Page 38 of Dancing With Redemption

19

Roxie

One Year Later

“Michael and Lily are with June, Aunt Katie is going to the movies, and I’m dressed and ready to go. Are you on your way home?” Roxie asked, holding the phone up to her face as she brushed her hair out. It was down to her shoulders now, her real hair, blonde as always without any dye in it at all. It would have been longer, but she’d had it cut not long ago.

There were no signs now of her former injuries, and even her nails were coated in gel polish with a black and gold design on them. A pair of heels pinched at her toes, the only pain she felt in them now. And her waist had recovered from pregnancy, although she was a little thicker now than she had been before Michael’s conception. She didn’t mind, and Lincoln certainly didn’t complain, so she didn’t force herself into an exercise regimen that would melt the pounds away. She just enjoyed being Mom to a new baby and his sister.

“I’m going in the suit I have on, so I’ll just drive up if you don’t mind?” He asked over the phone’s speaker, and Roxie could hear the sounds of traffic. He was driving with the windows down again even though it was winter, silly man. “Oh, hey, could you get my cufflinks out of my jewelry box?”

“Sure, the onyx ones?” She moved over to the box, digging around looking for the cufflinks. A shelf moved inside the box, a tiny velvet shelf that held rings, revealing the edge of a piece of paper. Curious, she moved the shelf more, frowning when she saw the shape of the paper. It looked like one of the love notes she used to exchange with his brother.

“Yeah, those. I have the titanium ones on at the moment, but I like the onyx better. Did you find them?”

“Not yet,” she drew out the last word, her thoughts focused on the letter. She turned it over in her hand and recognized the writing on the fold that tucked underneath another fold. She’d learned to fold the letters into packets online, a skill shared by countless teenagers in previous generations that was probably lost on kids now.

She frowned, despite the urge to smile. What was Lincoln doing with one of her letters to Liam? She pulled the other little shelves and boxes out and found six more letters. He had so many of them. How?

“Lincoln?” She said as a question, more of a warning.

“What babe?” He asked, obviously distracted with driving.

“Nothing, nothing.” She spotted the cufflinks in one of the shelves, grabbed them along with the letters, and put them all in a little handbag she would be taking with her. “Found your cufflinks. Shall I meet you outside?”

“Sure, I’ll be there in five,” he answered, completely clueless to the trouble he was about to come home to.

She had on a long, blue dress that matched her eyes, but she wore a long black coat over it, to protect her from the cold. On her left hand, a diamond gleamed in the moonlight, matching the twinkling from the watch on her wrist. It had been her mother’s watch, a watch she’d given to him to pay for a loan he gave her a lifetime ago. He’d given it back to her just before Michael was born, knowing she’d like to have it.

In the last year, she’d finally reclaimed her old identity, claimed her inheritance, which was nothing to sneeze at, and was now kept in trust for her children, and she’d given birth to their son. She’d also been working on opening a new club with her friends and their husbands. It wasn’t Elmo’s, it was much better.

Tonight was the grand opening, and they were going to be late if he didn’t hurry up and get here. She heard the sound of his car and looked up, a gleam in her eyes. She was going to find out exactly why he had Liam’s letters from her, one way or another.

Because over the last year she’d got her confidence back, along with the independent streak she’d thought was long gone. Lincoln had helped her with that, allowed her to grow into who she was now, encouraged her to reach for her dreams and do what she wanted to do. He was an investor in her club, proving just how much he believed in her. But he had something he shouldn’t have, and she wanted to know why and how.

“Hi babe,” he said as soon as she got in the car.

“Hi, honey, here’s your cufflinks.” She handed them over to him, knowing he’d want to put them on right away. He took off the ones he had and handed them over so she could put them in her bag.

“Thanks, you’re an angel.” He leaned over to kiss her before he put the car in reverse to pull out of the driveway.

“I also found these,” she said, and pulled out the letters. “How did you get these, Lincoln?”

“What? Ohhhh.” He looked at the letters and blanched before he looked at her. Luckily, he hadn’t pulled out just yet. “Those.”

His face was a mask of guilt as his eyes came up to hers, worried.

“Yes, these. They were to your brother. Why do you have them?” She looked at him with a glare, not backing down, but not being hateful. She just wanted answers.

“Well, you see, um.” Lincoln frowned, put the car in park, and turned to face her. “I had to borrow Liam’s biology book one day and found the letter tucked into it. I asked him about it, and he said he wasn’t that interested in you. But, um, I was. Very.”

“Okay. But he wrote me back.” Her left eyebrow lifted, warning that he was in danger. “He wrote me back, right Lincoln?”

“Ummmm.” His cheeks turned red, very red, and his lips pursed until they almost disappeared. “Well, you see, Rox…”

“Yes?” She asked with a snip, starting to see the truth, even if he couldn’t bring himself to say it yet.

“I wrote you back. I decided to write the first one on a whim. Then I planned to tell you, but you seemed so into him and, well, shit.” He paused, running his right hand through his hair, his frown growing deeper. “I wanted you to like me so much, but after a while, I couldn’t figure out how to tell you it was me. I kept watching you watching him, and I felt like such a dick. I just didn’t know how to fix it, and then everything happened.”