Thoughts of their night together flooded his brain, his body tightening in response. He’d been waiting years to get his hands on her. He’d honestly never thought he’d get the chance. First, she’d been far too young. After that, far too reckless. He’d been wise to keep his distance while she’d been so self-destructive, but it had taken all his willpower. Then she’d gone to jail and his thoughts of her had eventually evaporated. Like Sadie herself had said, she’d sort of dimmed from his life. Gradually, he’d stopped thinking about her and when he did, he chided himself, talking himself out of his attraction to her.
Seeing her last week, so strong and sure of herself, had stoked the flames of his long-held desire for her. What could have only been considered lust back then, the needs of a young man, transformed when he’d seen her again. Something new began building inside of him, something far less shallow than what he’d once considered strong feelings for Mercedes Charles. Oh sure, he’d admired her spark back then and longed to run his fingers through her hair. Her body had been a thing of fantasies, worthy of magazine spreads, which she’d had.
But she’d changed into something he didn’t even know existed in the real world, let alone something that could be inside of Mercedes Charles.
It was a fascinating transformation and he was far more entranced by the Sadie of today as opposed to the Mercedes of his youth.
The image of her seeking her pleasure the night before would stay etched into his memory for years, he was sure. The look of rapture on her face. The bond they’d shared and her confusion.
She could lecture him on their boundaries all she wanted. If she wanted to pretend they were just engaging in sex and nothing more, he was going to let her run with it.
But the look on her face when they’d connected, while making love, told him she wasn’t as distant as she’d like to be.
He’d play by her rules for as long as she needed him to, but there was one thing Lincoln would stake money on and that was Sadie Charles falling for him.
With a smile on his face, he snatched his clothes up off the floor and headed to the bathroom. Afterward, he wandered to the kitchen, puzzled at the silence. He’d think a house with four dogs in it would be more rowdy, but it was silent as a tomb. If there was one thing he could say about his house, compared to Sadie’s, it was the quiet. While she lived in a quiet place, her house was busy with life. One step in the door and it was easy to see that someone lived their life here. Homey and warm, someone had built a life here. His house, in comparison, was busy on the outside—a bustling city, but the inside of his home was quiet. Decorated professionally, there was nothing on display that spoke to who he was. Compared to Sadie’s, his home was lifeless. He’d thought he’d made it into something that was his, something that represented his personality. But now that he could see what a real home looked like, he hadn’t come close.
Once in the kitchen, he heard voices coming from outside. Quietly, he grabbed a cup of coffee and drank while standing at the counter, eavesdropping.
There was an older woman out on the patio with Sadie. They were discussing Sadie going out of town for a few days. The woman with the gray hair, who happened to be stroking Gordon’s ears, was offering to watch the dogs.
That had possibilities. The thought of Sadie, naked with her long, blonde hair spread out on his bed, had a smile blooming across his face.
Definite possibilities.
The woman then started talking about her grandson. Sadie spoke like she’d met the child which Lincoln found interesting. She kept such a distance from people she’d known her whole life. It was sad that she’d come out of jail only to have to make all new connections in her life. Like she’d severed every tie she’d had.
“This friend of your brother’s,” the older woman said, “he going to be sticking around for a while?”
He could only see the top of Sadie’s head over the back of her chair and nothing more.
“I doubt it,” she said, making Lincoln frown. “He’s busy in Boston. I’m sure he’ll take Gordon home pretty soon and get back to real life.”
“Well, don’t let him go too soon. I want my Jackson to come meet this handsome fella.”
The woman stood and looked down at Sadie, but when she turned and saw him watching her through the window she smiled.
“Besides, he’d have to be an idiot to leave you out here all by yourself for too much longer. A woman as wonderful as you doesn’t stay single forever.”
Thickly veiled message received. Lincoln raised his mug in acknowledgment to which the woman nodded her head.
When she left, Lincoln joined Sadie on the patio and sat in her seat.
“Brenda,” she said in greeting, “my neighbor. Subtlety isn’t her strong suit.”
“I like the hint,” he commented. “But she’s barking up the wrong tree, remember. You’re the one that doesn’t want to go out with me, not the other way around.”
“I feel like we’re doing just fine.” Her smile was mischievous, her brown eyes sparkling with secrets.
He put his mug down. “Oh, I thought you forgot about me. You left me in bed all by myself and I woke up, wondering if it even really happened.”
“Oh, it happened,” she murmured.
“Yeah?” He held out his arms. “Come show me.”
He was surprised when she looked like she was considering it. He thought for sure she’d turn him down flat.
“I thought we talked about this last night?”
“We did? No hugging? Was that a thing?”
“That’s not what I mean.”
He knew what she meant. She wanted to keep her distance, not just physically but emotionally too.
“We hugged a lot last night,” he said with a wink. “There was this one moment, where you were on top of me and your mouth was in this cute little O shape.”
“Lincoln,” she chided on a laugh.
“And your arms were wrapped around me, hugging me so tight and down on my—”
“Okay!” she shouted as she got up. “Enough of the recap.”
She settled onto his lap, her back pressed to his front. He wrapped his arms around her, relishing the weight of her, the feel of her hair as it tickled his neck.
“I like the recap,” he admitted. “I’ve been doing it all morning.”
Sadie craned her neck around to see him. “I may have thought about it a time or two myself.”
“Yeah?” He squeezed her hips. “Want to refresh our memories? I didn’t get a chance to really enjoy seeing you lying in bed.”
Before she could answer, Lola lumbered over to them and sat down, staring at them intently. Lincoln shifted his grip on Sadie’s hip and the dog’s eyes followed his hand, watching him.
“I think we have a chaperone,” Sadie said, leaning forward. “What’s the matter, baby? You don’t want to go play in the yard?”
There was something innately special about the way Sadie interacted with dogs. Not just the way she spoke to them or touched them but in the way she felt them. The way she looked into Lola’s eyes, assessing and comforting.
“Come on.” She kissed the dog’s head. “Let’s find you a nice shady spot to lay.”
Sadie removed herself, leaving Lincoln with a feeling of not just regret but admiration. Selfishly, he would have kept her sitting with him for as long as possible but Sadie put Lola’s needs first.
It was becoming clear that it was nearly time to put the old Mercedes Charles to rest. She just didn’t live here anymore.
8
He’d spent the entire day with her.
Shocked was an understatement, Sadie thought, for how she was feeling. She was sure he would be bored and ready to head back to the city as soon as yard work came into play. He’d not only stuck around but he’d actually been helpful. She’d lugged some tools out to the back of the dog run, hoping to repair some siding, not that she had a great knowledge of what needed to be done. All she knew was that there were loose boards and they probably
would stay up better with nails in them.
Lincoln had kissed her, taken the hammer, and gotten to work. He’d talked to her about studs and seams like she was supposed to know what he meant. She’d smiled and nodded, trying not to look lost.
She’d worked with Gordon and Cocoa on her small obstacle course for a while, enjoying the way they interacted. She’d vacuumed the pool and cleaned up what seemed like an excessive amount of dog poop. Lincoln, at one point, had trotted to the barn, sans shirt, and had come out with a paint can.
It was strange that it didn’t feel odd to have Lincoln in her space. Whenever her family came to visit, it was a constant game of entertaining. She always felt like she needed to explain why she did things or why something might not be up to their standards. Lincoln didn’t evoke that feeling when he was around. He kept himself busy and never gave the impression that he was anything less than content in her home.
He’d held her hand during lunch when they’d had leftover takeout.
That had been embarrassingly exciting, her girlish dreams coming to fruition. As much as she might want to tell him that hand-holding and displays of affection weren’t exactly what she had in mind with the sex-only speech, she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Her hand folded into his felt so comforting and serene, she just wanted to hold on to the feeling for a bit longer.
When the day wore on and she tired of chores, Sadie went to the dog pens in search of him. It was time for them to knock off for the day and it was far past time he went home. The longer he stayed, the more attached she’d get.
Sex was one thing.
Whatever they’d been doing all day, playing domesticated couple, was something altogether different.
She turned the corner of the pen and held in a laugh. Lincoln was propped up against the back of the dog pen, sitting in the shade, drinking a soda. Gordon and Cocoa both laid next to him, enjoying the cool spot after their day of playing.
“Now here I was, thinking you’d been back here working hard and needed a break,” she said, hand on hips. “Come to find out, you’re all slacking on the job.”
He smiled up at her and her breath caught in her throat. How was it that one man could capture her interest for a lifetime? His expressions, from joking to concerned, were so clear on his face.
“All done, boss,” he told her; his voice serious but his eyes full of humor. “Unless there’s something else you need from me? I don’t mind working overtime.”
He ended with a wink and it was nearly impossible not to laugh out loud. She just barely managed to keep it together.
She’d never seen Lincoln so casual and relaxed. If she really thought about it, she’d never had a lot of interactions with him outside of their social circle. Brady and his friends had always hung out on Brady’s floor of their house. Family dinners were fairly formal, and if Lincoln had come to those, the conversations were always between her father and the boys. There hadn’t been a lot of room for laughing and joking.
It suited him.
So did the shorts that showed off his legs. She was quickly realizing she was a sucker for his legs.
Sadie lowered herself to sit next to him. Wordlessly, he handed her his drink.
“You’ve got to go home, Lincoln.”
She felt him looking at her.
“Tired of me?” he asked.
Worse, she thought. She liked having him around.
“You’ve got a life,” she pointed out. “We need to figure out what your plans are for Gordon, and get you set up to go home.” She drank deeply from his drink and handed it back. “We need to make a game plan.”
“Oh, I have a game plan,” he told her.
The laughter was gone from his face when she looked at him. It was all heat, and reminders of their night together, flashing in his eyes.
“Not a sex game plan,” she said firmly. “I’m talking about work. Your work. My work.”
Lincoln leaned his head back against the dog pen and looked out at the woods in front of him. “I didn’t think about how much time I spent at the office until I got Gordon. It never registered that I spent a lot of time working. It’s just what we do, you know?”
She did know. It was exactly what her father had always done. He’d spent countless hours at the office when she’d been a young girl. His time away hadn’t done their relationship any favors and she’d been a human child. For someone with that kind of work ethic, caring for a dog would be impossible.
“Seeing Gordon out here makes me see what I’m doing to him. He can’t be alone for so long, that’s for sure.”
“You could hire a dog walker or a sitter or something. They have doggie daycare,” she suggested.
“I tried the dog-walker thing,” he reminded her.
“Gordon needs someone firm. Not someone that’s going to stop by once a day to take him out. If you do that, he’s too excited by the time they come. He needs more consistency and more training. He likes it. He took to it.”
“He took to you,” he said. “He took to being here, without me.”
“He likes to run, Lincoln. He likes to be with other dogs and people.”
“I could try the doggie daycare thing.” He sounded defeated. “Unless he could stay here for the weeks, and I could come get him on the weekends.”
Sadie sent him a sad smile. “That’s not what’s best for any of us.”
They both looked at Gordon and Cocoa, cuddled up and dozing in the shade.
“Well,” she corrected. “Maybe it’s best for those two but not for you and not for me. I’ve already got my hands full. Between my three and the training jobs I take on, plus the community service program, I’m already overbooked.”
“Then why did you say yes to me in the first place?”
She shrugged.
Because when the man you’ve always had a soft spot for shows up, asking for favors, you don’t turn him down.
Because his searing blue eyes held her captive every time he looked at her.
Because it wasn’t very often that men like Lincoln Greene asked for help.
“I said yes to Gordon,” she lied, knowing it had been more than that from the moment she’d laid eyes on Lincoln again. “And I’m glad I did, Lincoln. He’s a great dog and you’re good for each other. He just needs more of your time.”
“Something that’s in short supply some days,” he admitted.
“The nature of your work, I suppose.”
“Would it surprise you if I told you I never wanted to go into finance?” he asked.
It would. She’d never seen Lincoln doing anything other than finance stuff. It was what his father did. It was what his father’s father did. It was what he went to college for.
“Honestly? Yes,” she said.
“One summer I went to camp in the country, way out in the Berkshires.”
She remembered. Brady had come back bragging about sleeping with an entire bunkhouse of girls. She’d never asked if he meant he did them separately or at the same time.
“I was seventeen,” Lincoln continued. “My parents packed three college brochures for me to look at that summer. Three. Those were the only schools I was allowed to consider. All of them already had the curriculum I’d study circled because my parents had already chosen what I was going to do.” He looked at her then, his face a bit wistful. “I never even opened them. While Brady, Grant, and Dylan were chasing girls for those few weeks, do you know what I was doing?”
Sadie wanted to make a joke but he was being far too serious for that, opening up in a way he’d never done with her before.
“Everything,” he said. “I was doing everything. Fishing and kayaking, I slept outside. I tried every single thing they offered.”
She tried to imagine him cutting loose like that but found it difficult.
“All I wanted to do was stay at camp that summer. I even talked to my father about starting a camp of our own, but he laughed. That’s not what Greenes do, he told me. I never wanted to be like him
.” He chuckled then but it came without a smile or any real humor. “Then I went off to school and did exactly what my father wanted me to do. I guess I lost sight of what I wanted and I just went along with what I was supposed to do.”
It was sad but certainly not uncommon. And it wasn’t as if Lincoln hadn’t landed on his feet. They all had dreams growing up. It wasn’t like she’d been dreaming of running a dog-training program all her life.
“Life doesn’t always lead us where we think it will,” was all she said.
“If there’s anyone who knows that firsthand, it’s you,” he pointed out.
“Well, screw-ups aside, I think I landed right where I was supposed to,” Sadie admitted. “Are you saying you don’t want to run the firm anymore?”
“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not it. I like what I do. I’ve got a thing for numbers and I like the work. I liked building the firm. Working with my best friends is a bonus. But as Brady tells me all the time, they love what they do. They love the firm.”
“And you just like it,” she concluded.
“I feel like I’m missing something.”
“Cut yourself some slack,” she suggested. “Take time to enjoy yourself. Maybe you just need some free time and a hobby.”
He looked at her with a mischievous smile. “I was hoping you’d volunteer.”
“To be your hobby?” She laughed and stood, wiping the dirt off her butt.
Lincoln joined her, slinging an arm around her shoulder. “Yeah. You know, something I do when I have free time. I want to hone my skills.”
“Your skills seemed fine.” She laughed.
“Just fine?” He sounded offended. “Guess I have some work to do.”
“You were supposed to be going home.” Sadie laughed, turning her head on the pillow to look at Lincoln.
He was lying next to her in bed, a smug smile on his face.
“I had to prove that I was more than just fine.”
“It was just an expression,” she told him. “But now I’m convinced. Nice work. You’re excellent. You have to go home.”
No Love Left Behind (Boston Billionaire's Club Book 1) Page 10
