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I can hear the enjoyment in Audrey’s voice and fight the twitch of my lips.
My father storms for the door before turning and pointing at me. “This will not stand. Do you hear me, boy?”
“See yourself out, father, I’ll have someone clear your desk for you.”
“This isn’t over.”
He fights to slam the air pressure door and I grin at my cousin then. When the room is filled with a tense silence, I move to take my father’s position. “Thank you for giving up your Sunday for me and for trusting me to lead this company into the future. I won’t let you down.”
The meeting breaks up shortly afterward and I’m surrounded by men and women I’ve known half my life as they offer genuine congratulations.
Honey Blandford, who was my grandfather’s first secretary and valued member of the original board, hugs me. Her weathered hands were the only thing that gave away her eighty-year age.
“Congratulations, Lincoln. Your grandfather would be so proud of you.”
“Thank you, Aunt Honey.” I feel emotion thicken my voice at her words. My grandfather was always the man I looked up to, the man I wanted to be one day, so her words have an impact I wasn’t expecting.
“Now, tell me about this bride of yours?”
“Yes, Lincoln, tell us.”
Audrey punches my arm and frowns, but I can tell she’s pleased for me. Audrey is the only person, apart from my mom, who knows what happened between Lottie and I and why I broke her heart, and she’s kept my secret all this time. I wish she could’ve known Lottie but up until my senior year, Audrey had lived in Italy with my aunt, my mother’s sister, before coming home to the US when my grandmother died.
“I’ve known Lottie since she was six years old and I was nine. She was my first kiss and my first love.”
Honey holds her hand over her chest. “And you found each other again.”
“Yes, we did.”
“Oh, that is so beautiful, but we’re keeping you from her. You must go and spend your day with your new wife. Tell your mother I’ll call her in the week.”
Honey kisses my cheek, and her perfume is like nostalgia in a bottle. “I will.”
Soon it’s just Audrey and I, and I move to the console at the back and find the whiskey I’d hidden there last week.
I hold the bottle to her. “Drink?”
“Hell yes.”
She watches me as I pour, remaining silent until we both have a glass in our hands.
Raising her glass, she toasts. “To putting out the rubbish and to new beginnings.”
“I’ll drink to that.” I sip the smooth Japanese whiskey and let the burn coat my throat.
“Well, you sure surprised a few people today.”
I sit opposite her leaning on the glass table. “Including you?”
“Well, yes and no. I obviously knew her because of Ruin and the auction but I had no idea you still loved her or were going to marry her. I thought it was just an obsession about the past, although I hoped for more when I realized who she was.”
“I don’t love her.” The denial is sharp on my tongue.
Audrey raises her eyebrow. “Really, Lincoln? I know how torn up you were when you split up and I saw that same look in your eyes when your father spoke about her like he did.”
“That doesn’t mean I love her.”
“Of course not, but you do.”
