Chapter Three
Josie didn’t know what was up with Lincoln. He’d strolled into her house, looking deep in thought, and had gone straight to her bedroom without a word. She worried for a second that maybe he’d found out about her lie before she had a chance to tell him, but there was no way he’d let that slide without having something to say about it.
Now he was on his knees with his arms buried almost to his shoulders inside her lingerie cabinet. A long time ago, in the midst of her crush days, this was so not the way she’d imagined him touching her underwear. Every now and then, he’d swipe his hands around as he tried to reach the cat that had wedged himself half behind the drawer.
The custom-built furniture, a gift from her mother, was lovely to look at but a pain in the butt. Since removing the drawers practically involved blowing them out with dynamite, she’d advised Lincoln to work around them. After checking how they were built, he’d agreed.
Josie darted around her bedroom trying to pick up underwear the cat had dragged out while she’d gone to get Lincoln. She hadn’t wanted to ask him for help. She’d called Casey and Kent and even Lincoln’s grandmother Jean for advice, but none of them had answered their phones. In the end, worried that the cat was going to hurt himself, she’d gone to find Lincoln.
“Let me try and move some of these…things.” He held out handfuls of lacy underwear with sexy words written across the rear.
“I don’t wear those.” When he swallowed, Josie rushed to clarify. “I mean, I do wear underwear, just not these.”
“I’m here to get the cat. If you do…or don’t…wear whatever…that’s fine with me.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean I care about your underwear.”
“That’s totally good. I don’t care about yours, either. You can wear them or go commando—that’s your business.” Oh my God. Shut up, Josie.
After an embarrassing few seconds, Lincoln turned back to the task and pulled out a collection of bras next and handed them over. “The cat’s wedged too tightly. I don’t have a choice but to take them out to get to him.” He worked a drawer from side to side, trying in vain to reach for the locking mechanism at the back that kept it secured in place. When he smacked his hand hard against the side to jar it loose, the cat, a pair of Josie’s bright red panties draped around his neck, darted from his hiding place. He made a mad dash for the hallway.
Lincoln ran after it with Josie right on his heels. The cat did an abrupt about-face, and Lincoln stopped to warn, “He’s heading back our way.”
Josie dove forward, thinking she could catch the animal by latching on to the underwear flapping wildly around him. Lincoln dove for the scrap of material at the same time and they collided. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled them both hard against the wall, managing to keep them upright. His dark eyes bore into hers, and with the close proximity, Josie found it a little hard to breathe.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, but, um…” She took a step back.
“Sorry.” He lowered his hands.
Josie could swear she’d felt his heart pounding through his shirt.
“You’re still holding my underwear,” she said as he lifted his hand.
A noise behind her made Josie look over her shoulder.
“I can’t wait to hear the explanation for this,” Rafferty said as he and his grandmother, Jean, appeared in the doorway of Josie’s living room. Because of course they would show up right then.
Lincoln handed the underwear to Josie. “We were in the bedroom—”
Rafferty’s laughter cut him off. “I don’t need details.”
Lincoln straightened and avoided meeting Josie’s gaze. “What are you two doing here?”
“The door was unlocked, so we came in. Grandma was worried. She got a message from Josie saying she needed help. When she tried to call and didn’t get an answer, I volunteered to drive us over.” He grinned and winked at Josie.
“Oh, I must have left my phone in the car, sorry, but thank you, everything’s fine now. Lincoln was great,” Josie said, her face probably as bright as a ripe tomato. When Rafferty’s grin widened, she clarified, “He took care of the cat.” She patted Lincoln’s chest. “My hero.”
Jean gave a strangely satisfied grin that made alarms ring. Josie loved Jean and thought of her as a substitute grandmother, but if anyone could make mountains out of molehills, it was Jean. With an air of innocence, Lincoln’s grandmother asked, “You will be at my birthday party, right?”
“Yes, as soon as I finish some wedding errands for Casey.”
“You’re not bringing a date, are you, honey?”
The funny look that Lincoln gave her at his grandmother’s question made Josie wonder what was going on inside his mind, but she shrugged it off and shook her head. “No, I’m coming alone.”
Rafferty made a sound like a wrong answer buzzer on a game show. “You should have lied. Now you’ll never get off the hook.”
Jean smiled. “How interesting. Lincoln is coming alone as well. You two should ride over together. Saving gas is good for the environment.”
Josie sneaked a glance at Lincoln, whose face was scrunched up in an oh no expression like it had been when they’d gone camping as kids and he realized he’d rolled around in poison ivy. She turned her attention back to Jean. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“But—” Jean started to protest.
Rafferty guided his grandmother to the door. “C’mon, Granny, let’s go.”
She smacked his arm. “Don’t call me granny. That’s for old women.” Looking back over her shoulder, she said, “I’ll see you at the party then, dear.”
“She has something up her sleeve,” Lincoln said after they were gone.
“I know. She usually does.” But Josie had enough to worry about with her own family and getting out of the lie she’d told. She didn’t have time to figure out what Jean was up to.
Josie looked around the room. “I wonder where the cat went. He spends so much time over here, I should just ask my neighbor if I can adopt him.” When Lincoln made no move to make a hasty exit like he normally did when he was in her company, she asked, “What?”
“I need your help. It was the mayor’s idea actually.” Lincoln explained the situation with the fire station’s budget and the need for the new equipment, then said, “I could use your videographer skills to help me win the Heart of Morganville contest. We can split the prize money if we win. I’ll be putting my half toward the things the station needs.”
“You want me to make a video with you in exchange for half the prize money, and that’s if we even win.”
Lincoln winced. “I guess I didn’t think about the cost to you or the time involved, especially if we don’t win.”
“It’s not the cost.” It’s the awkwardness between us. I feel like the Lincoln I used to know disappeared and the new one can’t even stand to be around me. But she’d never admit that. “I’m just not sure…”
“I understand,” he said.
Josie could tell that he didn’t. When it came to fund-raisers or events for the fire station, she’d always been the first one to sign up. She gave him the only explanation she could think of. “Things are just kind of hectic for me right now.”
“Anything I can help with?”
She wanted to tell him about the lie she’d told, but she chickened out. He’d never be interested in a dorky girl like her, and asking him to pretend or play along that he would was terrifying. “No, there’s nothing. Just leave it.”
…
Leave it? Lincoln’s common sense demanded that he do exactly that and walk away, but old habits died a slow, painful death. Something was bothering her and he wanted to help.
“I know that things have been kind of weird between us, but—”
“Kind of?” She almost bit the words out.
Uh-oh. Every time she got upset, she did this funny little quirk with her lips.
She moved away from him to kick her shoes off and sit on the brown leather sofa. “Weird is an understatement. I’ve known you for years. I used to go camping with your family and to the lake on summer vacation. Since Casey’s engagement, you and I have spent hours together laughing and talking and having fun. Like friends.”
The way her voice grew steadily higher, more emotional as she spoke, hit Lincoln square in the center of his heart. He couldn’t tell her that he’d learned how bad it could be when friends became more than that. Every long-term girlfriend he’d had, he’d been friends with first. Then came the breakups. The losses did more than hurt his pride. They’d taught him that romance and friendship had no business together. He walked toward her in what felt like slow motion and sat on an ottoman by her feet.
“I don’t know what to say.” There was no way she’d ever understand that him staying away was what was best for both of them. She was the kind of woman who lived life with the pedal to the metal. He’d learned the nasty lesson that loss taught. Slow down. Be cautious. There was no such thing as forever. She was so vibrant, and he wasn’t. Not by a long shot. If they dated, and things ended badly, which they inevitably would because he wasn’t good at relationships, it wouldn’t just make things difficult between them. Josie was like part of his family.
“It’s fine. I’ll figure things out on my own.”
The way her baby blue eyes were slightly damp with what he hoped to God weren’t tears made him feel like he hadn’t been paying attention. He’d never been good at subtext. “I feel like you’re trying to tell me something important and I’m missing the mark.”
“No,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“C’mon, I know better than that.”
“Sure you do.”
“Just tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.”
She leaned forward. “You’ll fix it, huh?”
He nodded.
“Then stop avoiding me. Take us back to you and me. The way things used to be.”
Of course she hit him with the one thing he couldn’t give her. He should have listened to his common sense and left this alone. He’d already let her get closer to him than he’d intended. Crossing his arms, he tried to think of the best way to tell her why things could never be the same between them without letting her see too deeply. He valued her friendship, but he didn’t trust himself around her. He had a plan and he was sticking to it. No love, no heartbreak.
While he was still trying to think of what to say, Josie settled herself back against the cushion and crossed her arms, too. “Going over to your family’s house for dinner and hanging with everyone used to be one of the highlights of my week. Now it’s just awkward because of this”—she motioned between them—“whatever this is.”
This was the fact that he wasn’t going to let a genie out of the bottle that he couldn’t control. “It’s getting late and I have to work tomorrow, so we need to table this conversation.”
“You mean you have to leave so you don’t have to talk about it.”
Trust Josie to cut to the heart of the matter. “Well, yeah, basically.”
Her mouth dropped open. “So you admit that you’re running away from the issue.”
“I’m not running. I’m strategically retreating.”
“Whatever, Linc.” She gave him an irritated look. “Then strategically lock the door on your way out.”
He rose, not happy that she was upset with him but glad the conversation was over. He needed time to regroup before they talked about this. At the door, he paused and glanced back at her. “Grandma’s birthday party will probably get started around noon on Sunday.”
“I’ll be there.”
“See you then.” Lincoln closed the door behind him and stood on the porch for a second. He was doing the right thing keeping Josie at an emotional distance. So why then did his perfect plan suddenly make him feel so empty?