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What would it be like to have that with someone? For a small moment in time, I thought I’d caught a glimpse. But Lincoln was done with us. He’d made that clear. And now, I’d probably never know the joy Pepper felt.
“See what I have to live with?” Miss Adeline harrumphed.
“We should move in together,” Beau said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “The single ladies.”
“Can we have banana popsicles now?” Eric asked.
“You got it, mister.” Miss Adeline tugged on his bow tie. “They’re in the freezer down here.”
One by one, we filtered out of the bathroom area. Lincoln hung back, Mr. Stoic on steroids.
“I should’ve driven the van,” I said low so no one else could hear. “That way we could’ve gone straight home.”
He flinched.
“You don’t get to do that,” I said.
“Do what?”
“Have a reaction like what I’ve said hurt you.” I stepped closer. It was a mistake to be in his space. “You chose this. Because youcare.” I spoke the word like it was the nastiest thing I’d ever heard.
Nothing. That was his response. What had I expected? An apology?
Yep, it was final. I couldn’t be around him any longer. It hurt too much. After tonight, I’d have to suck it up at Pepper’s wedding, but that was it.
Lincoln Hollingsworth needed to be scrubbed from my memory.
“I lied to you last night.”
I’d taken two steps away when he opened his mouth. I drew in a deep breath before I turned around, not sure I wanted to face him again.
He was too beautiful. And too far out of reach.
“I don’t care for you,” he said evenly. Of course he didn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t be running away. “I love you.”
I closed my eyes. The words deflected off me instead of soaking in.
“You can’t say stuff like that.”Because your version of love and mine is different.Mine doesn’t let go . . . unless like now, where I was being forced to.
I managed to speak, though how I didn’t know. Thank goodness he hadn’t said he loved me before. Because I would’ve believed him.
Now. I didn’t.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lincoln
I hated this house.
Almost as much as I hated my empty apartment.
Old memories assaulted me. I’d taught Beau to ride a bike down the front walk. Teague and I had tossed a football in the yard until he’d left for college. When was the last time we’d done that?
My mother had blared Cher for all the neighbors to hear while she’d let me drive her Cadillac up and down the driveway. Father had yelled. And she’d laughed at him for being so serious.
After she died, I’d sit in her old car. Father had kept it, which I always found odd yet understood. She’d been murdered by the car, but somehow it was a piece of her goodness. A reminder of how carefree and kind she was.
Lexie reminded me a lot of her. They both lived as if it were their last day. Lexie laughed at my seriousness the way Mother had at my father. And they were both nurturing.
