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I eyed the text warily.
Hi?
Unknown: How is Lincoln doing?
I frowned, confused, because they’d just seen each other at practice last night.
He’s out for a run…as far as I know, he’s okay. Why?
Unknown: It's his brother's birthday today. I just wanted to make sure he was alright.
My phone slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor as my mind raced, wondering if he’d been off this morning. Had he seemed more needy than usual? He’d kept me in our bed for hours as he worshiped my body. There were marks all over my skin from his mouth and his hands.
And hehadbeen quieter than he normally was.
He hadn’t called me “good girl” once.
I jumped up from the couch and paced, wondering what I should do…what I could possibly say. Would it be like his brother’s birthday? Was he even out running? Or was he at the cemetery torturing himself?
I was about to go out and try to find him when I heard the elevator doors ding. I ran out into the hallway, almost forgetting everything with the sight of him standing in the entrance, shirtless, his muscles glistening with sweat, his tank top tucked into the back of his basketball shorts.
I bet there were women passed out all over the streets from catching sight of him this morning.
He was beautiful. The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. His hair had gotten longer since we met, something to do with a superstition he had that you couldn’t cut your hair during a winning streak—and it had been awhile since they lost.
The longer hair looked good on him. Perfect, really. If there ever was male perfection, it was Lincoln Daniels.
He smirked at me, clearly reading my dirty thoughts, as those golden eyes of his lazily drifted down my body.
After a second, though, his grin fell, and a blank, distant expression took over his features.
“Hi,” I murmured sadly.
He flinched at my tone, staring down at the ground for a long moment before finally glancing at me. “Who told you?” he asked despondently, eyeing me warily as I came up and wrapped myself around him, ignoring the sweat peppering his skin.
“Ari texted me.”
He snorted out a humorous laugh. “Of course, he did. How did that fucker even get your phone number?”
I cracked a grin. “He stole it from your phone, apparently.”
He shook his head, cursing Ari out under his breath.
“How—are you feeling?” I asked tentatively, immediately cursing myself for the stupid question.
“Better than I usually do,” he admitted, biting down on his plush lower lip. “Which only makes me feel fucking guiltier.”
I hesitated for a moment. “Can you tell me more about him? Some happy memories?”
He cocked his head, staring at me pensively, before he grabbed my hand and led me back into the living room. Lincoln flopped onto the couch, pulling me onto his lap, his favorite place for me.
"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. He huffed. “There are so many to choose from.” He thought for a minute. “There was this one time when we decided to go camping, and my brother and I decided to catch a fish for dinner. The problem was…neither of us knew anything about fishing or camping. We were the sons of a billionaire who hated the outdoors. We spent the entire day out there by the lake, but we didn't catch a single thing. We were about to give up when Tyler decided to try one last time. He cast his line out, but it got caught on something, and when he tugged on the line, he ended up falling in the water. And of course, because my brother was golden-touched, a huge fish ended up swimming past right then, and he managed to catch it by smacking it with a rock. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He snickered. “We got back to our attempt at a makeshift campsite though…and remembered neither of us knew how to make a fire. So eventually, we just ended up ordering pizza like the spoiled rich kids that we were.”
I giggled and a ghost of a grin slid across his face.
I smiled, feeling the warmth of Lincoln's memory. "I love that," I said.
"Me too," Lincoln replied. "Tyler had a way of making even the smallest moments feel fucking fun. He had this ridiculous laugh that would light up the room, and he always knew how to make people feel special."
