Page 11 of Romance Reset
“Yup. When I was traveling, I came upon a film set and managed to get hired as an extra. There’s a lot of standing around and waiting as an extra, so I chatted up the designers behind the scenes. After that I was hooked and I worked my way through design school. One job led to another, and now I meet with production teams and pull together the sets needed for filming here in Wilmington. I’ve been doing it for the last three years or so since moving back to the area.”
Lincoln watched as her expression changed in the telling. She definitely enjoyed her job. “And before Wilmington?”
“New York for a while, Hollywood after that, and then here. What about you? Marsali mentioned you’re in real estate?”
He nodded. “Yeah. My life hasn’t been as glamorous as yours.”
“Trust me, it’s not all glamour.”
“Yeah, well, after you left, I stayed in construction to support Carter and myself. Once Carter graduated high school and began working, I started night classes. Real estate made sense since it was a short span to earn a lucrative license if you’re willing to play the game and hustle. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Silence descended over the table after his statement, and he watched as Amelia glanced at the bar again. Maybe he shouldn’t have phrased his statement the way he had, but how else should he put it? She’d left him, her parents, everyone. Plain and simple.
Since she still stared at the bar as though she wanted to bolt, he tried to take a casual glance. A blond sat at the bar talking to the bartender, along with a few other singles eating there rather than taking up a table. Why the fascination?
“Are you ready to order?”
While his attention had been focused on the bar, their waitress had returned. The too-chipper teenager reminded him of Breanne before her mother’s accident. Since then, Breanne struggled with life and her place in it. Hopefully college would help her figure that out and bring back some of the sparkle now missing due to grief.
Amelia placed her order for a grilled chicken salad and he ordered salmon. Once the waitress walked away, the silence returned.
“Lincoln, I hope you’ve forgiven me for how I hurt you. I know I handled it badly and it wasn’t right to do that to you. I just wasn’t ready to get married and I wasn’t mature enough to handle the breakup properly.”
He nodded his understanding and realized had things been different, had she said yes, he wouldn’t have had his children, or his life with Jill. “It worked out as it was meant to.”
The words were easier to say now but hard to fathom back then. When Amelia had turned him down, he’d felt like it was yet another blow he wasn’t prepared for. His anger after the breakup and the overwhelming responsibility of caring for Carter had left him feeling resentful. Especially when Carter acted out and, due in part to his grief, nearly wound up in juvenile detention.
“Tell me about Carter. How is he? And your children? How old are they?”
Lincoln took a long drink and settled back in his chair, the memories bombarding him. The tough times, the dark times, and then the good. “Carter is okay. He owns a lucrative construction company here in town that can pretty much build or subcontract anything needed. He’s a single dad. His daughter, Piper, is four.”
“Wow. Carter is a dad. I can’t quite picture that.”
He chuckled. “It’s been an adjustment, for sure. Jill helped out a lot that first year, though. Eased the transition when his wife decided she didn’t want to be a mother.”
“Oh.”
He nodded. He and his brother had definitely endured more than their share of heartbreak. Carter had taken their parents’ deaths very hard. He searched for love but, after two marriages and two divorces, wasn’t any closer to finding it. “My two are now eighteen and heading off to college in a couple of weeks, so they’re staying busy packing up and saying goodbye to friends.”
“Wait. Both of them?”
“Twins,” he told her, nodding. “Brendan and Breanne. Polar opposites in personality but similar in looks. What about you? Did you marry? Have kids?” The questions were hard to ask, even after all these years.
“Mmm. No to both. I worked a lot of hours while I went to school part-time. Then a lot of hours on various sets. I… fell in love again. Once. But I quickly discovered he wasn’t going to give up dating, so that didn’t work out. But, no, no ring and no kids.”
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug that seemed casual but he sensed wasn’t.
“Like you said, things work out as they’re meant to, and obviously he wasn’t ready to settle down so… better to find out sooner rather than later.”
Their conversation continued as they got to know each other again. They caught up on parents and her many siblings, friends they’d kept in touch with since graduating high school.
Their food arrived and they dug in, their conversation shifting to more topics of favorite pastimes and local hangouts in and about town.
The dessert menu arrived when they finished, and even though Amelia shook her head, Lincoln found himself ordering a piece of chocolate cake with two forks.
Once the waitress walked away, Amelia narrowed her gaze on him.
“What?” he asked, feigning innocence when he knew he’d fail. “Chocolate cake no longer your favorite?” he asked, his mind shifting back in time to a parked car and a very private eighteenth birthday celebration he’d held for her on the north end of the island. It was a good memory. A fond memory. One he hadn’t thought of in many, many years.
