Nine months later
At the screech of the guitar strings, I winced while Linc muttered, “Dammit.”
I cocked my brows at him. “Hey man, watch it with the language.”
“You say worse,” Linc countered.
“That’s no excuse. You’re supposed to do as I say, not as I do.”
Linc rolled his eyes. “Now you sound like Papa.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m some old fart. Now back to the music. That was supposed to be a B flat to an E flat, not a G flat.” When Linc followed my instruction this time, he hit the chord perfectly. “There ya go. Now try it a few more times.”
Almost a year had passed since I’d first made the deal with Linc to get a very reluctant Rae to hang out with me in return for getting him a guitar. In some ways, it seemed like just yesterday, while other times, it was hard to imagine a time in my life when Rae and Linc hadn’t been a part of it.
With Rae now on board with Linc learning the guitar, he was progressing way past what he’d done in the talent show. I also liked to think he was excelling because of my expert tutelage, although with me back on tour with Jacob’s Ladder, our time was somewhat more limited. Of course, whatever musical talent Linc’s father had seemed to be magnified in Linc. I could totally see him pursuing music as a career, although I tried not to say that in front of Rae. While she might’ve made peace with Linc playing the guitar, I knew there was no way in hell she wanted him to become a musician.
As for the two of us, things were progressing as well. She’d flown out almost every weekend we’d been out on tour. Sometimes she brought Linc, but most of the time, she came by herself. While trying to have private time with my girl, I could see why each of the members of Runaway Train had eventually bought their own tour bus when they settled down. Even though she got along great with my siblings and the road crew, I didn’t like sharing what time I had with Rae with the others. I also didn’t like our lovemaking being tempered because Rae was afraid Eli and the others would hear her.
Others might have thought we hadn’t been together long enough to be thinking of the long-term, but I really didn’t give a shit what they thought. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was only one woman in the world for me, and I’d found her in the backwoods of Georgia. I wanted to build a life with Rae, and because of that fact, I’d been doing some serious thinking about popping the question. I just needed to talk to Linc first, and when I glanced up to look at him, I knew there was no time like the present.
“Can you put the guitar down, buddy?” I asked.
When he scowled at me, I felt like I was looking at Rae. “But we still have fifteen minutes of practice time.”
“I know that. It’s just, I need to talk to you about something…something really important.”
“If this is the facts-of-life stuff, I already know it.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. Papa talked to me about it last year.”
“While I’m glad you’re informed about sex, that’s not what I want to talk to you about.”
“Fine,” Linc muttered. He swiveled in his chair to put the guitar back in its case. Once he was finished, he peered expectantly at me. “So, what’s so important that it cuts off my music lesson?”
Now that I had his full attention, I found myself feeling extremely nervous, like I was sitting in an interrogation room with a light beaming down on me. I wiped my suddenly sweaty palms on my jeans before I cleared my throat. “Your mom and I have been dating for a while now.”
Tilting his head, Linc appeared lost in thought. “How long has it been?”
“Eleven months.”
“Is that a long time?”
It is when you’ve previously been a commitment-phobic asshole. “For some people, it is, and for others, it isn’t. I feel like it’s a long time for your mom and me—long enough for me to know how I feel about her.”
“You’re not breaking up with her, are you?”
I chuckled. “Hell no. She’s the only woman for me, ever.”
Linc exhaled a relieved breath. “You scared me there for a minute.”
“I’m sorry.” I leaned forward in my chair. “Not only do I love your mother, I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I’m planning on asking her to marry me.”
“You are?”
“Yes, I am.”
Linc shot out of his chair to throw his arms around my neck. “That’s awesome. And you’ll be my stepdad?”
“Yep, I sure will.”
He pulled back to stare wide-eyed at me. “I can’t believe it.”
I chuckled. “I’m glad you’re happy about it.”
Confusion suddenly replaced the elation on his face. “Wait, you said you were planning to ask Mom to marry you. Does that mean you haven’t asked her yet?”
“That’s right.”
“Shouldn’t you be telling her first before you tell me?”
I smiled. “In a way, yes, but here’s the thing: there’s an old custom where a man asks the father of the woman he loves if he can marry her. It’s a way to show respect to your future father-in-law.” I reached out to place my hands on his shoulders. “Instead of going to your Papa, I wanted to ask you if I had your permission to marry your mother.”
Linc’s mouth gaped open. “You want my permission?”
“Yes, I do. Although your mom loves her dad very much, you are the center of her world. You will be the one most affected by us getting married, so it only seemed fair to ask you.”
When Linc’s brown eyes pooled with tears, my throat constricted, and I felt like someone had punched through my chest to squeeze my heart.
“You’re the only guy in the whole wide world I’d want to marry my mom.”
Linc’s statement sent me over the edge. Overcome by emotion, I jerked him against my chest. “You don’t know how proud I am to hear you say that, buddy.” After squeezing him tight, I eased him back to smile at him. “I promise I’ll be a good husband to her, and I’ll do my best not to hurt her or you.”
“You better.”
“I will.”
A quizzical expression came over Linc’s face. “Have you gotten Mom a ring?”
Once again, I had to laugh at just how much of an old soul he was. “No, not yet. I wanted to make sure things were square between the two of us before I dropped a chunk of change on a ring.”
“Can I help you pick it out?”
“Sure you can. You probably know more about what she likes when it comes to jewelry than I do.”
He frowned a little. “I don’t know. Maybe I could also ask Aunt Kennedy and Aunt Ellie.”
“Actually, buddy, I’d like to keep this just between the two of us.”
As Linc nodded, he held up his right hand. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”
I grinned at him. “I trust you. You did a great job of keeping our guitar secret.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
“Yep.” I jerked my chin at his guitar case. “Speaking of, we better pack up the sheet music and head out. Your mom will kill us if we’re late for dinner.”
“Okay.” He started shuffling the music back into his folder. When he reached to pick up his case, he froze.
“What is it?” I asked.
He turned to stare intently at me. “Are you guys going to have kids?”
Holy shit. He wasn’t holding back with that loaded question. I swallowed hard. “Uh, well, we really haven’t talked about it.”
“I think Mom would like to have more kids, maybe a little girl,” Linc replied thoughtfully.
“She probably would.” I smiled to myself at the thought of having a sassy little girl with Rae.
“What about you? Do you want kids?”
Since I knew Linc deserved absolute honesty, I decided it was best to tell him the truth and not sugarcoat it. “You know, I wasn’t sure I really wanted kids before I met your mother.” I smiled at him. “But then I met you, and everything about you has changed my mind.” When Linc remained quiet, I asked, “What about you? Are you on board if we decide to have more kids?”
He nodded. “That would be cool.”
“Then what’s with the mood change?”
After nibbling on his lip—a trait that was so much like his mother—he peeked up at me. “I was just thinking that even if you guys did have kids, maybe you might adopt me.”
Talk about feeling like I’d been sucker-punched and roundhouse-kicked in the balls. Linc had really pulled out all the stops with that question. Although I had thought about it before, it hadn’t seem real until the words had come from his mouth. I guess I’d never stopped to imagine that he would want me to adopt him. Sure, I thought he would be fine with me being his stepdad, but there was a whole new level of meaning with taking on my name and legally being my child.
I drew in a deep breath. “Even though I don’t need to have a piece of paper that tells me you’re my son, of course I would want to adopt you. It’s just…complicated.”
With his eyes lit up like one of the stage lights during a show, Linc danced around my chair. “I can’t believe I’m going to be your son!”
“Wait a minute, Linc, didn’t you hear me when I said it would be complicated?”
“Why does it have to be complicated?”
“Because of a lot of legal bullshit. First, we’d have to get your mom on board—”
Sweeping his hands to his hips matter-of-factly, Linc asked, “Do you seriously think she would say no?”
I laughed. “No, I don’t think she would, but she’s only a small step. The big step is your real father has to give up all his rights to you. That means your mom would have to track him down and then he would have to sign the legal papers.”
Linc’s face fell. “Oh. That does sound complicated.”
Reaching out, I ruffled his hair. “Complicated, but not impossible.”
“Does that mean you’ll try?”
“Of course I will. After I talk to your mom about it, we’ll start looking into it before we get married.” With a laugh, I shook my head. “I’m probably putting the cart before the horse on that one considering I need to ask her to marry me first.”
“When do you think you’ll do that?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. After I get the ring, I’ll wait until the moment feels right.”
“That sounds like a good plan.”
When my phone dinged in my pocket, I grabbed Linc’s guitar case. “Come on. I bet you a hundred bucks that’s your mom giving me grief for being late.”
Linc rolled his eyes. “Just tell her you’re a man and you’ll come to dinner when you’re good and ready.”
Tsking at him, I said, “And here I thought you had women all figured out.”
“Jeez, give me a break. I’m only ten.”