“When are you going to tell me about last night?”

I shut my biology book and look at Abby. We’ve been at the library for six hours, and my brain is fried. “Is it possible to study too much for a test?”

“Yes. Nice deflection.”

“I’m not deflecting,” I say, looking around. The place is empty, but still, you never know if someone’s lurking in the stacks. “We’re in a library.”

Abby leans in close and lowers her voice. “We were in a bar full of people last night, and that didn’t stop you from practically humping Lincoln on a mechanical bull.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re being dramatic. I didn’t practically hump him.”

“Uh, yeah, ya did. We all saw it. And the way he hauled you out of the bar afterward…” Abby’s words trail off, and she fans her face. “Hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“It was pretty hot, wasn’t it?”

She nods, and I smile.

“I take it things are going well between you two?”

“They are,” I say, hoping I’m not jinxing anything. “We haven’t told my family, but the opportunity hasn’t exactly presented itself.”

“You need to tell them. Rhett and Lincoln are good friends. If Rhett finds out from someone else, he’s going to be pissed. He needs to hear it from you.”

“I know. I was thinking maybe Lincoln and I would go to their next family dinner together and tell everyone.”

“That’s a solid plan. What about his family? Do they know?”

I nod and pull a bottle of water from my bag. “His sister, Chloe, knows. I finally met her. But I don’t know about his dad. He doesn’t talk about him much.”

Frowning, I pick at the label on the water bottle. “He’s so sweet and attentive, but there’s a part of himself he still keeps hidden.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he doesn’t talk about his childhood or his parents, and I’m not allowed to go to The Barn and visit him.”

“Why not?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. When we first started seeing each other, I asked if I could go with him to work one day to see where he spends so much time and meet Roy, but he blew me off. He says it’s not a place for women or some shit.” I wave my hand dismissively. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal. He’s your boyfriend. You deserve to know where he works and who he’s hanging out with.”

“You think?”

“Yes.” She nods and grabs the water bottle so I’ll stop picking at it. “Maybe it was just because you two were fuck buddies. Maybe he didn’t want to introduce you to everyone because he wasn’t sure how long you were going to be around.”

“But we’re not fuck buddies anymore.”

“Exactly. Which means The Barn should be fair game.” Abby looks at her watch. “You should grab dinner and take it to him.”

“I don’t know,” I say, wondering how he would feel about that.

Abby and I usually study until eight or nine o’clock, and it’s only seven. Lincoln told me he was going to stay at The Barn late since I wouldn’t be home. If I know him, he hasn’t eaten.

She tucks her books into her bag, and I do the same. “Your call. We still on for tomorrow?”

“I’ll be here. Same place, same time.”

Abby swings her bag over her shoulder, and I follow her out. She stops before she gets to her car.

“I’ve never been in a relationship, so I can’t pretend to know how they work or what you should do, but I do know that communication is key. If he’s holding back and it’s bothering you, you should talk to him. He can’t fix it if he doesn’t know it’s broken.”

“What if he knows it’s broken but keeps ignoring it because he doesn’t want to put the time into it?”

Abby shrugs. “I guess that’s a possibility. But there’s only one way to find out.”

I watch Abby get in her car and pull away before I pop my trunk and dump my bag in. Once I’m settled in the front seat, I pull up Lincoln’s number and hit call.

The phone rings several times before going to voicemail, and I hang up without leaving a message. Mind made up, I drive across town to a diner and pick up several different types of sandwiches, fries, onion rings, and a dozen chocolate chip cookies.

If Lincoln hasn’t eaten, I’ll bet just about anything that the other guys in the gym haven’t eaten. And Mom always says the way to a man’s heart is food. I guess we’re about to find out if that’s true.

I pull up The Barn’s address on my phone and plug it into my GPS. Traffic is a little thick through town, and what should’ve been a fifteen-minute drive ends up taking closer to thirty. I eventually have to roll my windows down because the smell of onions is overwhelming.

My stomach knots at the strong odor, but feels better by the time I make it to The Barn.

This can’t be the right place.

I glance at my GPS again, double-check the address, and look around.

When Lincoln told me The Barn was worn down, he wasn’t kidding. The paint is chipped, the sidewalk worn, and there’s nothing more than a cracked flower pot and overgrown bushes out front. There’s no sign. No house number. No lighting. If there weren’t a slew of cars in the parking lot, I’d swear this place was abandoned.

With a gentle tug, I pull my keys out of the ignition, stuff them in my purse, and grab the food bags. When I turn around, I run into a hard chest and gasp.

Two warm hands reach out to steady me. The sun is setting, and it’s nearly dark, but I’m able to recognize the guy as one of Lincoln’s friends I met the night he and I first hooked up. I think his name is Deacon.

“Adley, right?” he asks, eyeing up the bags of food. “I’m Deacon. We met at The Broken Boot several months ago.”

“I remember,” I say, adjusting the bags in my arms when one tries to slip free.

“Here, let me help.” Deacon takes a few bags from my hands and nods toward the front door.

“You here to see Linc?”

“I am. I figured I’d bring him some dinner. Here, let me,” I say, stepping around him to get the front door.

A bell chimes when we walk in, but its sound is swallowed by the beat of music. People are milling about everywhere, and I don’t know a single one. Except for Deacon, of course.

Lincoln has kept me at arm’s length, but I didn’t realize until now exactly what that meant. This is the other half of his life. These are his co-workers, his family, his friends—the people he’s with when he isn’t with me. This is a huge part of his life that I am clearly not a part of.

“All this is for Lincoln?” he asks.

“Not all of it. I brought enough to feed a few extra people.”

Deacon looks at the bags in his hands and laughs. “You brought enough to feed a small army. The guys are going to love you. Hell, I love you. Why don’t I take all of this into the office for everyone while you go find Linc?”

“Okay.”

He starts to walk away, and I stop him when I notice I have the wrong bag in my hand.

“Wait.”

I shuffle the various bags until I find the one with an X. I had the guy at the diner mark it so I’d know which bag was for us and which ones are for the guys.

I swap bags with Deacon, and he disappears through a side door before I have a chance to ask him where Lincoln is.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

I look up and up into the glossy eyes of a stranger. He sways to the left, catching himself on the wall before toppling over, and I hold my purse and the food tight to my chest.

“I’m looking for Lincoln Bennett.”

He scrunches his nose up. “Why?”

“Because he’s my boyfriend,” I say, squaring my shoulders.

The stranger smiles, revealing two rows of bright white teeth. “Is that so?”

What is he getting at? I nod.

“Does Rose know that?”

“Rose?”

“Rose.” He repeats her name and turns around, pointing across the room. After a few seconds he says, “Well, she was just there a second ago.”

“Who was there a second ago?”

“Rose and Lincoln.” The guy scans the crowd, and he shrugs. “Not sure. They were there a second ago. Maybe they slipped into the locker room.”

Why on Earth would he slip into a locker room with another woman?

“Can you point me in the direction you think they might be?” I ask, trying my hardest to keep my voice calm and even.

“See that black door in the back? Go through there and hang a left.”

“Thank you.” I take a step and turn around. “What did you say your name was.”

He smiles. “I didn’t.”