Chasing Secrets

Lincoln
I was just there to do my job and then he arrived, and I knew in my gut everything was about to change. Everything…
For former soldier turned nurse practitioner Lincoln Arden, Pelican Bay was supposed to be just another dot on a map, and the crotchety old man he’d been hired to assist in his physical rehabilitation was supposed to be just another patient whose body was slowly giving in to the harsh reality of time.

It was just another job… one in a long list of many. One that lasted only long enough that Lincoln could do what he needed to do and then keep moving. Always moving.

But nothing about the live-in job was like all the others. Not the chaotic group of men who’d made themselves into a family, not the charming old farmhouse that sat in the middle of nowhere, and most certainly not the endless acres of trees, streams, and every other one of Mother Nature’s miracles that reminded him of the beauty of life after being witness to so much death.

He'd done it, though. He’d remained on the outskirts of that family despite the warm welcome they’d offered him from day one, and he hadn’t let his surroundings make him forget that it would be time to move on soon enough.

But then he arrived…

Theo
Returning to Pelican Bay and the past that came with it was the last thing I wanted to do, but “visiting” my former best friend would give me the time I needed to figure out where to disappear to next...

Even though Theo Lancaster had only lived a few towns over from Pelican Bay, returning to the hometown of his one-time best friend in northern Minnesota was like walking through a doorway to the past and the exact moment his life had changed forever.

Simply put, the small, picture-perfect town was the last place he wanted to be, but with no home, no friends or family to lean on, and no money, his choices had been pretty limited. Fortunately, the past that haunted his dreams night after night had prepared him for the moment by turning him into something he’d never thought he would be.

A liar.
A fake.
A fraud.
A man who knew what mask to wear and what words to say to keep the truth at bay.

Hiding his scars, both the ones covering his body and the ones ripping his soul to shreds with each day that passed, was easy. Telling everyone he was okay spilled from his lips as effortlessly as the fake smile that he’d been perfecting for years. Lying about what had happened to him after that fateful day—when the truth about who he really was had been discovered—had been so well rehearsed that sometimes he even managed to fool himself into believing it had all been a terrible dream.

It had been a good plan. Hide out for a few days, come up with a plan of what to do next, and disappear before anyone figured out the truth.

But nowhere in his plans had he even given thought to meeting a gorgeous-as-hell nurse who saw past his lies with ease. A man who knew Theo wasn’t okay and was intent on healing as many of Theo’s scars as he could, both inside and out. A man who wanted the same thing for Theo that he needed for himself.

To stop running.