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“Take a message.”
“He said if you don’t take his call, he’s coming to see you,” she tells me.
“Bastard,” I mumble under my breath. “Fine. Thank you, Cheryl.” She nods and closes the door. I glare at my phone. I’ve been avoiding my best friend all week. We got back into town late Sunday night, and I didn’t have the energy to deal with him. As the week has progressed, so has my anger. What he did to Audrey was a dick move. If he wasn’t happy, he would have known before the day of their wedding. Why play games, telling her, fuck, telling all of us that he was on the road when he wasn’t?
With a heavy sigh, I pick up the phone, hit the button for line three, and place the receiver next to my ear. “Asshole,” I greet him.
He chuckles. “I deserve that.”
“What the fuck, Linc? What happened?” I’m not hiding my irritation.
“Look, I know it was a shitty way to handle it. I’m sorry that I bailed and left you guys to handle my mess. Fuck, man, I didn’t know what else to do. It just sort of hit me that Audrey and I getting married wasn’t right, and it tore me up inside. I’m not used to feeling that way. Every day I work with people, and I can schmooze with the best of them, but this was Audrey, Spence.” He pauses, but I remain quiet, letting him collect his thoughts. “I don’t know, man. I care about her.”
“You care about her? Linc, fuck, you left her on the day you were supposed to pledge to love her forever, and you care about her?”
“I love her, but it isn’t the kind of love that she deserves. I realized that too late, out of the blue, and I panicked. I’m married to my job. That’s who I am. She deserves someone who loves her before all else.”
“Oh, so you did it for her, right? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Believe it or not, yes. That doesn’t excuse the way that I dealt with the situation, but I just… I shut down. It hit me out of nowhere, but then again, not really. It’s been something I’ve thought about a lot the last few months.”
“So you could have talked to her about this before we all drove to fucking Florida with your fiancée for your wedding that you failed to show up for. That’s bullshit, Linc.”
“I know. It sounds like a cop-out, but it’s the truth. When Audrey came home Sunday night, I was there, and I knew, just by looking into her eyes, that I’d made the right decision. She agrees. Yes, I could have gone about it better. I should have mentioned my concerns to her, and I’m confident we would have had the same outcome. She agrees, but she’s still processing everything. She’s an amazing woman, but this life, married to a man who is married to his work, isn’t what she wants.”
“How kind of you to figure that out for her.”
“Look, I know you’re pissed. You’re not the only one, but I did what I had to do. The timing was shit, but I didn’t do it to be an asshole. I really do care about her, but she deserves more.”
“Yeah,” I agree. I don’t really know what to say. It’s his life, and he needs to make the choices that are best for him, but seeing the hurt in her eyes, witnessing the pain, and the heartbreak, it ripped a hole in my chest.
“I don’t expect you to understand, and no offense, but it doesn’t matter if you do. Audrey is the only one who needs to understand my reasoning behind why I did what I did.”
“Not your best friend, or your best man, or your brother, or your friends, or your parents, or her sister, and her friends. We were all affected by this decision, Lincoln. You’re going to have to give us some time to accept this new reality.”
“I know that. You all also need to understand that this is my life. My future, and my choice. I never wanted to hurt her, and I do love her, just not the way she deserves to be loved.”
I expel a heavy breath, close my eyes, and lean back in my chair. “It was fucking tough, man. Walking into that room and seeing the emotions play across her face. Next fucking time you ask someone to marry you, make sure it’s what you want. I’m not doing this shit again.”
He laughs softly, and I can feel some of my anger subside. Lincoln is a good guy, and even though I hate how he handled it, it sounds like it was a very difficult, mature decision, even if he waited too long to make it. “Deal. Now, I’ve been trying to call you all week. I have a favor to ask.”
“What’s up?”
“Audrey and I talked, and she’s staying at the condo while she packs up her things. I’ve been staying at a hotel. You think I could crash with you for a few days until she’s all moved out?”
“Sure. Where is she moving to?”
“With Charlotte.”
At the sound of her name, my time with her this weekend comes rushing back. I want to tell Lincoln, and before I would have, but there’s something about knowing that I tasted her lips, even with her ridiculous rating, I want to keep for just me. For us.
“Yeah, you know the code to get in the door,” I tell him. I hate bulky keys in my pocket. The first thing I did when I bought my house was install keyless entry door handles. Best investment I’ve ever made.
“Thanks, man. I checked out of the hotel this morning. If you didn’t answer, I was going to brave staying at my parents’ place.”
“What about Liam?” I ask.
“He’s… pissed.”
