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But I’d be damned if I let him know that.
“Fine.” I popped my eyes open. He was too close. Too masculine. Too much of all the confidence I wished I could exude. His wasn’t manufactured. It was real. Like an anchor.
The way he scrutinized me was unnerving. If I only had his face to go by, I’d never be able to read what was going on in his head. His touch was the only indication.
He gave me a moment to compose myself without words. I appreciated that on some level he knew I didn’t want to talk.
Slowly the sounds of the city began to infiltrate my brain once again. A distant car horn. The squeal of brakes. The roar of a passing bus engine.
Beau’s nearby voice was a reminder of where we were.
I waved in their direction. “We should—”
“Why did you—”
“Hey, sis. Pepper is getting married, and she said I can be in the wedding.” Eric raced over to us, thankfully shattering the awkward moment.
“That’s great,” I said. Pepper’s getting married? When had that happened?
Gratitude filled me for her kindness to my brother. A wedding was a big day. And that she would include Eric meant so much.
“I get to pick the bow tie color,” he said excitedly.
“Oh yeah?” I shimmied away from Lincoln, finally able to take a full breath now that I was out of his space. “What are you thinking?” I linked arms with Eric, and we walked back toward our friends.
“Midnight blue.”
“Oh, nice.”
“What about red for love?”
Eric understood feelings and emotions in a way that most people didn’t. I’d never been able to accurately put my finger on exactly what it was that made him see things differently, but he was so in tune with how people felt it always amazed me.
“We’ll ask Pepper what she thinks.”
“Okay,” he agreed easily.
“Teague would like the blue.” There was that voice again, low and rumbly.
Eric wheeled around. “I knew he’d like that!” He lifted his hand for a high five.
Lincoln looked at it like he was unsure what to do. Eric met him more than halfway and smacked his hand after he slowly raised it.
“Hey, we could wear a vest like yours.” Eric looked thoughtful. “You can wear a bow tie and a vest, right?”
“You can wear whatever you want.”
I gaped at Lincoln. This man dressed better than any I’d ever seen. Every stitch of clothing he wore was meticulously planned. Nothing about him said he believed people could wear anything they wanted.
While I did believe that what people chose to wear was their business, I hated that Lincoln and I had something in common.
We both dressed for success.
At least I wasn’t stuffy about it.
Although he was devastating.
I didn’t like that he constantly caught me off guard. Not just today. He was abrupt to the point of being rude. But somehow it didn’t always seem to come from a negative place. He was concretely in control of every situation, while I felt like a fake pretending to hold it all together.
