“Well, Ms. Bridges said she can pass messages to Kirsten in jail.” Zoey leaned forward, her eyes earnest. “What if you asked her about giving up her legal rights? Making this official now.”
“What?No.” Why was Zoey being so pushy about this? Linc pulled his arm free, edged away from the table. “That’s a horrible idea.” He was being overly blunt again, but he hated feeling pressured.
Zoey didn’t understand.
“Why not?” She blinked at him.
He could explain—shouldexplain—but the words stuck in his throat. The memories, raw, unfiltered in his head. Hot tears on his young face. Muffled screams—his own. The social worker tugging him through the doors, his dad’s stone-cold face.
Linc bolted from his chair. “I saidno.”
She looked up at him, confusion and hurt in her gaze. “I just thought that way you wouldn’t have to worry so much about?—”
“You don’t get it.” His voice shook. He was always going to worry.
“Then help me understand.”
Maybe he was ready to pray with Pastor Todd at church—lot of good that had done so far—but he wasn’t ready to be this vulnerable with anyone. Not even Zoey.
Maybe especially not Zoey.
He wasLinc. He had the reputation to maintain, the shell that had kept him safe this far. Alone, maybe, but safe. Look what had happened the minute he let his guard down.
Everything went up in smoke.
He shoved his chair back under the table. “Just because she likes you better doesn’t mean you know what’s best.”
Her eyes flashed with hurt. “Fine.”
They stared at each other, and he hated himself more with every blink of her eyes.
He made a conscious effort to control his tone. “I’m going out on the boat. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Sure.” Her voice stiff, Zoey went back to her photos, flipping through the pile she’d just stacked.
Regret gnawed. He hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to leave it like that. Wanting to kiss her forehead, assure her it wasn’t her. It washim.
But he couldn’t do that without telling the whole story, and he’d never done that before. And couldn’t start today—not with everything else happening, everything else that was still unsaid between them. A month ago, he was a bachelor with a crawfish business, content to spend his evenings in the gym or in front of the TV. He’d never even considered getting a dog, for crying out loud.
Now he had the weight of two women he cared about resting permanently on his shoulders. Their lives. Their futures.
He wasn’t equipped for this—how could he be?
It was all too much.
He turned and walked out.
twenty-one
Dunkin’ donuts, but that man drove her nuts.
Roughly an hour after Linc stormed away, Zoey packed up the pictures and put them in her room on her dresser to hand out later. She couldn’t focus on the photos anymore tonight, even though she wanted to. Even though they’d been a surprisingly pleasant distraction from the fact her real career was permanently on hold.
Everything in her heart seemed on pause too, until she and Linc could talk. Maybe, when he got back from the boat and cooled off, they could work throughallof it.
Including what happened between them last night.
Her lips tingling from the memory, she shut the dresser drawer with a snap, waffling between annoyance and fear. Annoyance, because if Linc wanted to be a team like he kept saying, then he couldn’t keep pushing her away when things got complicated. She’d never let him get away with that before as a friend, and she couldn’t let him now that they were married.
