“Um, I know I’m not the best at expressing my emotions.”
Mo snorted. Pru nudged her with an elbow, and the blond woman mimed zipping her lips.
“It’s okay. I realize I don’t always say or show how much I love you two, but I do. You’ve both been there for me countless times, giving me advice, a shoulder to cry on—”
“Threatening to send laxative brownies to guys who break your heart.”
Her eyes widened as she stared at her roommate. “Mo, please tell me you didn’t send Lincoln your special brownies?”
The woman spread out her hands innocently. “I said threatening, not delivering, and you didn’t deny that he broke your heart, so I might have to—”
“No.” She shook her head. “Please don’t do that. Besides, he didn’t break my heart. I’ve learned that no one can do anything to my heart but me. It’s not broken, but it is a little sad. And it might stay that way for a while, but it will get better, because I have you two.”
“Awww, look at you, Lil.” Mo gave her a small shoulder nudge. “Getting all sappy and stuff.”
“Canon in D” chimed in the air. Lilly searched through her coat pocket for her phone.
“It’s me!” Mo exclaimed, holding up her cell phone.
Lilly glanced at Pru, who also had her phone in her hand, staring at the screen.
“Seriously?” She shook her head at her friends. “I thought we all agreed to change our text notification sound so we wouldn’t be grabbing for our phones at the same time like a bunch of idiots.”
“We did agree,” Mo said as she read her message. “And then none of us changed our tone, assuming the other two would.”
“I can’t figure out how to change anything on this stupid phone,” Lilly complained. “I can send texts and make calls, but otherwise I’m out. Technology hates me.”
She turned to Pru, who raised her hands in the air.
“Don’t look at me. I have two seven-month-olds at home. If it isn’t related to food, poop, or playtime, it’s not getting done.”
When she glanced at Mo, the woman simply shrugged.
“What? I forgot. Anyway, we don’t have time to argue about this right now. We have a very important delivery waiting for us at the office.”
“We do?” She didn’t remember anything scheduled to come in today. Had one of their brides ordered something to be delivered to the office?
“He’s ready?” Pru grunted when Mo elbowed her. “I, uh, mean, it’s ready?”
She glanced at her friends. They were acting very strangely. In fact, they’d been acting weird for the past few days, staring at her with odd smiles on their faces…even today’s lunch seemed out of the ordinary. They almost always ordered in or one of them went to pick something up and bring it back to the office for lunch. They were up to something.
Guess the only way she was going to find out was to go back to the office and see what the mysterious package was.
They made their way down the sidewalk and into the building. At the first blast of the building’s heat, Lilly sighed in relief. She wiggled her poor frozen toes, vowing to keep a pair of snow boots under her desk for any future lunches out.
“Here, let me take your coat.”
Mo grabbed the shoulders of the garment. Lilly barely had time to unzip it before her roommate tugged it off her back.
“Um, thanks.” And why couldn’t that have waited until they got in their actual office?
“Did you want to fix your lipstick before we head inside?” Mo asked.
She glanced at her friend. What an odd question. “Why? Is it smeared from lunch?”
It shouldn’t be. She spent a pretty penny on this supposed ever-wear lipstick that claimed twenty-four-hour coverage. It had never let her down before.
“No. It looks great. You always look great, Lil. But I have a mirror if you want to check—”
“Mo, can it. She’s fine.”
Pru gave Mo a knowing look with the shake of her head. Okay, now they were being super weird. What the hell was going on? And why was Moira insisting Lilly check her appearance? Yes, she prided herself on looking poised and polished for all their clients, but they didn’t have any client meetings this afternoon. Otherwise she wouldn’t have agreed to the ill-advised trip out to lunch.
“You’re more than fine, Lilly.” Mo smiled as they reached the office door. “You’re perfect, and I don’t think your heart is going to be sad for too much longer.”
Tilting her head, she stared in confusion at her roommate. “Thank you?”
“Don’t thank us.” Mo pulled open the office door.
Lilly stepped inside, her jaw dropping wide as a majority of the open space in the room was now taken up by a very large zombie-themed pinball machine. It looked just like… But no, that was impossible. It couldn’t be…
“What the…?” She moved around the machine, fingertips hovering over the clear glass covering the ramps, bumpers, and all the playable parts. She was almost afraid to touch it, like it might disappear if she did. “Why is there a pinball machine in our office?”
“Because your building’s elevator is broken, and I can’t lug that thing up the stairs to your apartment.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the familiar voice. She turned to see Lincoln standing in the corner of the room. How had she missed him when she first came in? Could have something to do with the giant arcade game she was standing by.
“We’ll just head upstairs to drop off these leftovers,” Pru said, backing out the office door.
Mo scrunched up her nose, a confused expression on her face. “What leftovers?”
Pru sighed. “Come on, Mo. They need privacy.”
“Aw, but I want to hear him grovel.”
Lilly chuckled as Pru wrapped an arm around Mo’s waist and the two left, but not before Mo gave her a wink and a thumbs-up. The second they were alone, she turned to Lincoln, who made his way over to her and now stood only inches away.
“Lincoln. This looks exactly like…”
He shrugged, a sheepish smile curling his lips. Lips she’d been desperately missing.
“I know. Kenneth and Marie said groveling goes better with a gift. So I asked Mo for your mother’s number and—”
“You spoke to my mom? Why?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I, um, didn’t know Curt’s last name, and it’s hard to do a search of someone without their last name.”
He called her mother to get Curt’s name. Why? She glanced back at the machine, the reason staring her in the face, taking up a significant portion of her office. Tears gathered in her eyes as she turned back to Lincoln to ask, “Then this really is his? The old pinball machine?”
He nodded. “You were right—the guy is really nice. When I told him about how much the machine meant to you, he was more than happy to send it your way. He lives in Wyoming now, so I had to rent a truck and drive up to get it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “And there’s also this.”
Lilly took the piece of paper, her fingers trembling as she glanced down at ten scrawled-out numbers.
“He said you can call him anytime if you want to catch up. Said leaving you was the only thing he regretted about the divorce.” Lincoln grimaced. “He also said he had a large plot of land where no one would find a body if I ever hurt you.”
Lilly laughed as she clutched the paper to her heart. If she ever considered anyone a father figure, it had been Curt. She couldn’t believe Lincoln called her mother and her ex-stepfather just to find the most treasured thing of her childhood.
“You were right, Lilly.”
He took a deep breath, staring at her hand on the glass, lifting his to trace along each of her fingers. One at a time. The touch of his hand, after so many days aching for it, made her body ignite and her heart clench.
“I was living in the past. I don’t have feelings for my ex anymore, but I also never let go of what happened. I held on to the pain, the anger, like a shield. Used it to stop anyone else from getting too close. From being able to hurt me again. But then I met you.”
“Lincoln—”
He lifted her hand, intertwining their fingers. The dark scruff of his beard looked longer. As if he hadn’t trimmed it in a few days. His eyes stared into hers; she could see the distress in them, but she could also see something else. Something she didn’t want to name for fear of being wrong but hoped she was right.
“Our past shapes us. It makes us who we are, but we get to choose how that happens. And I don’t want my past to stop me from being with the woman I love.”
A tear slid down her cheek. Her heart felt so full but wonderfully light in her chest, the heaviness of the past few weeks melting away with Lincoln’s admission. A happy smile curled her lips as she choked back a relieved sob of joy.
“I love you. I have for a while now, but I was too afraid to admit it. Too scared to risk my heart again, and I’m sorry for the way I acted, for hurting you, for even the millisecond of doubt I let creep into my head because of what happened in the past. You’re not my past, Lilly. You’re my now and, I hope, my future. I love you.”
More tears slipping from her eyes, she lifted a hand to wipe them away. “I love you, too.”
“My groveling worked, then?”
She shook her head. “No. It was totally the pinball machine.”
Lincoln laughed, placing a hand on her waist and tugging her into him so he could dip his head and claim her lips. Every inch of her body and soul cried out with joy at the feel of being in his arms again.
“Then I guess there’s just one more question I have to ask you,” Lincoln said when they finally came up for air.
“Oh really? And what’s that?”
Still holding her hand, he went down on one knee. She sucked in a breath. Surely he couldn’t be asking what she thought he was asking? They’d just admitted their feelings for each other, and while she could see a future with Lincoln, she didn’t think now was the time to—
“Lilly Walsh, will you go on a date with me?”
She snorted, slapping her free hand over her mouth as the loud bark of relieved laughter left her. With all her primp and polish, all her rules and propriety, how funny that she fell for a man she hadn’t even had a proper date with. Life really did go its own way. She was just happy she finally learned to go along with it.
“Yes, Lincoln Reid. I will go on a date with you.”
He rose, taking her into his arms once more. “Now, what do you say we break in this machine? Winner chooses date night activities?”
She grinned. “You’re on.”
No matter who won the game, they’d both won each other, and really, that was all that mattered.
Epilogue
Six months later
“I don’t understand how one man can have so many computer parts.” Lilly glanced at the fifth—no, sixth—box labeled computer parts Lincoln set down in their new living room. After six months of dating, Lincoln had surprised the heck out of her by asking her to move in with him. Since his tiny basement space wasn’t ideal for two people, they’d gone on the apartment search and found a great place just a few blocks away from her old digs.
Who would have thought the man who months ago said he didn’t do long-term would be the one to push for the next stage in their relationship? Lincoln had changed a lot in the past months, and so had she. They’d both had to learn how to compromise and try new things, but along with that came the joy of sharing what you loved with the person you loved. They didn’t always agree—she still hated camping (peeing in the woods, no thank you), and no way in hell would he ever get her to drink a pumpkin spice latte, but she’d agreed to go RVing as a compromise, and maybe he could convince her to try one pump of vanilla syrup in her coffee someday—but they’d both learned to open their eyes to new experiences. And open their hearts to each other.
“What is it with everyone commenting on how much computer stuff I have?” Lincoln grumbled as he came in behind her. “I’m a computer guy; of course I have a lot of spare parts. You should be grateful. If I recall, one of these boxes used to hold the extra RAM I installed in your new computer.”
Pressing her lips to his cheek, Lilly smiled. “I am grateful and thank you, sweetie.”
There was nothing better than having your very own company computer guy on call twenty-four seven.
“What’s that?” She pointed to the box in his hands.
Lincoln grinned like a kid on Christmas. “My D&D books. Curt said he’d join our campaign.”
A week after Lincoln gave her Curt’s number, she’d called him up. It had been a bit scary reconnecting with a man she hadn’t seen in years but still considered the closest thing she’d ever had to a father. Curt had been so happy to hear from her. They even scheduled a meetup when his family came to Denver for his youngest’s debate tournament. It warmed her heart to know Curt had found love. His wife was a very sweet woman, and his two kids were a hilarious handful.
Lincoln had come for moral support, and when the two men discovered a love of RPGs, they had spent an hour geeking out. Now Curt was joining them via video chat for their monthly game. She knew Curt wasn’t her real father, but in a small way, Lilly felt like she got her dad back again. All she had to do was suffer through pretending to be a half-elf bard on a quest for a magical flute.
She let out a small groan.
“You promised to try one campaign.”
“And you promised to try one weekend skiing.”
He shuddered. “If I break my leg, I expect full Florence Nightingale treatment.”
Laughing, she took the box from his hands and placed it on the soft beige carpet of their new place. A new beginning with the man she loved. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she gazed up into his eyes, a wealth of love shining out from them. Love for her. Something that still amazed her every day she saw it.
“You won’t break anything, but we can always play naughty nurse if you want.”
Lincoln bent his head down, brushing his lips against hers as he whispered, “The only thing I want is you.”
Her thoughts exactly. So many things had changed in the past year, and she knew there were more changes ahead. Marie had let it slip that Lincoln had been asking Kenneth for local jeweler recommendations. Lilly wasn’t going to count her chickens before they hatched, but they had been talking a lot about the future and what they wanted. All she knew was as long as Lincoln was by her side, she was happy. He could propose today or ten years from now; it didn’t matter.
As long as they were together. That’s all she needed.
“The movers already put the pinball machine in the spare room.” Lincoln bobbed his eyebrows. “Wanna play?”
She grinned. “Loser unpacks the kitchen.”
“You’re on.”
And pinball. Lilly always needed pinball.
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Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank Paul for letting me ask him a million questions about computer programming, any mistakes are mine alone.
A huge thanks to my agent Eva Scalzo and my editors Stacy Abrams and Judi Lauren for continuing on this Mile High Happiness journey and loving Lincoln and Lilly as much as I do. Also a big thank you to all the staff at Entangled Publishing for all their support and dedication on this book.
And to you, the reader. Thanks for letting my imaginary friends live in your hearts for a little while. I couldn’t do this without you.
About the Author
Bestselling author Mariah Ankenman lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains with her two rambunctious daughters and loving husband who provides amp
le inspiration for her heart-stopping heroes. Her books have been nominated for the prestigious RWA Golden Heart® and CRW Stiletto awards.
Whether she’s writing hometown heroes or sexy supernaturals, Mariah loves to lose herself in a world of words. Her favorite thing about writing is when she can make someone’s day a little brighter with one of her books.
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