Chapter Eleven
Josie walked away from the stage, glad that no one in the crowd had the ability to read her mind. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, or why she was suddenly engaged, but she was grateful Lincoln had whisked her away from what would go down in her memory as one of the potentially most embarrassing moments of her life. But she was also upset that her heart had given a funny little lurch when Lincoln had slid across the stage on his knees and held out the ring.
Which was stupid. Lincoln had been her hero, but he was a hero to everyone. Him coming to her rescue wasn’t personal, and she’d be an idiot to read more into it just because she was feeling emotional. It didn’t stop her from wishing, deep down, that their fairy tale romance was real.
Lincoln hadn’t let go of her hand after they’d left the stage and he kept holding on until they walked behind the fortuneteller’s tent, a part played by the elementary school principal in heavy makeup.
“Lucky for me you had an engagement ring. It made the whole thing look planned.”
“Grandma gave one of hers to Mom and insisted that I had to take it for the future.” Lincoln paced back and forth, then sent her a half amused, half frustrated look. “Looks like you and I are getting married.”
Josie laughed and then put her hand over her mouth when tears sprang to her eyes.
“Hey, come on. Don’t cry.”
“Sorry. I just…I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t rushed onto the stage. I was so embarrassed.” Josie wiped at her eyes and forced a smile, determined not to mope about the situation.
“You would have handled it like you always have through all the rough things in your life. You would have found the positive in the negative.”
“Positives in this situation?” Josie said skeptically and arched a brow.
“You just got engaged to the best guy in Morganville. That’s gotta count for something.”
She smiled. “It’s a fake engagement, but you are the best guy in Morganville.” Holding her hand up, she examined the diamond. “It’s a beautiful ring.”
“Only the best for my breakup girl.”
“You realize that every time we’ve planned to break up something has gone wrong, right?”
“Yeah, I have. Wonder where we’ll end up on our honeymoon.”
Josie laughed. “We can still stick to the breakup plan tomorrow. Let’s just tell everyone that we got caught up in the moment.”
“People will speculate even more about us.” Lincoln rubbed a hand across the scruff on his jaw.
Josie was hit with the desire to do the same. To touch his face and let go of the tight hold on her emotions where he was concerned. She felt hot all over, and when she looked into Lincoln’s eyes, a collage of memories involving him raced through her mind. She’d learned over the years through her psychology studies that feelings often developed for one’s rescuer. And Lincoln had been there for her enough times for her to understand that.
“Josie?”
Right. They were talking. She blew out a breath. “Everyone will definitely be curious.”
“I don’t want that to hurt your business.”
“I don’t want that, either, or for our breakup to mess things up for you with the council. We’ll just have to be careful how we handle our breakup.”
Lincoln thought for a second. “Like you said, let’s just say we got caught up in the moment but later realized we weren’t right for each other.”
She felt a twinge at his words, but she knew they were true—they weren’t right for each other. “Perfect.”
“There you two are!” Jean called out as she approached. She had a huge smile on her face and her eyes shone with love and excitement. “I found them, Beverly!”
Lincoln’s mom rushed over with several people following her and pulled Josie into a tight hug. “I’ve always had a feeling about the two of you.”
“I want some pictures.” Jean took out her phone. She held her hands out, then drew them together in a gesture indicating she wanted Lincoln and Josie to stand closer to each other.
Lincoln’s silence was unnerving, but he put an arm around her waist, his hand resting lightly on her hip, and pulled her against the side of his body.
Josie fake smiled for all she was worth, while thoughts of Lincoln’s body touching hers ran circles in her mind.
“Give your girl a kiss,” Jean said as she peeked around her phone and beamed at them.
Lincoln turned Josie to face him, and she wished she had the ability to read his mind. He kissed her softly, briefly, then sighed and gave her a second kiss, the kind that made Josie’s head swim. The kind that seemed like he wanted her. He wrapped his arms around her back, lifting her off her feet.
It was the clapping that brought her down to earth, figuratively and literally. In the middle of congratulations to her, and back slaps and handshakes from some of the men in the crowd for Lincoln, he turned to her and said, “We should head over to the hayride.”
He held his arm out for Josie to slip her hand into the crook of his elbow. As they walked away, she could have sworn she caught a conspiratorial look between his mom and grandmother.
Deciding she was imagining it, Josie said quietly, “Thank you for the save.” He squeezed her hand in response.
Gravel crunched under Lincoln’s shoes as they walked to the area where a handful of wagons filled with small bundles of hay waited. At the side of one of the wagons, Lincoln reached out his hand to help Josie up.
As soon as they were seated, she gently bumped his shoulder and whispered, “You’re frowning. Are you okay?”
Lincoln lowered his voice to keep the other people on the wagon with them from overhearing, “Getting engaged, I felt my life flash before my eyes, but I’m good now.”
Josie laughed even though his words made her feel a little sad for the both of them. “A relationship between us feels right.” Crap, why did I just say that?
The wagon jerked forward and Lincoln automatically put his arm out in front of her. He’d always been as protective of her as he was Casey. He was handsome and sexy with a heart of gold, and she knew that no other man would ever outshine him in her eyes. Which didn’t bode well for her wanting to get married someday.
“A relationship?” He raised his eyebrows in alarm. “A serious one?”
“No, I was teasing.” Liar. Okay, so what if I did imagine once or twice what a relationship with Lincoln would be like?
“Oh. Good.” He stared off into the distance like he was a million miles away.
Josie felt the urge to tell him about her long-ago crush. They’d probably share a laugh and he’d say he was thankful she was over it.
Am I truly over it?
What if she admitted how she’d felt about him, and he pulled away and they went back to that painful coolness between them? She wasn’t sure she could take the risk. Lincoln wasn’t interested in a relationship with anyone, especially not with the fiancée he’d acquired simply because she’d needed rescuing.
…
The hayride was torture. Josie so close, her body warming his side, the memory of her lips teasing him. When it finally ended, Lincoln jumped off the second the wagon stopped rolling. He turned and helped Josie down, then quickly moved his hands from her waist. Every time he touched her, a ton of strange emotions struck and messed with his head. It would help matters if every time he saw her she didn’t look so damn tempting.
Josie gave a funny, breathless sounding laugh. “We did it. We survived being the sweetheart ambassadors.” She tipped her head up and smiled.
That smile… It was the first thing he’d seen when he’d woken up in the hospital the morning after the fire that had injured Kent and killed Aiden. He remembered her gripping his hand like she was never letting go. He remembered her soft, sweet voice telling him everything was okay. It was okay, but only because she had been there.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Something was definitely wrong. His heart beat too fast, his hands felt clammy, and his tongue too thick to speak. He shook his head, as if he could clear away the symptoms for whatever he was coming down with.
“Linc?” She touched the back of his hand.
The simple gesture shot awareness through him and he took a reflexive step back. He wanted Josie. Wanted her in a way that screamed failure and broken heart. He didn’t know at what point he’d developed a physical attraction to her. Hell, maybe he’d had it for years but hadn’t been willing to face it.
“I’m good.” He pointed in the general direction of the parking lot. “I have a packed day tomorrow so I’m going to head out.” He looked around and noticed several people were watching them. For Josie’s sake, he didn’t want anyone to think they weren’t a real couple. That was the only reason he leaned down and kissed her quickly before he walked off. He pulled his truck key from his pocket, clutching it in the palm of his hand hard enough for it to leave an imprint. Once inside his truck, he started it up, then slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel.
As sure as the sun rose in Georgia, he’d complicated the hell out of everything. Feeling the urge to put some distance between the thoughts waiting to torment him, he drove out of the parking lot to hit the main drag, heading back toward the business district of town.
He turned the radio on, but not even the music was enough this time to distract him. Every time he kissed her, he struggled, and the harder he tried to fight whatever was going on inside of him, the worse he felt. He raked a hand across his face and groaned. The scent of her perfume was on his hands.
He was crazy mixed up and his first instinct was to push her away, but he couldn’t. This time he had to finish what they’d started. He didn’t want her business to suffer just because he couldn’t think straight around her. That wasn’t her fault.
The issues—wanting Josie but holding back—were his and he knew it. Savannah’s wealth had come between them because she’d made it so. Josie didn’t act anything like his ex, but she did come from money and he’d learned that he’d come in at second place when wealth was in the picture. If he did something stupid like trying to turn this relationship with Josie real, he’d end up right where he’d been before. Heart aching and alone.
Without meaning to, he drove into the parking lot of the hospital. Grayson was on shift now, and if anyone could make sense of what was going on in his head, his brother could. He wished he could talk to Kent, but since falling for Casey, his best friend thought love was the greatest thing since the creation of the 526 horsepower V8 engine. The guy practically had heart symbols in his eyes instead of pupils.
Lincoln parked, exited the truck, and strode toward the hospital’s main entrance. Once inside, he greeted the intake receptionist. “Hey, Dani.”
“Hey, Linc. Are you looking for Dr. Bradford?”
“Yeah, is he in the back or on break?”
“He’s in the café.”
Lincoln thanked her and walked to the row of elevators on the other side of the emergency room waiting area. Inside, the Muzak in the elevator grated on his nerves. He was jumpy, out of sorts, and nervous, and he didn’t like feeling like that.
As soon as he walked into the café, he spotted Grayson sitting at a table by the window, one hand resting by a coffee mug. His brother’s concentration was held by something on his phone.
Taking a chair opposite, Lincoln spun it around and sat.
Grayson looked up and instantly frowned. “You don’t look so good.” He tensed. “Everyone okay?”
“The family is fine. It’s Josie.”
“Something happen?”
Lincoln ran his hands down his face. “We got engaged.”
Grayson’s eyes widened. “I would say congratulations, but you don’t look too thrilled.”
“That’s because nothing between us is real.” Unable to keep it inside any longer, Lincoln told his brother the whole story.
“Wow.” Grayson slumped back against his seat. “So you’re upset because the lie is snowballing.”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Lincoln propped his face on his hands. “On one hand, I’d do anything for her.”
“And on the other?”
“When I’m around her, every time I kiss her, it gets harder to think about walking away.”
“Then don’t. Hang on and see where it leads.”
Lincoln shook his head. “I know where it’ll head. Heartbreak.”
“Unless you can see the future, you don’t know that,” Grayson argued.
Lincoln crossed his arms. Talking about Josie made him feel defensive. “Some things aren’t worth the risk.”
“Some things are,” Grayson countered.
“You can really say that after what you went through with Isabel? You wasted three years of your life with her.” Lincoln hadn’t ever really liked Isabel. She’d flirted with him once and he’d flat-out told her to take a hike. Beautiful women who were ugly on the inside never appealed to him. Josie was beautiful on the outside and inside and she appealed to him more than he liked. That was the problem.
“Nothing in life is ever a waste, Linc. Not even pain. It teaches us what we’re willing and not willing to put up with.”
Lincoln didn’t agree. Sometimes pain just kicked the crap out of you. If that wasn’t a waste, he didn’t know what was. It was the whole reason he’d come up with his perfect plan for life in the first place. How had things gotten so off track? “Did Isabel ever even apologize?”
“Repeatedly. She still does.” Grayson slid his phone across the table.
The screen was filled with messages from her saying how wrong she’d been and begging for another chance. Lincoln pushed the phone back. “Maybe Rafferty has the right idea. Don’t give a woman the chance to break your heart. Get out of the relationship before it gets serious.”
Grayson picked up the coffee mug. “Rafferty’s going to crash and burn. Some woman is going to take him down. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Maybe not, but if I keep hanging out with Josie, things will get real and one of us really is going to crash and burn.”
Grayson frowned. “Did Josie say she wanted things to get real between you two?”
“Not at all.” Lincoln glanced out the window beside the table. The night covered the hospital’s lawn, making it hard to distinguish where the flowerbeds or the gazebo for visitors were located. That’s what he felt like inside. Like he was trying to walk in the darkness and couldn’t clearly see the things that he might bump into. He looked at his brother. “I can’t call this thing between us quits because she needs me for her video business and—”
Grayson used a word he didn’t normally use and it surprised Lincoln into silence. “You’re struggling with walking away because you want to stay. You’re holding on to her needing you as an excuse.” He picked up his phone and pocketed it. “You told me the truth about your relationship with her, but you still haven’t told yourself the truth.”
“What truth?” Lincoln rose at the same time Grayson did.
Grayson crossed his arms.
It was like a rope was tightening around Lincoln’s upper body. He couldn’t breathe. He put his hand on the table to steady himself. “You think I’m in danger of falling for Josie.”
“Are you?”
“Hell no. I don’t know. No… It’s impossible.” Right?
Grayson smacked him on the arm. “Welcome to the confusion, man.”
Lincoln sank back down onto the chair he’d just vacated. What the hell was he supposed to do with his perfect plan now?