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He blows out a breath and stands from the stool. He leans on the counter like we both are, too. “I should rephrase that. There was never anybody I wanted to get involved with because the heart that was broken twenty years ago remained shattered until I shared a hotel room with Jolene Bailey this past weekend.” His eyes move to mine, and they’re all hot and sexy like they get when he’s propositioning me—a look I memorized in a hotel room in Ohio over the weekend.
“Right, then. Listen, I need to run to the, uh…I have an Amazon return to drop off. I’ll be back in, oh, a half hour?”
“Forty-five minutes,” Lincoln says, his eyes never leaving mine.
“You got it, boyfriend.”
He cuts his gaze from mine as his head whips over to Sam. He wrinkles his nose. “None of that boyfriend-girlfriend shit. We’re seeing each other. In the press, you will be Samantha. I will be Lincoln.”
She holds up both hands a little defensively. “Fine, fine. You got it, Coach. You two kids have fun, and use protection. This place ain’t big enough for another kid. Bye!” She waves as she heads out the door, leaving Lincoln and me alone in her kitchen.
“Another kid?” he echoes.
I smile tightly. “She’s just being silly.”
“Do you want more kids?” he asks.
“I figured this would be a quick romp, not a serious chat, Linc.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
I shrug. “You’re right. I didn’t. I don’t know if I do. I don’t know if I don’t, either. Do you?”
He glances away from me out the window. “I’m not sure, either.”
“Maybe that’s why we’re right together.”
He shrugs and turns to look out the window fully rather than looking at me with his next words. “Or maybe it’s why we’re all wrong. I don’t know, Jo. What are we doing here?”
I move in beside him. We’re staring at the backyard that’s virtually empty. It’s rock and some bushes, a little patch of grass, and plenty of room for the kids to run around—except no equipment for them to play on. No swing set, no trampoline, no slide. Sam always says someday. Maybe someday is now.
I’m not sure why my mind wanders there as I contemplate how to answer Lincoln.
“I don’t know. I think that’s what we’re both trying to figure out.” My voice is soft when the answer finally comes.
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “I guess you’re right. I just…I’m not used to hiding and lying. I’m not used to these feelings.” He reaches over and slings an arm around my shoulders. “I’m not used to having you back in my life, and I don’t know how to navigate any of it with all the other changes in my life right now. I’m thirty-six. I should have my shit together by now.”
I lean into him, resting my head on his shoulder, and I blow out a sigh. “I don’t know that there’s ever an age where you feel like you have your shit together. We all sort of just…fumble our way through life and hope we’re good people doing the right thing, you know? Sometimes I think that’s what life is all about.”
He leans down to press a kiss to my temple. “You were always so smart, Jo. So much smarter than me.”
I laugh a little as I straighten. “I don’t know about that. We all have our strengths.”
He pulls me into a hug and lowers his lips to mine. We share a sweet kiss here in the kitchen, and whether or not it leads to more remains to be seen.
Whether it does or not, though, this feels like a breakthrough.
I can only hope there are many more of those to come.
CHAPTER 25: LINCOLN
I close the divider between the driver and the two of us in the backseat of the limousine. “Are you ready for this?” I ask.
Sam grins. “You know, when I was little, I wanted to be an actress. I feel like I was born to play this part.”
“And what part is that, exactly?”
“The girlfriend—” she changes her word at my glare, “—uh, the person an NFL bachelor coach is sleeping with. Er, seeing.”
