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“I remember your home life wasn’t great when we were growing up. Seems like you made the right choice, not being in touch with them anymore. I did think you seemed… I don’t know. Calmer? More self-assured. More like you were making choices you feel good about.”
Nova slipped her hand away after giving him a gentle squeeze and took another bite of her sandwich. He wasn’t used to talking about his parents, and honestly, it didn’t come up much. He supposed he could’ve been embarrassed that she knew about his family, but she just seemed curious. And like she liked him more now, which puffed up his chest.
“Oh, for sure. I think part of that is not being a seventeen-year-old punk who didn’t give two shits about anything, but part of it is being away from them. It’s nice to be in control of your own environment and choose what kind of people you want to be around. There was a lot of yelling and… well, other stuff in my life back then.”
He didn’t like to think about getting punched and kicked and having things thrown at him, and he didn’t feel the need to go into that much detail. Especially since Nova already seemed to know, and that was enough for him to feel seen. Besides, he didn’t think it had been the physical violence that had done the most damage. That had been easy to heal from; the mental shit took a lot longer, and he was probably still going through some of that.
But spending time with Owen, and now with those other guys like Taj and Gav and Knox and ’Pollo and them, that helped too.
“It’s real nice to finally be in with people who pay attention to when you get stuff right. It’s nice to feel appreciated and to feel like it makes a difference whether you fuck around or not.”
The smile he got in response said Nova was glad he’d found those things too.
Chapter 13
They talked a bit more, but Nova couldn’t move on from this compound that Linc had made his home. And while it was kind of a non sequitur, she didn’t think he could blame her for being curious. Or be too suspicious about her motivation for wanting to know more.
“So, this kink-capades on ice where you live—”
“Enclave.”
“Beg your pardon?” she asked, stealing one of his fries and giving him a cheeky smile after shoving it in her mouth.
“Enclave. That’s what the island is called.”
“You’re kidding me. A little on the nose, isn’t it?”
Linc shrugged and dragged another couple of fries through the lake of ketchup he’d poured on his plate next to where his burger used to be. “Yeah, maybe. But they’ve got a lot of those kinds of names in Alaska. Plus some just fucking weird ones. The boss has a piece of property in a place called Edgar’s Pants.”
“Nice,” Nova said before covering her snicker with a hand over her mouth.
“Right? It’s a never-ending source of jokes.”
“You said boss. But it sounded like you never really had one of those.”
“Oh, yeah. Taj isn’t really my boss. He’s more like the big boss, he kinda oversees the island. Someone’s gotta keep track of all the projects we’ve got going on at any given time. And a bunch of the guys are on his actual payroll. He operates a private security company when he’s not bucking up firewood or out on the fishing boat.”
Now that was some multitasking. This Enclave sounded like a wild place with some even wilder residents.
“So is the future Mrs. Lincoln Donall expected to be all outdoorsy, like a pioneer woman or something? Because I’ve gotta tell you, that’s going to make marrying you a harder sell.”
“And my ugly mug already makes it pretty hard, I know.” Linc grinned at her and Nova rolled her eyes. He knew he was good-looking, she didn’t need to inflate his ego about that any more. “Tell you the truth, I feel like as long as she has any kind of skill or willingness to learn something that could contribute to the community at all, that’s good enough. It’d be great if she knew how to tan hides or fix snogoes or was a crack shot, but we’ve all lived in the real world long enough to know most people don’t have those kinda skills.”
Yeah, Nova certainly didn’t. She’d been in Girl Scouts for a hot minute and the only things she remembered from those long ago camping trips were to put your food somewhere bears couldn’t get it, and to rub dish soap over pots you were putting over an open flame so the soot would wipe right off. Sounded like these guys probably had those things covered.
“But we’ve got a pilot, a nurse, my buddy’s girl wants a farm so we built her a chicken coop and a run, and she talked him into getting a donkey. She’ll probably get more animals come spring. Some people cook, some people rig up wind turbines and solar panels.”
“Yeah, but that all sounds useful in the bush. Not like…”
Nova grimaced and wrinkled her nose.Me.
“A cybersecurity expert? Are you kidding me? Taj would probably do a jig if I brought you home. Which would be fucking hilarious, because the guy’s enormous and strong enough to bench-press a pickup truck. So please do.”
Their eyes met over the table for a second, and Nova’s heart felt like it might go flying out of her chest. Were they talking about this for real?
“Actually, come to think of it, we’ve kind of got our own version of Nanny J. Except his name is Gavin, he’s built like a cross between a Mack truck and a teddy bear, and he’s former Navy.”
“I… am not sure how that’s anything like Nanny J,” she said slowly and on the verge of laughter.
