Page 51 of 40 and (No Longer) Fighting It
“At least they left us somewhere to make coffee,” his friend said. The words were rough, irritated.
Linc watched silently as JD grabbed a mug from the box where they were currently holding the dishes and poured himself a cup of coffee. His first sip visibly relaxed the tension in his muscles. If he was irritated at anything Linc had done, this kitchen reno was definitely it.
And then there was trying to destroy his dream project before it even got off the ground.
“Good stuff,” JD rasped.
Linc managed a grunt that could have been agreement or not.
JD’s lips twisted. “Wanna tell me about it?”
“No thanks, man. I don’t need to give you something else to blame me for.”
JD sighed. “Yesterday didn’t go great.” He shrugged, took another swallow of coffee.
“I was talking about the kitchen.”
“Oh yeah.” He glanced around before meeting Linc’s eyes again. “Bastard.”
When Linc didn’t respond, he shrugged. “I’ll get over it.”
Linc turned back to the window. “Yeah, well, I don’t know if I will.”
JD joined him at the makeshift counter, but Linc could feel his friend’s stare and it wasn’t directed outside. “It’s Claire you should be worried about, not yourself.”
“It is Claire I’m worried about,” Linc growled. Look at that—apparently he could feel something. Instead of ripping into JD like he wanted to, he glared down into his coffee. “She asked for a break to make some decisions.”
A long pause filled the kitchen. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah.” Linc swirled the coffee in his cup, playing Russian roulette with the lip. “Shit.”
Surrendering to his mood, he carried his coffee to the sink in the laundry room and dumped it, then left via the exit that didn’t return him to the kitchen. He considered going into the weight room, working off some of his…whatever this was…with some sweat, but decided instead that what he needed was fresh air.
Exiting through the French doors to the back courtyard, he considered the slowly brightening sky and wondered if Carter was awake. His son, Thad, was ten, but Linc knew from frequent visits that he wasn’t the kind of kid that woke at dawn. Carter had always been smug about that, but Linc didn’t know enough about kids to figure out why.
He’d put off calling a little longer. Instead he wandered up to the build site, surveying the stakes Erin and her crew had used to mark off certain areas. Little red flags marched in a line from the mansion toward the new construction area, he assumed marking the power lines. The cellar and basement areas had been dug out and still bore the ropes they’d used to close off access to them yesterday. In the next week, Erin had told them, they’d begin setting up utilities before pouring the foundation.
He couldn’t believe the construction was that close to starting. But instead of triumph, all he felt was dread.
He was crossing the courtyard, headed back to his room, when his cell buzzed in his pocket. His heart jumped as he pulled it out, but it wasn’t Claire’s name on the screen. It was Carter’s. Linc took a minute to swallow his disappointment before answering.
“Hey, man.”
Carter didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Sounds like you’ve had an exciting weekend.”
“You have no idea.”My reputation got trashed, my pastry chef’s reputation got trashed, my new business venture got trashed. But my pastry chef saved the day.
And then I lost her.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
Linc sighed. Did he? “Not really, no.”
“Want me to hang up?”
“No.”
“So you want to stay on the phone but you don’t want to talk?”
