Chapter Two
When none of the offerings in her kitchen appealed to her, Josie decided to head to the diner with a plan to get her dinner to-go. She’d bring the meal home, have a glass of wine, and watch her favorite movie. She could have texted Casey to see if she wanted to get together, but since Kent was off duty, she hated the thought of interrupting any plans they might have.
She pulled a coat on and stepped out onto the porch, looking both ways to make sure the neighbor’s cat wasn’t around. He loved to spring out at unsuspecting people, scare them half to death, and then run like hell. After seeing the coast was clear, she got in her car and backed out of the driveway, waving to the other neighbor as she left.
The antique street lamps were already lit as she drove down Main Street into the center of Morganville. Couples strolling hand in hand and families out walking pets underscored the feeling that once again, she was spending a weekend alone.
Finding a parking spot at the diner on a Friday evening wasn’t an easy feat, but Josie managed to get one that had just been vacated. Grabbing her wallet, she hopped out and locked her car. As she passed by a minivan with tinted windows, she paused to check her reflection in the side mirror. After fluffing her hair, she made a wide, fake smile to check her teeth for lipstick smudges, then let out a squeak of surprise when the driver’s side window rolled down.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lincoln was in the driver’s seat.
“You look fine,” he said, a hint of amusement lacing his voice.
Her face heating from the rush of blood, Josie put her hands on her hips. “What are you doing in a minivan?”
“Rafferty and I took it to the automotive shop to get the brakes fixed for Ms. Dearborn. We thought we’d pick up some supper for her before taking the van back.”
Like a few of the other senior citizens in town, the elderly woman lived on a fixed income and things like car repairs or dinner out didn’t always fit into her budget. Lincoln and his brothers had a reputation for “just happening” to drop by the homes of those citizens to help fix vehicles or do home repairs. It was one of the many reasons the brothers were so well thought of.
There were a thousand and one things Josie wanted to say to Lincoln since seeing him at the fire station earlier. She’d promised herself the next time she saw him she would explain the lie she’d told her mother, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. Instead, they flitted away like fall leaves in a windstorm as his dark eyes held steady on hers.
“Well…I should let you get back to…um…sitting.” Lame, lame, lame. Silent forehead smack. She backed up, not taking her gaze off him, and caught her heel on the concrete car stop. Throwing out her arms in an attempt to prevent herself from hitting the asphalt, she flung her wallet and went down hard, landing on the palms of her hands.
Lincoln immediately got out and helped her up. “Are you all right?”
As graceful as ever. “Sure. You looked bored waiting on your brother so I thought I’d entertain you.” Josie grinned despite the pain stinging her hands. She’d long ago given up feeling embarrassed when she did something klutzy. She’d learned as a kid to keep both physical and emotional hurts to herself. Her parents hadn’t planned to have children, so when she came along, they’d been shocked. She was like bright red paint while they were beige.
Lincoln brushed some dirt from the sleeve of her jacket. “For future reference, it doesn’t entertain me to see you get hurt.” He turned her hands over in his to examine them. “C’mon.” Stooping, he picked up her wallet, and with his hand at the small of her back, guided her into the diner.
Lively conversations, music from the jukebox, and the smell of fresh apple pie bombarded Josie’s senses.
Rafferty, holding a to-go bag, stopped flirting with one of the waitresses to say, “I was on my way out, I swear.”
Lincoln tossed him the keys to the minivan. “Take it back to Ms. Dearborn. I’m going to stay with Josie.”
Rafferty grinned, and Josie shook her head to stop the track she was sure his thoughts had jumped on. “I fell, and Linc is just being kind.”
“All right, then. I’ll head out while the two of you enjoy the kindness.” He winked, and Lincoln made an irritated noise at the back of his throat.
“Don’t worry about it,” Josie said after Rafferty was gone. “I won’t read anything in to this. I know you don’t really like me.”
Lincoln’s mouth opened slightly and his eyes widened. Then he took her by the elbow and tapped on the counter by the register to get Cheryl, the owner’s attention. “Still have that first aid kit in your office?”
Cheryl nodded. “Sure do. The door is unlocked. Go right on back.” She sent a sympathetic smile Josie’s way and Josie smiled back. When she was in elementary school, she’d stop by the diner every day to have a snack and do her homework. The diner was like a second home.
Still holding on to her arm, Lincoln led the way down the narrow hallway and into the office at the end of it. Once inside, he closed the door behind them and nodded toward a seat across from a desk.
Josie sat, expecting him to look for the first aid kit, but he didn’t. He stood in front of her, frowning. “Where’d you get the idea that I don’t like you?”
Bowing her head to study the tiny bits of rock clinging to her scraped hands, Josie said, “It’s obvious. You clam up every time I walk into a room, and then you leave quickly like there’s a fire you have to get to.”
“I don’t dislike you,” he said a little forcefully.
She looked up, letting her gaze travel the length of his muscled abdomen to his broad shoulders and finally to his face. Of all the Bradford brothers, she’d always thought Lincoln was the best looking one. He carried himself in a way that said not only did he mean business, but that he knew how to take care of business.
When she could speak without hurt layering her tone, she said, “If you don’t dislike me, then what’s the problem between us?” For one hold-her-breath second, she thought he was going to say something meaningful, something to give her a peek behind the wall he’d so obviously built.
“There’s no problem.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
“Sure there isn’t.” Josie stood, and doing her best to ignore him, went for the first aid kit she’d spotted on top of a shelf. She snatched the cool metal box, keeping her face impassive so Lincoln wouldn’t see how much his shrug stung as she made her way back to the chair. She hadn’t realized that she’d torn the knees of her slacks as well in the fall. As if wanting to put ending punctuation on that thought, both knees started to throb.
“Let me help you,” he offered.
“I can take care of myself.” It was what she’d done all her life. Opening the kit, she took out a packet of topical antibacterial cream and tore it open to apply it. “I get it if you’re too afraid of man feelings to tell me the truth, but it sucks that you act so distant.”
He obviously didn’t like the sound of that. “I’m not afraid of ‘man feelings,’ as you call them.”
“Okay, fine.” She cleaned up her hands, treated her palms, and tossed the packet, intending to walk past him and out into the diner. If he didn’t want to tell her what was really going on that was on him, but she wasn’t going to stand there and pretend things were okay.
He put his hand on her upper arm and her skin tingled. She was hyperaware of the warmth of his fingers, the gentleness of his touch. “I don’t dislike you.”
“I heard you the first time.” She waited for him to say more, but he kept staring at her wordlessly. Josie experienced the same level of awkwardness she’d felt when she’d split her pants in college in front of her entire class. Clearing her throat, she forced a light laugh and edged toward the office door. “Better order my food.”
“Hey, wait, can you give me a ride home?”
“Oh, right. Rafferty left,” she said as she made her way to the line stretching out in front of the register. The last thing Josie wanted was to be awkwardly cooped up in her car with Lincoln and the lie she’d yet to explain to him, but she couldn’t refuse. “Sure, I can give you a lift.”
Oh, and by the way, I told my mother we’re kind of dating… Yeah, that’d go over real well.
…
After Josie dropped him off, Lincoln unlocked the door to his house and walked inside. The ride with her had turned into the seventh level of awkward hell. He hadn’t known what to say other than to make small talk about the town and the weather. The weather, for crying out loud.
He took off his jacket and tossed it on the sofa, then followed the scent of popcorn into the kitchen. His younger brother Grayson, a pediatric emergency physician at the local hospital, was dumping the snack into a bowl. He reached for a beer when he spotted Lincoln. “Want one?” He passed a bottle to Lincoln when he nodded.
Despite Rafferty’s risk-taking ways, Grayson was the one Lincoln worried about. His brother had recently caught Isabel, his girlfriend of three years, cheating on him. Which was why he was now staying with Lincoln and a ton of his crap was cluttering up the place. Lincoln didn’t care about the newly cramped space and he didn’t care that he couldn’t find half his own stuff in the mess now. What he cared about was the way Grayson was hurting.
“Dogs are outside horsing around,” Grayson said as he threaded his way around a stack of boxes and into the living room.
Lincoln knew better than to ask his brother if he was doing okay. He’d get the same answer Grayson gave everyone. He was fine. Better to find out now than after he’d presented Isabel with the diamond ring he’d bought and asked her to marry him, he’d told everyone in the family.
Lincoln pushed open the back door and walked outside. The landscape lights lit brick pavers that led up to the pool deck. His family and Josie had helped put those lights and the pavers in during one of the hottest summers in Georgia’s history. Afterward, they’d cooked on the grill and then played volleyball in his pool until the sun had started going down. An image of Josie with her blue eyes full of laughter and her curves filling out her bathing suit popped into his mind. He couldn’t seem to escape her, even when she wasn’t around.
Shoving the thought away, he sat on the steps and watched Roxy, a Dalmatian, and Bear, a dachshund, chase each other across the yard. When they realized he was home, they both bounded over and threw themselves at him, barking and wriggling with delight.
Seconds later, Grayson joined them on the porch. “Heard about the station not getting the equipment money.”
Lincoln exhaled. “Yeah. The mayor suggested I find a way to show the council how important the station is. She has the idea to team up with Josie to do a documentary for the Heart of Morganville contest so that we can get some of the funds we need that way.”
“That’s not a half bad idea.” Grayson gave him a long look. “Is there a reason you don’t want to work with her? Did she do something?”
“Nah. Josie’s cool. It’s just not a good idea.” To take the focus off himself, Lincoln asked, “Has the crowd let up yet?”
Grayson winced.
Most of the people in town had heard about Grayson catching Isabel cheating, and he’d been inundated with casseroles, phone calls, and invitations from single women promising to help ease his pain.
“If you want to talk about your man feelings, I’m here,” Lincoln said.
“Man feelings?” Grayson laughed. “That’s a Josie phrase. You saw her today?”
“Yeah.” Lincoln shook his head. “Then she gave me a ride home and acted like she’d trapped a skunk in her car. She kept giving me weird looks.”
“Women,” Grayson said. “Who can figure them out?”
“Exactly. That’s why you won’t catch me dating anytime soon.”
“You’d better come up with a date unless you want to be the main topic at Grandma’s birthday celebration Sunday,” his brother warned.
Their grandmother, Jean, was turning eighty-six but acted decades younger. She was known for her sharp opinions, her love for a good steak and beer, and for trying to help her grandchildren get married whether they wanted to or not. And he did not.
Everyone in Morganville would likely show up for Jean’s celebration and without a date, Lincoln would be on the hot seat. Like Grayson, he’d been on the receiving end of the casseroles and invitations, but after repeatedly turning women down, most of that attention had thankfully died off. If Grandma jumped on his lack of dating status, it would all start up again. He scrubbed a hand down his face.
Grayson elbowed him. “Maybe Rafferty has a spare.”
“I’ll jump right on that.”
The doorbell rang, and Lincoln walked inside to answer it. Erupting into a free-for-all barking storm, the dogs followed him in. He snapped his fingers, and both instantly retreated to their beds. He opened the door and was surprised to find Josie on the other side.
She looked frantic. “I need you right now.”
Tamping down the images that ran through his mind at her words, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“The neighbor’s cat got inside my house and made a mess. I tried to get to him, but he’s stuck behind a dresser in my bedroom and he’s crying pitifully. I can’t get him out.”
“Everything will be okay. I’m right behind you.” He grabbed his jacket as Josie headed back to her car.
He climbed into his truck and followed the taillights of her car. While stopped for a traffic light, his phone rang. When he answered, Kent said, “Did you hear? Besides cutting funds, the council wants to limit the staffing at the station.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Lincoln bit off a curse. “We’re already running crews at the national staffing minimum. If we go any lower, we can’t count on other counties being available if we need more aid at a scene.”
“I know, but I’m out of ideas on what to do.” Kent sounded concerned and he had a right to be. The changes weren’t good.
“I have an idea for something that might help. Let me work on a few things and I’ll get back to you.” Lincoln hung up. The mayor was right. He’d do what he had to do to get the funds to protect the men and women he worked with at the station. His grip tightened on the steering wheel. He could start by working with Josie on the video.
As long as he kept things strictly platonic, everything would work out fine.