting the parents for the first time is hard. You’ve done it before, haven’t you?”
They never really talked too much about her past relationships because bringing hers up meant he’d have to share his too.
