AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you need?” He sounded panicked, and I hated I’d caused that.
I struggled to my feet. “I’ll just go get some water.”
He held my elbows to steady me. “I’ll do that. Let’s get you back in bed.”
“I need to brush my teeth.”
“Of course. I’ll get you that water now.”
Once I was done, my beautiful rescuer was standing before me, ready to guide me toward the bedroom. But when I saw the bed and my phone, my stomach roiled all over again.
I stopped and squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m not using you,” I whispered before I could think about the words.
“Look at me.” He held my arms.
I didn’t want to open my eyes. Didn’t want to face him or that stupid phone.
“Look at me,” he repeated the longer I stood in the darkness. Finally, I did, and I wanted to close them all over again. “That thought has never once occurred to me.”
My eyes stung with the kindness of his words. I didn’t want to cry. I just wanted to sleep, then wake up and everything be a horrible nightmare. Except being with Lincoln.
“What’s brought this on? Did I say something to indicate I felt that way?” He searched my face, almost in desperation.
I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t want him to know the filth from which I’d come, but he deserved the truth. I just hoped he wouldn’t see me differently, despite his proclamation of moments before.
“I listened to my messages. Some of them anyway.” Enough of them.
His features shifted into hard granite. “What did he say to you?”
“That he saw the fancy apartment I’m living in now. And that I’m just like my mother. Maybe better,” I whispered. A wave of nausea rolled through me. My father’s callousness hadn’t lost its potency. Not one ounce.
Lincoln’s jaw tightened. There was anger and then there was this. Something beyond mad that I’d felt before but never seen.
He didn’t say anything. If it were anyone else, I’d be concerned. While he’d become more talkative, I still wouldn’t call him a chatterbox.
And then I let out a choked laugh as a tear rolled down my cheek. “Thank you.”
Some of the anger evaporated into confusion. “For what?”
“Not being a chatterbox.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and clung to him.
He stroked my hair. “I’m trying, but I really don’t understand, Lexie.”
I inhaled, letting his calming scent infuse me. “You only speak when it’s important. And somehow thinking of you not being a chatterbox made me laugh when I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
He lifted my chin. “We can walk through fire and come out on the other side laughing.”
My cheeks loosened even more. “If you do this”—I arranged his mouth into a flat line—“that will be your version of laughing.”
He tried to scowl but failed. His jaw was slack, though his hold on me was still tight. “You’re making me a better person.”
A minute ago I’d been devastatingly upset. Lincoln had turned that around without meaning to.
“I don’t want to change you. I’m a grumpy pants a lot too.”
“When you’re hungry,” he defended.
“True.” I patted his back. “I mean it. We can all be better people, but I love you just as you are.”
