Chapter Twelve
The next evening, Josie stepped out of the shower, her heart leaping when the neighbor’s cat blinked at her from his spot on the vanity. Grabbing a towel, she wrapped it around herself. “Cat, this relationship isn’t working for me. We have to break up.”
The cat meowed pitifully, and Josie sighed. “Fine, you can stay. I can’t seem to break up with my so-called boyfriend slash fiancé, either. He was a no-show at the diner this morning and texted me some lame excuse.” She huffed out a breath. Like she didn’t know him well enough to know when he was blowing her off.
She sat on the lid of the toilet. “Even though I’m glad he did, because I was ten shades of embarrassed, it’s not as if I asked him to propose. It was a pity proposal and that makes me feel like I’m going to start collecting cats. Present company excluded.”
Josie’s phone rang and the cat meowed. She held up a finger. “Hold that thought.” Darting from the bathroom, she ran into her bedroom and pulled the phone out of the back pocket of the jeans she’d taken off and dropped in the middle of her floor.
“Do you have wine?” Jean didn’t waste any time on a greeting.
Josie thought about it. “Maybe.”
“I’ll bring some just in case. Beverly is picking up the vegetable tray.” Jean’s tone dripped with disgust.
“Casey’s bringing hot wings.”
“Now we’re rocking.” Jean’s tone brightened. “Be there in ten minutes.”
Josie tossed the phone onto the bed and rushed around the room getting dressed. It was girls’ night, and along with Jean, Lincoln’s mom and Casey were coming over, plus Harper Bailey and Shelly Holmes. The women were cousins that Josie had attended elementary through high school with. Harper was the only woman in Morganville who’d ever turned Rafferty down flat when he’d asked her out. That made her somewhat of a legend among the single women.
She dried her hair and quickly put it in a braid, then texted Lincoln. You kind of have to be present for the breakup. Try again?
The response came back. Getting tux fit.
She texted back. Relax. The proposal wasn’t real.
Funny. For my sister’s wedding.
Keep it for our wedding. Save money. She included a laughing emoticon, then put her phone down. She was going to play it cool and act like nothing had changed between them. Like she hadn’t lain awake half the night thinking about him with her heart squeezing painfully. Like she didn’t know that her old crush was very much alive and well and on its way to growing into something that was sure to get her heart broken.
The doorbell rang and she hurried to open it. Within minutes, her living room was filled with her friends. She went back and forth making sure everyone had a beverage.
Casey joined in to help. “So what are the details about the proposal?”
“The proposal is as fake as me being Lincoln’s girlfriend. I think it’s starting to bother your brother because he blew me off at the diner this morning.”
Casey paused in the middle of setting out napkins. “That’s Lincoln. Something probably came up and he didn’t have time to explain.”
“He was freaking out thinking that he’s going to land a wife if he’s not careful.” Josie mimed reeling a fish in.
Casey laughed.
The doorbell rang again, and Josie did a quick glance over the living room. Everyone who was supposed to show was already here. Excusing herself, she opened the door, surprised to see Lincoln on the porch.
“Got a second?”
“Sure.” She stepped outside, wrapping her arms around herself, feeling the coldness from the weather and the coldness from the fear of what was about to happen between them. There was only one reason why Lincoln would show up. He wanted to go ahead and get the breakup over with. Telling herself she should be glad that everything was about to end, she moved away from the porch.
Lincoln walked beside her until they reached his truck parked behind her car in the driveway. She shivered, and he whipped his jacket off and placed it across her shoulders. “Did you come to breakup?” Say it and let’s get it over with.
Lincoln looked sheepish. “Actually, no. Martin Hernandez, the councilman I’ve been speaking with, and his wife invited us for dinner the day after tomorrow. He said he wanted to talk to both of us, so it’s a couple’s thing. I can’t go alone.”
Josie put a hand on her forehead. “Are we ever going to break up?”
Lincoln frowned as he leaned back against his truck. “Relax. It’ll happen.”
“I know one thing for sure. No more lies after this. I’m going to walk the straight and narrow for the rest of my life.”
“That’s probably smart. So, can you make it?”
“Of course.” If he needed her, she’d be there. She just wished it wasn’t all fake. She’d never regretted lying more. At this rate, they were going to end up in a fake marriage, and she wasn’t sure how much more her heart could handle. She pulled his jacket off and passed it back.
“Thanks.” He straightened, then cupped her face with one hand and kissed her.
Lips still tingling, she asked, “Someone was watching?”
His dark eyes were hooded as he looked back at her. “Yes.” He walked around the front of his truck.
“After we have that dinner you owe me a breakup,” Josie called after him.
Lincoln gave her a thumbs-up and climbed into his truck.
Two platters of hot wings and three bottles of wine later, Shelly stood up from the sofa and announced, “I’m getting married.” She held her hands up when the chorus of congratulations started. “As soon as I find the right guy.” She collapsed back onto the cushion as everyone laughed.
Josie nudged Harper’s shoe. “Harper is marrying Rafferty.”
Harper made a face at the teasing. “He’d be too hard to housebreak.”
Beverly laughed. “Rafferty’s always been my wildest son. He was the one who removed the M from the Morganville town limit sign when he was in high school.”
Casey laughed. “I remember everyone taking pictures and how mad the former mayor was about it all.”
“I should marry Grayson,” Shelly mused, waving her hands in a pronounced flourish. “He’s a doctor. My mother would be over the moon.”
“I would welcome you into the family, dear,” Beverly said.
Seeing her chance to hint that a breakup was coming, Josie said, “I don’t know if Lincoln and I will end up actually making it down the aisle.”
A shocked silence filled the room and Josie ducked her head. She hated disappointing them, but what else could she do? It wasn’t like they could actually marry. At least Lincoln would be happy to discover that she was laying the foundation for them to split.
“Oh honey. What’s going on?” Beverly came to sit beside Josie.
Josie lifted her shoulders in a shrug, trying to think of what she could say and decided to stick with the truth. “Lincoln is hard to read emotionally sometimes. That proposal was a spur of the moment deal and only happened because the lead singer accidentally brought the wrong woman onto the stage. He didn’t intend to propose at that time.” Or ever. She stopped talking when Jean cringed and exchanged a look with Beverly.
“He may not have intended to propose at that moment, but he would have eventually,” Jean said.
“I don’t think so.” Josie took a breath to continue trying to unravel her and Lincoln’s togetherness.
Shelly butted in before she could weave her tale. “Then why did he propose at all?”
“For me. Because he’s such a great guy. I was standing there, about to be humiliated beyond measure. Lincoln rushed to the rescue like always. It was a pity proposal.” She caught Casey’s eye.
“So you’re saying your relationship probably isn’t going to make it,” Casey said. Josie was grateful to her friend for trying to help her out.
“Right. I doubt we will.”
“You and Lincoln have been friends forever,” Shelly said.
“Sometimes friends mistake friendship feelings for love,” Josie said carefully.
Everyone started talking at once and Beverly let out the shrill whistle Josie had heard her use countless times to get her sons’ attention. “We’re going out.”
Thinking it was the wine taking over, Josie said, “It’s cold. Are you sure?”
“Yes. Grab jackets and flashlights, everyone.”
They all scrambled to get outside and after Josie locked up, Harper said, “I haven’t been drinking. I’ll drive.”
The women climbed into the minivan that belonged to Harper’s mother. It was painted a brilliant pink with a huge Cinderella tiara fixed to the roof. The sign on the side of the vehicle announced that it was the princess coach for Fairy Tales, the wedding and amusement castle that Harper’s family owned just across the county line.
Josie looked at Beverly sitting beside her in the middle seat. “Where to?”
“We’re going to the woods. So take Old Fountain Road until you come to a little dirt path. Once we get there, we’ll have to walk in the rest of the way.”
Jean snapped her fingers. “I know what’s out there.” She shook her head, refusing to answer when everyone tried to get her to say what it was.
Shelly turned the radio on and the women sang along to the latest pop hit before Harper switched it to country and they sang along to that, too. They drove past the lingerie shop, the stationery store, and the fabric shop. When they turned onto a side road, Josie put her hand on the back of the front seat to brace herself against the bumps in the road.
“Are you nervous with the big day drawing closer?” Josie asked Casey.
“Not at all. I feel like I’ve been waiting to marry Kent forever.”
Josie smiled, glad for her friend’s happiness, even though it made her own yearning for someone to love her and build a family with harder to bear. Someone like Lincoln. Realizing what she’d thought, Josie put a hand against her stomach. There was no use denying it anymore. She wanted more than just friendship from Lincoln. But with his aversion to relationships, he’d never think of her in the same light. If he’d ever seen her as relationship material, he would have made a move long before now. Not to mention, she was nothing like his usual type—stunningly gorgeous.
After a short ride, Harper pulled onto the side of the road. “Granny, are you sure you’re going to be able to walk through the woods? Some of the terrain is rough.”
“Keep calling me granny, girl, and I’m cutting you out of the will,” Jean said.
Harper laughed.
Beverly opened the door and stepped out first. She switched on her flashlight. As soon as Josie joined her, she said, “There’s something in the woods that I want you to see.”
“I’m not going in there. The cute, young blonde always gets picked off first.” Shelly shivered.
“Does the hair color count when it comes from a bottle?” Harper teased her cousin.
“Whatever.” Shelly waved a hand. “I’ll wait in the van. With the bottle of wine I brought.”
“In that case, I should stay and protect the wine. I mean, everyone,” Jean said.
Beverly laughed and motioned Josie forward.
“What is this place?” Josie asked.
“You’ll see soon enough. Follow me.” Beverly picked her way over the ruts in the road and walked toward the wooded area. The darkness and the small circle of light combined with the hooting of an owl sent chills up Josie’s spine.
They walked until they reached a small cluster of trees. The largest one had a square tree house built halfway to the top of it. There were two windows and even a small porch. “Watch your step.” Beverly pointed to the wooden slats nailed to the tree and then climbed up them.
Josie tucked her flashlight into her pocket and climbed up after her.
Inside, the tree house held remnants of a long-ago childhood. A skateboard, a fishing rod, and a remote-control car missing a wheel.
Beverly shined her light at a crudely drawn child’s map tacked to one wall. “This land belongs to my father-in-law. The northern end of it butts up against the river that runs behind Morganville.”
“Did their grandfather build this for your sons?”
“Oh no. My boys built this place themselves one summer after they got into such an awful fight that I was afraid they’d kill each other.” Beverly laughed. “My husband was out of town, which was usually when the boys tried to push my boundaries. I loaded them in the car and dropped them off with their grandparents. I told the boys they couldn’t come home until they were ready to act like brothers.”
Josie touched an old lunchbox sitting on a block of wood. “What were they fighting about?”
“Who knows? Probably a girl. They camped out with their grandfather and worked on the house while he supervised. It forced them to spend time together and work out their issue.”
Josie squirmed, guessing that Beverly was not so subtly hinting that she and Lincoln should keep working on their issues.
“Open the lunch box.”
Josie blew the dust off and then unfastened the latches. Some greeting cards and a letter tumbled to the wooden floor along with a photograph. She picked them up. “I gave these to Lincoln—”
“The year he broke his leg.” Beverly looked through the window like she was picturing it. “He was such a bear. Until you’d come over and then it was like someone let the sunshine in.”
Josie put the cards and letter back into the lunchbox. She remembered writing them, deliberately trying to be at her funniest to make Lincoln laugh. She reached for the picture and brought it into the glow of her flashlight.
She and Lincoln were on the hood of a car at her high school graduation. Her parents had done the usual and deposited money into her college fund, which was paid by a trust directly to the college. Lincoln and his brothers had scraped together the money to buy her that secondhand car. It was a stick shift and he’d spent weeks that summer teaching her how to drive it, then they’d celebrated by going to the lake. Best summer of her life.
“I don’t understand any of this.” She shook off the emotions that the memories stirred up.
“Grayson told me that the night that Savannah broke up with him, Lincoln came out to this tree house, and he brought those cards and the letter you’d given him along. It’s interesting to me that when he was hurting, the one person he thought of was you.”
“I was out of town when they broke up,” Josie said softly.
“I know. Maybe he decided that having something you’d written was like having you close.”
The hope and love in his mother’s eyes was her undoing. “Beverly, I can’t do this anymore.” Josie put the photo with the cards. “Lincoln and I aren’t really together. We never have been. I told a lie and roped him into a fake relationship and then things just snowballed from there—”
“Honestly, Josie, do you think I’m stupid?”
Wide-eyed and confused, she said, “What? No, of course not.”
“I’ve known from the start that you and my son aren’t really dating.”
Josie didn’t know what to say, or how to react. “But…you played along and never said a word.”
Beverly sighed. “Because my son needs you. He just doesn’t realize it yet.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Earlier tonight you said, ‘Sometimes friends mistake friendship feelings for love,’ and I say that sometimes friends mistake love for friendship.”
“Lincoln isn’t open to a relationship. He may never be. Not after Savannah.”
Beverly clenched her jaw. “Savannah…that woman…I was so glad to see her leave and take all that drama with her. I know she did something that wrecked Lincoln, but he won’t talk about it. At least not to any of us.” She touched the lunchbox. “You could get through to him.”
“I’m not sure I can.” He’d made no move to confide in her since they’d become closer, and before that, he’d pulled away from her completely.
Beverly smiled. “Trust a mother’s instinct. You can.”
“How do you know?”
“Lincoln values your opinion because he’s interested in you.”
“I think your instinct led you on a wild goose chase.”
“We’ll see.” Beverly glanced at her watch. “Anyway, we’d better get back to the others before my mother does something to get us all arrested.”
Josie took one last look around, head spinning with all she’d learned, and then climbed back down the ladder after Beverly. Once they reached the ground, she dusted her hands together. “This whole time, then, you were just egging Lincoln and me on.”
“That’s right.”
“That’s pretty devious.”
“Have you met my mother?”
They both laughed.
“I don’t know, you were pretty good when it came to pushing Casey and Kent together.”
“No, no.” Beverly held up a finger. “I nudged. There’s a difference.”
“Okay, just don’t nudge Lincoln and me.”
Beverly aimed her flashlight at the path. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”