Forever My Love: A Christian Romance (The McKinleys Book 2)

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  “Did you have fun?” his mom asked when she saw them.

  Lindsay tossed him a look and kept on walking to the stairway. He saw his mom’s gaze follow her daughter then she looked back at him, her brows drawn together. “You two fighting?”

  “Just a difference of opinion. Nothing new. She’ll get over it.” He smiled at Brooke’s parents. “I think everyone had fun. I’m sure we’ll be out there a few more times before the weekend. You should join us.”

  “I just might,” Brooke’s dad said, but his wife was shaking her head. As was his mom.

  “I’ve gotta go get changed,” Lucas said. “See you in a bit.”

  He climbed the stairs to the second floor where all the bedrooms but the master were located. He met Danny and Jeff in the hallway. They’d already changed out of their swimsuits.

  “Where you boys off to?” Lucas asked as they came to a stop in front of him.

  “We’re supposed to go say goodnight to Mom. She’s at the other cabin lying down. Grandma said she had a headache.”

  Lucas frowned. “Is someone walking down there with you?”

  “I think Grandma and Grandpa are going with us.”

  “Okay. But you’re staying up here, right?”

  “Yep. In that room,” Danny said, pointing to the smallest of the rooms.

  Of the four rooms on the second floor, only one had a larger bed and Lindsay had claimed that one. The other three rooms had single or bunk beds. The boys had one, he had another, and, thankfully, Than and Lincoln would share the fourth.

  “Okay. I’ll see you when you get back from your mom’s.”

  Danny nodded and then the boys raced down the stairs as only ten-year-old boys could. As he watched them, Lucas felt incredibly old. And yet it brought back memories of when he and Lincoln had been that age. They, too, had raced down the stairs like Danny and his friend. And they’d spent hours exploring and playing on the island. He was the only one with those memories now.

  Once inside his room, Lucas quickly changed out of his wet clothes into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. He tried to keep his thoughts from going to Brooke and wondering if she really did have a headache or was just trying to avoid him.

  Lucas sank down on the edge of the bed. Part of him wanted to plead a headache, too. He was so frustrated and angry with everything that had transpired over the past few days. And then he felt guilty for feeling that way. He should be glad his brother was back—even without his memory. But all he could think was that things had been going just fine until he’d showed back up. And the only person he had to blame for that was himself.

  But then he would think about the look on his mom’s face when she saw her son alive and well, and Lucas knew he’d done the right thing. Danny would adapt and Brooke would continue to be the great mom she’d been all along. And he would try to put aside the feelings that had developed and pray that at some point God would bring him the right woman.

  After all, he had prayed about all of this, especially about finding Lincoln. He had to trust that God had a plan in place for each of them. The hardest part for him would be continuing to have Brooke in his life, but not in the role he’d begun to imagine for her.

  He’d always laughed when people had talked about love at first sight or falling in love so quickly, but now he knew that it was possible. And he really wished he didn’t.

  “Did you guys have fun?” Relieved that the medication had taken the edge off her headache, Brooke listened as both boys began to excitedly recount their time on the water. She was glad to hear they’d had fun.

  Danny hadn’t said much about Lincoln, but it was a bit difficult with Jeff there. She hoped that sometime the next day she’d have time to talk with him. She did notice that most of the comments about their time with the Jet Skis included references to Lucas and not Lincoln.

  When she saw Jeff try to stifle a yawn, Brooke said, “C’mon. Let me walk you back to the cabin. I think you guys need to go to bed. Tomorrow will be another day to do stuff.”

  They left Brooke’s room and found the rest of her family gathered in the living room.

  “I’m just going to run the boys back and get them into bed,” Brooke said.

  After Danny said goodnight to his grandparents, she followed the boys out to the path that led up to the main cabin. It seemed almost like being at a resort with the cabins and lighted paths. Too bad there was too much turmoil for her to truly enjoy it. If she’d known what was to come, she would have declined Lucas’s invitation to the cabin.

  Right then she really wanted to be in her own home. She wanted the privacy of her own room. The comfort of her own bed. But that wouldn’t be for another few days. Although it had been the original plan to stay through to the following Tuesday, Brooke was already contemplating asking for a ride back with Eric and Staci when they went home on Sunday.

  The boys took the steps up to the porch two at a time, but Brooke followed more slowly. By the time she walked into the cabin, they were already talking with Lucas’s mom.

  “You boys going to bed?” she asked them.

  “Yep. Mom says we need our rest to do more stuff tomorrow.”

  Sylvia looked at her and smiled. “Like I said before, your mom is smart.”

  Brooke tried to return her smile but doubted it looked all that sincere. “Okay, guys. Say your goodnights.”

  It didn’t take long for Danny to say goodnight to Lindsay and his grandmother. None of the others were in the room so they headed for the stairs.

  “Can I say goodnight to Lucas, Mom?”

  “Lucas?”

  “Yep. And to thank him for today. I forgot to do that before.”

  “Okay. I’ll just make sure your beds are ready for you.”

  She went into the room where they’d stayed since arriving two days earlier. As she waited for them to join her, Brooke picked up the clothes that lay in heaps on the floor. Then she straightened up their beds so that they could be tucked in properly.

  Muffled voices got closer as she worked and she looked up in time to see the boys appear in the doorway with Lucas behind them.

  She plastered a smile on her face. “Ready for bed?”

  The boys nodded and went to their respective beds. Once they were lying down, Brooke went to each of them and tucked them in and kissed them. “If you need me for anything, just use Jeff’s phone to call me.”

  “Or come get me,” Lucas said from where he stood. “I’ll make sure your mom knows you need her.”

  Brooke ran her hand over Danny’s hair and bent to whisper, “Love you, sweetie.”

  “Love you, too, Mom.” And then he looked toward the doorway. “Love you, too, Uncle Luc.”

  There was a pause then Brooke heard Lucas say, “I love you, too, buddy. Sleep well.”

  She closed her eyes briefly, fighting off a wave of emotion. “See you in the morning.”

  With one final kiss on his soft curls, Brooke stood and walked toward the doorway. She turned off the light as she left the room and pulled the door closed. There was a nightlight in the room she’d brought with her that gave them light if they needed to get up in the night.

  She didn’t want to look at Lucas. Didn’t want to talk to him, but he grasped her arm as she walked past him.

  “Can we talk?” His voice was low and rough.

  She looked toward the large glass windows along the front wall of the cabin that ran from the main floor to the second floor ceiling. Darkness was rapidly settling over the island and while she’d enjoyed that the first couple of nights, tonight it didn’t move her at all.

  “What about?”

  “Everything.”

  She couldn’t keep from glancing at him. Her breath caught in her lungs at the emotion in his dark gray eyes. “I’m not sure we should.”

  “Please. Just for a few minutes. There are things we need to discuss.”

  Before he could respond, a door opened across the landing, and Than and Lincoln came out. Both men paused at the
sight of them standing there, Lucas’s hand still holding her arm.

  “Everything okay?” Lincoln asked.

  “Everything’s fine,” Lucas said, his words clipped.

  “Why don’t we go downstairs?” Than suggested.

  Lincoln looked at Than then back at them before nodding. Brooke didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until they moved towards the stairs.

  “Let’s go to the dock,” Lucas suggested. “Hopefully, we won’t get interrupted there.”

  Brooke had imagined spending time on the dock in the moonlight with Lucas, but it hadn’t been under these circumstances. “Okay.”

  He released her arm as she headed for the stairs that Than and Lincoln had just taken. As they passed through the living room, Lucas paused beside Lindsay and bent to say something to her. When she nodded, he followed Brooke out onto the porch.

  “Watch your step,” was all he said as they made their way along the path to the dock.

  The nearly full moon glinted off the dark water, and Brooke wrapped her arms across her middle when a breeze from the lake swept over them. Unlike the heat of the city, it was relatively cool on the island at night. It truly was an idyllic life, and she could imagine spending time out there to paint, but she was feeling like maybe this would be her last trip to the Hamilton “resort.”

  “Danny said you had a headache earlier. Are you feeling better?” Lucas asked as they approached the end of the dock.

  Brooke settled into one of the chairs that were still sitting out from earlier. “Yeah, I took some medication that helped.”

  “That’s good.” Lucas stood staring out at the lake, his hands shoved into the pockets of his shorts.

  Brooke pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. As she rested her chin on her knees, she let out a soft sigh. She would be enjoying this immensely if the events of the past few days had never occurred.

  Lucas turned from the lake and sat down in the chair across from her. “I’m sorry for how all this has turned out.”

  “You’re hardly to blame for what’ s happened with Lincoln.” Although she did blame him for pulling back when she and Danny had needed him. She knew he was in a difficult position, but it still hurt that he’d acted that way. For some reason, she hadn’t expected that he would.

  “No, but perhaps I could have handled it all differently. Although Danny seems to be taking it all in stride. Or am I imagining that?”

  Brooke shrugged. “I’m not sure. I do know that he’s not connecting to Lincoln the way he did with you. When we came upstairs tonight, it was you he wanted to say goodnight to, not Lincoln.”

  She heard Lucas’s quick intake of breath.

  “I thought maybe he’d already said goodnight to him.”

  “Nope. The problem is that no matter how this new Lincoln tries to work things with Danny, in the back of his mind is the knowledge that his dad chose to not be part of his life before. You, on the other hand, came to him as soon as you realized who he was. I’m not sure that Lincoln can do anything to make Danny forget that.”

  “So you don’t think there’s any hope for a relationship between them?”

  “I think there will be something there, but I think it’s too late for the father-son relationship that your mom might want them to have.” Brooke sat back, resting her hands on the arms of the chair. “Does Lincoln even want a relationship with Danny? Or is he just trying because it seems that’s what everyone around him wants?”

  “Good question. I guess I never really asked him. When I told him about the life he’d forgotten, I just included you and Danny. Didn’t really give him a choice.”

  “Well, maybe it’s time you did. Have a heart to heart with him and find out what he really wants. Like I said though, I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to have that close father-son relationship with Danny if that’s what he’s hoping for.”

  “I’m worried that he might make the effort now but if his memory comes back, he’d head out and leave Danny again. And maybe not even his memory but if parts of his old personality are still there, he might not want to hang around.”

  Brooke didn’t know what to say to that. It had crossed her mind, but it was too late now. “Perhaps if you’d told me what was going on before it got to this point, we could have looked at some other options.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you’d talked to me about this as soon as you heard that Lincoln was alive, I could have looked into getting some advice from a counselor on how to handle it with Danny. Maybe we could have used some professionals to help with the transitioning.”

  “You’re saying I screwed up,” Lucas said bluntly.

  “I’m saying that you were so busy trying to handle this all on your own, you weren’t able to look at it from all angles. You were so intent on taking responsibility for everything that you didn’t think to ask those of us who are also involved what we might think about how it should be handled.”

  “I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure.”

  “I get that,” Brooke said. “I’m saying that once that call came that they’d found Lincoln, you needed to let me know. Instead, you took off determined to take care of it all by yourself. This involved my son and, for the record, I’m not your responsibility. And I’m the one who makes decisions for Danny. You trampled all over that.”

  When Lucas didn’t answer right away, Brooke was afraid that maybe she’d pushed it too far. But there were so many emotions inside her right then that it was hard to keep them all tightly reined in.

  Lucas leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “So what do we do now?”

  “You have that talk with Lincoln about Danny, and I’ll have a conversation with Danny about Lincoln. Then we compare notes and go from there.”

  “Okay. I guess that’s the best plan of action.”

  “I’m not going to force Danny into anything with Lincoln that he’s not comfortable with, so even if Lincoln does want that sort of relationship with him, it’s going to have to be on Danny’s terms.”

  “I understand,” Lucas said as he ran a hand through his hair.

  Brooke was a bit surprised that he was agreeing so easily. The slump of his shoulders as his head bent forward suddenly brought into focus for her exactly how much the weight of the responsibility he bore must press down on him. If she knew anything about him now, it was that he just wanted the best for all those he felt responsible for. But when push came to shove, whose needs would he put first? His family’s? Or Danny’s?

  “Is that all you wanted to discuss?”

  His head lifted at her question, and he turned toward her. The solar lights that gave some illumination along the dock weren’t strong enough to cast light on his face, so Brooke had no idea what he was thinking.

  “No.” He looked away from her. “We need to talk money.”

  “I don’t think so,” Brooke said.

  “Yes, we do. Since Lincoln is alive, the terms of his will are no longer valid.”

  “So? Danny and I are doing fine.”

  “I just wanted you to know that I will be making financial arrangements to make sure that you and Danny are taken care of.”

  Anger surged through Brooke. “I am quite able to take care of myself and Danny.”

  As soon as she said the words, Brooke realized that wasn’t quite true.

  And apparently Lucas did too because he said, “Really?”

  “I don’t need or want your handouts anymore. I’m going to tell Dorie that she’s supposed to sell my paintings to whoever wants them from now on.”

  “You think she’s going to give up the hefty commission she gets from holding on to the paintings to sell to me?”

  Brooke’s fists clenched. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because it’s the only way I’m going to be able to take care of the two of you, apparently.”

  “I’ll take my paintings somewhere else.”

  Lucas sighed and ran his hand
through his hair again. “Why does this have to be such a battle, Brooke? There are countless women who’d be taking what I’m offering without argument.”

  “Maybe it’s because I don’t want what you’re offering.” Brooke lowered her feet to the deck and stood up.

  Lucas also pushed up out of his chair which gave him a distinct height advantage over her. “You don’t want financial security for yourself and Danny?”

  Of course, she did. And in reality, it wasn’t that she didn’t want what he was offering, she just wanted more than that from him.

  “You just don’t get it, Lucas,” Brooke said.

  “Then explain it to me.” Frustration was very clear in his words. “I need to understand.”

  Before she could stop herself, Brooke reached out and grabbed the front of Lucas’s shirt in her hands. In one step, she was close enough to pull him down and press her lips to his. Though she might have taken him off-guard at first, it didn’t take him long to react.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  LUCAS’S arms folded around her, trapping her hands between them where she still clutched the fabric of his shirt in her fists. As his hands splayed across her back, Brooke felt like she’d just found her home. The sensation of being in his arms—of finally feeling his strength surrounding her—rushed through her. Everything she’d been feeling in her heart over the past couple of weeks meshed with the sensations swirling in her as they kissed. Emotions collided with physical sensations in a way she’d never experienced before.

  She wanted her arms free to wrap them around him, but Lucas held her so tightly she couldn’t move. It was as if he didn’t want to let her go. As if he was afraid to loosen his grip in case she escaped. But she wasn’t going anywhere.

  In his arms, she felt as if they could handle anything because they’d be doing it together. Leaning on his strength didn’t mean she was weak like she’d always thought it would when it came to depending on a man. In return, she could offer him the strength she had, too. Together. That’s how she wanted them to be.

  Her heart belonged to this man, and as she felt his lips move over hers, Brooke allowed herself to hope for the first time that his belonged to her.