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Dad: We have managers for that, Linc. Calm your pants.
Me: But I’m home in a few weeks.
Dad: I know, but we can spend some time together, catch up properly; otherwise, you’ll come straight home, dive into work, and we won't get the chance to hear all of your stories from your travels.
Me: I can’t wait to see you.
Dad: Me too. We’re staying at the same hotel as you. We have the presidential suite, so we’ll all be together. Can you imagine six adults and seven kids under the same roof? It’s giving me a headache just thinking about it.
Me: You love it, really.
Dad: I do.
Me: I’m setting a countdown for your arrival on my phone.
Dad: Already done mine. :) Twenty-eight days.
Me: Can’t wait.
It’s the one text that I needed the most following my conversation about my mom with Violet. I’m pretty sure my father and I are connected in some sort of supersonic telepathic way because he always seems to know what I need even when I don’t.
I can’t wait for them to meet Violet.
My sadness lifts quickly when I realize I don’t need to find my mom. I have everything already.
My dad and his crazy new family he married into. My brothers and sister.
And now Violet.
But I wish we had longer together.
If my family arrives in twenty-eight days, that means I only have forty-two days left with Violet.
A pang of discomfort shocks my chest. I lift my hand up to it and rub the skin over my heart.
Maybe a shower will help to wash away my heaviness.
CHAPTER 16
Lincoln
I am just out of the shower.
“Are you working?” I lean against the office door on the second floor of Violet’s house.
She lifts her head from her laptop screen and scrunches her nose up at me. She looks cute, but flustered. Her hair is tied up in a messy bun on top of her head, tendrils spilling from it haphazardly, and she’s wearing an oversized pair of luminous lilac thick-rimmed glasses.
“You wear glasses?” I’m surprised.
She pushes them up on top of her head and rests back against the office chair. “For screen work only.” She presses her fingertips into her eyes. “I thought I would catch up on the four hundred and thirty-two emails that have dropped into my inbox over the weekend. Interestingly, not one from my father to tell me about the house. I’m sure Francesca is pulling my leg.”
“I wouldn’t be able to work if this was the view from my office.” I push my hands into my pockets and walk over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, my bare feet slapping against the white-tiled flooring.
“It’s a little distracting.” Violet catches my eye. “Could you not find a tee shirt to wear, Lincoln?” She bites her lip.
“I was hot and I’m half-dressed.” I point to the navy sweatpants I bought this morning.
She pulls her glasses back down on her face, then uses her pointer finger to slide them up her nose. “You need to go. You are too much of…” Her eyes zone in on my abs. I flex them to tease her. She groans. “Just too much.” She focuses back on her laptop screen. “My morning will be chaotic tomorrow if I don’t do this now. I have contractors to meet first thing. This is the first weekend I haven’t worked in months. Now I know why.” She seems tense. I remember that feeling and have that all to look forward to again on my return to my job.
