by Kay Lyons
Amelia grabbed the box from atop the bag and held it out to Breanne.
“You know what to do?”
Bree nodded.
“I bought a twin pack, so if you don’t believe it the first time, you can do it again. Or take them both at the same time to compare.”
“Thanks, Amelia,” Bree said.
“You’re welcome. Go. I’ll distract your dad.”
Breanne took the box and avoided eye contact as she left the room once more. Lincoln turned toward Amelia and saw her unloading the rest of the groceries. “You… Thank you. For helping her. Me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You look tired. Have you eaten today?”
“Not much. But I’m not hungry now.”
A huff left him and he raked his fingers through his short hair. “Yeah, me either.” He closed the distance between them and pulled Amelia into his arms, lowered his head for a kiss that pressed lips and foreheads together and simply held, unmoving, for a time. It wasn’t a sexual type of kiss but an appreciative one, bonding them together as they leaned against each other for strength. “You are amazing,” he whispered. “I can’t believe you brought her home with you.”
“I couldn’t exactly leave her there,” she said, nuzzling the words against his mouth. “And you’re not so bad yourself.”
Lincoln gave her a real kiss before lifting his head to stare into her beautiful eyes. “You weren’t serious about wanting kids, right? That was… I don’t know, a joke?”
“Um… no?”
“No, what?”
“It wasn’t a joke. Lincoln, I want to be a mother. And seeing as how I’ve waited so long, the sooner it happens the better.”
He pulled away from her, shaken to his core once more by the earth-shattering revelation. “Amelia, I’m about to have an empty nest for the first time in my life. I became a guardian at eighteen… and I may be finding out I’m going to be a grandfather in a matter of minutes. You expect me to want to add a kid to that?”
A noise alerted them to Bree’s return. Lincoln took one look at his daughter’s face and felt like he’d been sucker-punched. “Bree?”
Breanne cried as she ran toward him.
“I’m not! It’s negative! They were both negative! I’m not!”
Lincoln lifted Breanne off her feet to hug her tight and swing her around, sharing her relief—until his gaze met Amelia’s and he knew something bigger had just happened tonight as a result of the pregnancy scare.
He kissed Bree’s cheek and lowered her to her feet.
“I’m glad you got the answer you wanted, Breanne,” Amelia said softly. “Now I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve had a really long day and I’m tired. All of the excitement has left me exhausted. Maybe you and your dad should go out somewhere to celebrate your news and talk privately?”
“Yeah. Okay,” Breanne said as she walked over and hugged Amelia. “Thank you for everything. I’m so glad I saw you in the store, Amelia. You’re the best. Thank you so much.”
Lincoln watched as Amelia squeezed his daughter with the loving care of a woman who wanted to be a mother, and it cut him to the core. Their gazes locked once more, and his gut tightened when he saw her eyes fill with unshed tears.
“Me, too.”
“Bree, give us a minute, okay?”
“Is everything all right?” Breanne asked, her head swiveling between the two of them.
Amelia cleared her throat and grabbed a chocolate bar from the stash still sitting on the counter along with a small toy.
“It’s fine. Hey, you. Take these. One for eating, one for luck and comfort as your start school.”
Bree grinned and murmured her thanks, lifting the plush animal to her lips to kiss.
After Amelia left the kitchen and headed toward the door, Lincoln took a step toward Amelia, but she held up her hand to stop him.
“Just go, Lincoln. Breanne needs you right now.”
He watched her a long moment and nodded. “Okay. You’re right. But this isn’t over yet.”
Amelia shook her head and sniffled. “Actually, I think maybe it is.”
“Come on, Amelia. You can’t be serious. Let’s… Look, come away with me.” The words came out of nowhere, and he was almost as surprised by them as she seemed to be.
“What?”
“Filming is supposed to wrap up next week, right? I’ll have the twins settled in school by then.” He stepped close and gently rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “Let’s go away somewhere. Just you and me. I’ll book us separate rooms and we can talk and—”
“I can’t.”
He froze, not liking the way she couldn’t make eye contact. “Can’t? Or don’t want to?”
“Lincoln… I should’ve brought this up sooner. A lot sooner. I-I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about not having kids, but now that I see that you do, there’s something—”
“What?”
She tucked her head to her chest and moaned softly.
“Izzy. Izzy set me up with Marsali, remember?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, it was because… I have an appointment in Atlanta at a clinic.”
He watched her closely, unable to read the emotions flickering across her face in rapid succession. “Amelia? Are you sick?”
“No… No, I’m not sick.”
Relief poured through him. “Thank God. So what are you doing? Some kind of plastic surgery? Honey, you don’t need it. You make my heart stop every time I see you now.”
She tilted her head to one side, her expression softening. “Thank you. Right back at you,” she whispered. “But I’m not having plastic surgery. I’m… getting pregnant.”
Shock rolled through him and he told himself he’d misheard her. “What?”
“Izzy felt like I’d given up on falling in love and doing things the old-fashioned way, and she was right. I had. So she contacted Marsali and hired her to match me, hoping I’d find someone and fall in love. I agreed to three dates before my appointment on the off chance I’d meet someone I’d want to be with,” she said in a rush, arms hugging her front tightly. “I never expected it to be you.”
“Pregnant?” he asked, still trying to get his brain to work enough to process the news after Breanne’s shock from earlier. “You’re telling me you’re going to a clinic to be—”
“Yes. The first appointment is an assessment and to go over expectations and guidelines, but if things go well, I’ll move forward with the procedure. I was planning to cancel it. Because of us. But hearing you say you don’t want kids…”
He took a step back, forcing air into his tight chest and feeling much the same as he had while waiting on Breanne to take the test. What had she called it? A panic attack? “Why didn’t you say anything before now?”
“What was I supposed to say, Lincoln? We haven’t dated that long. Should I have told you on the first date? How would that have gone? Nice to see you again, Lincoln. I know I broke your heart twenty years ago, but would you like to get me pregnant?”
“Um… Dad?”
He closed his eyes and bit back a silent curse when Breanne reentered the room in time to hear Amelia’s statement. He could feel his daughter’s gaze boring a hole in his back and turned to find her staring at the two of them. “Bree, I’ll be there in a second. Just… wait by Amelia’s door, please.”
Breanne didn’t move for a long moment but then did as ordered and disappeared once more. “Amelia—”
“Lincoln, just go. You’ve had enough to deal with tonight and it’s not completely over yet.”
“That’s it? We find each other again and I don’t get a say in this plan of yours? The time we’ve been together meant what to you, exactly?”
Amelia met his gaze with a look that took his breath away and broke his heart all over again.
“It meant everything. I love you, Lincoln. I never stopped loving you all of these years, and nothing would make me happier than to turn that love into a bab
y of our own, but if you’re so set against it… This is a deal breaker for me. I want kids. You don’t. Since we can’t agree on this, how can we possibly have a future together?”
Chapter 14
Lincoln stared out at his backyard the following evening after his third call to Amelia went to voicemail. He’d texted her last night after he and Breanne had returned home and asked Amelia to call him on any break she’d had during the day today, but so far all he’d received was radio silence.
“Hey. Everything okay?” Mac asked from his deck. “The food should be here in an hour or so.”
The last thing Lincoln felt like doing was socializing, but the evening wasn’t about him or his moods and all about the twins’ journey to college tomorrow. Since they were packing up the truck and doing last-minute things, Mac had offered to host everyone at his house for dinner and had ordered from the kids’ favorite Italian restaurant. “Yeah, we should have everything loaded up and done by then.”
“Dad?”
Lincoln turned and found Breanne standing in the doorway to the kitchen, her ex-boyfriend, Jaxon, behind her.
“Can we talk for a minute?” Bree asked.
Lincoln stood and took the conversation in the privacy of the kitchen rather than outside, where they might be overheard. He had to give the boy credit for standing his ground when Lincoln approached, even though Jax looked as pale as the white baseboard behind him. “What’s up?”
“Sir, I just… Bree told me what happened. I wanted to come over and… apologize. And to say that if she had been… Sir, I wouldn’t have left. I would’ve stayed and been a dad whether we were together or not. I just wanted you to know that.”
Jax was the son of a single mom who’d done a great job raising the boy on her own. Still, the kid knew what it was like growing up without a father, and even though the words were easy to say after the fact when the test was negative, Lincoln sensed the kid meant what he said. “Yeah, well, let this be a lesson to both of you. Sex is a big deal and comes with consequences you’d better be prepared for. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
Lincoln held out his hand and Jax took it, but Lincoln also gave the kid the parental eye that made it clear Jax had better be respecting Breanne and making better choices from now on. Breanne had already received that lecture, though Lincoln knew it had probably fallen on eighteen-year-old ears. Hopefully the pregnancy scare would at least have an effect for a while and temper any such behavior that would lead to a second scare. He couldn’t play the hypocrite, though. He’d been young and stupid once, too. To be honest, it was how he and Jill had wound up with the twins.
“Is it okay if Jax and I walk to get ice cream?” Breanne said. “One last time? He leaves for school tomorrow, too. I’ll be back in time for dinner at Mac’s. Dessert first?”
“Just ice cream,” he stated drolly, earning a blush from his daughter. “And don’t be late. Mac’s doing a good thing for you two. Plus I’d like to spend some time with you myself before you leave.”
Breanne nodded and rose to her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
“I won’t be long. I love you, Daddy.”
He wrapped her in his arms and breathed deeply. “I love you, too, kiddo.”
“Is Amelia coming tonight? You invited her, didn’t you?”
He and Breanne had talked the entire drive home last evening after leaving her car parked at the pharmacy until this morning. During their talk, Breanne had told him what Amelia had said regarding her desire for motherhood, his daughter adding that Amelia would make an awesome mother. “No. No, she isn’t. We said a lot last night, bug. I’m not sure she wants to see me again.”
Breanne gave him a look reminiscent of her mother’s and shook her head.
“She does, Daddy. Trust me. Call her and ask her to come. You can talk after dinner. You always say Bren and I don’t talk to you enough. Tell her the same thing and really listen.”
“There may not be a way around this wall, Bree. Now go get your ice cream and stop giving your old man orders.”
Jax grinned at the statement but Breanne just stood there, unmoving.
“Dad, she really likes you. And you really like her and you’ve been so happy these last few weeks. Everybody’s noticed. If this is about me and what happened—”
“Honey, it’s not about you. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I can see why you’d be uncomfortable with a grandkid older than one of your own kids, but you’re not going to be a grandfather now, so you shouldn’t be weirded out by becoming a dad again.”
“Bree—”
“When Bren and I are gone, you’re going to be lonely in this big house by yourself. You know you are.”
Lincoln inhaled in a struggle for patience. “I thought maybe I’d travel. See the world. I haven’t had the chance to do that kind of thing.”
“Alone? Don’t you want Amelia to go with you?”
“Bree—”
“Dad.”
“Honey, Amelia and I are in two very different phases of life.”
“Why does it have to be that way? You love her. Don’t say you don’t. ”
“I… do love her. But traveling is hard when you’re packing around a baby.”
Breanne crossed her arms over her chest.
“What?” he asked when he realized he was garnering one of those looks again.
“You and this traveling thing. I don’t get it. You hate vacations.”
“What? I do not.”
“Yeah, you do. You’re a borderline workaholic who’s always said how you hate airports and hotels and not being home. You say when you live at the beach, you don’t need vacations.”
He had said those things. And hearing them repeated back to him at this moment kind of bit the big one. Traveling was pretty much a way to fill the time between school breaks when the kids would come home to visit. “Maybe I don’t want to work as much, ever think of that?”
“Fine. Go and take Amelia.”
“Bree—”
“You want to travel and she wants kids if she can have them. Something’s gotta give, right? So compromise! You can travel until she gets pregnant, and after the baby comes, you can travel when I’m on my school breaks and you pay me very well to babysit,” she said with a tilt of her chin. “Uncle Carter can pitch in sometimes like you’ve always done with Piper. Or Bren. We’ll all help. What’s your excuse now?”
Lincoln faltered. Because with those statements, he didn’t really have one.
“Dad? Is this about Mom? Or me and Bren and Mom?”
Lincoln wasn’t sure this was a conversation he should be having with teenagers. “Breanne—”
“It bothered me at first, okay? You dating. It seemed weird and wrong. Bren said I was crazy for letting it get to me because it’s been three years since Mom died and… he was right. You’ve been so happy, and after talking with Amelia and getting to know her, I can see why you like her. She’s really nice, and if you’re going to date someone, it should be her.”
“I’m glad you think so,” he said. “But don’t ever think you can’t come to me to talk about anything, Breanne.”
Breanne closed her eyes briefly and nodded.
“I know, Daddy. But sometimes a girl needs another girl to talk to.”
The air rushed out of his lungs and Lincoln felt dazed by the observation. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Considered that? “I’m sorry your mom isn’t here for you, sweetheart.”
“Me, too,” Breanne said, her voice growing thick. “But Amelia is here… And even though I don’t know her like you do, I think she’d make an awesome second mom, and you’re crazy if you end things because she wants a baby. You’re old but not that old.”
“She’s right, Dad,” Brendan said from the hallway, where he lurked with Carter, who carried Piper in his arms, asleep on his shoulder.
The sight brought out feelings Lincoln wasn’t expecting. Yeah, the late nights and diaper y
ears were hard but they were brief, and the kids in front of him were proof that those years flew by. Babies became toddlers and little girls like the one Carter carried. Then they became teenagers like the ones standing in front of him, legal adults.
“You deserve to be happy,” Brendan said.
“And so does Amelia,” Breanne added with a pointed stare.
She did. And while he stood there staring at the love looking back at him, Lincoln realized how selfish of a person he’d be to keep her from experiencing this for herself. The cuddles and sweetness and even the arguments. “Okay, okay, I see the error in my ways. No need to gang up on me.”
Lincoln moved through the crowd assembled inside of his house to get his keys from the bowl on the entry table.
“You going after her?” Carter asked.
“She won’t take my calls or return my texts, so, yeah.”
“Take flowers. Or a ring,” Breanne said.
Lincoln stopped in his tracks and turned, noting the men surrounding her all looked at Breanne the same way he did.
Breanne shrugged and returned the stare with an expression Lincoln treasured because it was such a Jill look.
“Well, you know what you want, don’t you? There’s no time to waste if she wants a baby,” Breanne said.
An incredulous huff rumbled out of Lincoln before he walked out the door despite the shouts following him, asking what he planned to do.
They’d find out—as soon as he found Amelia and figured it out for himself.
Chapter 15
The morning after the breakup, Amelia had arrived at work bleary-eyed and exhausted from her sleepless night to learn the movie had wrapped ahead of schedule when the powers that be decided in the middle of the night that they wanted to shoot the outdoor scenes in Charleston instead. The news came as a welcome surprise since it had given Amelia’s dragging behind a chance to go home and pack a bag and go to Izzy’s home in Carolina Cove to crash and cry from her breaking heart. Maybe by the time the production team returned to Wilmington, Amelia would have pulled herself together.
Her home had always been a sanctuary, but Lincoln’s presence in it as they’d realized their demise had left it feeling dark and unwelcoming. Hiding out at Izzy’s and ignoring Lincoln’s phone calls and texts had taken some doing.
