Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
The following weekend was Father’s Day and, with a lot of wheedling, Lincoln convinced Emmett to drive north with him and Roxy to the Bounds house.
Lincoln was crazy proud to introduce Emmett to Robert and Zelda Bounds, two people he’d thought of as parents ever since his own kicked him violently out of their lives.
They’d always treated him like one of their own mismatched kids, and they were going to love Emmett.
Roxy had a late shift Saturday night, so they all got up super early Sunday for the two and a half hour drive to the suburbs of Philadelphia. Their trio sang along to song after song from Roxy’s phone, laughing and joking, but Emmett grew tenser the closer they got to their destination.
He was rigid as a board when Roxy finally turned into that familiar driveway in front of the big white house.
Starr was waiting for them on the front porch in her blue rocking chair, and the sixteen-year-old stood the instant the car engine cut off.
She was blond-haired and blue-eyed like Lincoln, and her left hand flapped lightly in the air, a motion that increased when Emmett climbed out of the backseat.
“Hey, you!” Roxy raced over, purse clutched in one hand, and opened her arms. Starr stared at Emmett another moment, then hugged her sister.
Lincoln had already explained Starr’s habits from her autism.
He grabbed the greeting card off the dashboard, tucked Emmett’s hand in his, and led him toward the front porch.
They reached it just as the front door swung open.
Zelda came out with a dish towel in one hand and a smudge of flour on her chin.
She hugged Roxy first, because she was closest.
When those strong, loving arms wrapped around Lincoln, he relaxed fully for the first time in a while.
It was the kind of supporting hug that only a mother could give, and he maybe clung a little too tightly.
She pulled back, her dark eyes curious, but she didn’t ask.
She turned her attention over to his boyfriend.
“Land sakes, but you caught yourself a cute one,” she said. “Zelda Bounds.”
Emmett blushed. “Um, thank you. Emmett Westmore. It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
“You don’t have to ma’am me, son. Call me Zelda, or call me Mom.
I answer to both.” She hugged him, too, and some of his tension eased.
Lincoln saw it in the line of his shoulders and the set of his jaw.
“You all come inside out of this heat. I’m finishing up Robert’s cake, and once it’s in the oven we can get to visiting. ”
“Where’s Dad?” Roxy asked.
“I let him sleep in, so he’s just gotten up. Probably in the shower by now.”
Lincoln helped Starr carry her rocking chair back into the living room. She instantly sat down in it and angled the chair to face the television. He didn’t have to ask. He grabbed the remote and put on GSN. Starr was obsessed with game shows.
Emmett didn’t seem to know where to look first.
“You want a tour of the place?” Lincoln asked.
“Sure.”
The downstairs was pretty basic, with the large living room, a formal dining room, the kitchen, and a laundry room off to the side.
Emmett took in all of the details that Lincoln never paid much attention to, like the rows of family photos that lined all of the hallways, or the cherry wainscoting in the dining room.
The faint apricot scents that several plug-ins gave the air.
A black mark on the hardwood floor in the corner of the living room that Dominic had once admitted to having created by playing with matches indoors.
The house had a rich history of the seven people who’d lived here over the last thirty years, and Emmett seemed to revel in learning all of the details.
Details Roxy or even Zelda would be better at giving him, but Lincoln knew a lot.
Twice, for vastly different reasons, this had been his home, too.
Upstairs, Lincoln pointed out whose room was whose. The only door he pushed open was to Dominic’s room, which had been Lincoln’s for nearly a year while he recovered from his head injury. Part of him recoiled against going inside, and Emmett noticed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure.” Lincoln touched the varnished wood framing the doorway.
“I spent months in here, learning how to walk from one end of the room to the other without getting dizzy and falling down. I even had a piss bottle in case I couldn’t get across the hall fast enough.
” A warm arm wrapped around his waist, and he leaned against Emmett’s chest. “It sucked. That part of my life really fucking sucked.”
“I know it did. But you got through it, and you’re alive.”
“Yeah. We both are.”
Emmett rested his chin on Lincoln’s shoulder. “Yeah, we are. What a funny pair of scarred, screwed-up survivors we are.”
“We’re perfect for each other.”
“I’d say so.”
Lincoln led him back downstairs, because all of the gooey talk near a bed was waking up his dick, and he didn’t need to introduce Emmett to Robert with a boner.
He helped himself to coffee from the kitchen; Emmett took a glass of water.
They were all in the living room listening to Roxy natter on about a rude customer the night before when Robert’s heavy footsteps creaked down the staircase.
Emmett went completely stiff. “I’ve never been introduced to anyone’s father before,” he’d confessed the night before, as they lay tangled together, naked and sweaty. Lincoln had laughed and kissed him and assured him that he had nothing to fear.
Trouble was, Robert Bounds was a scary-looking dude at first glance. Six foot four, barrel-chested, with big arms and tree-stump legs, he looked like a pro wrestler. But despite the bruiser exterior, the man had a marshmallow center—especially where his family was concerned.
Roxy rushed him before he hit the bottom step, squealing like a child. “Happy Father’s Day!”
Lincoln stood, and Emmett followed suit. Lincoln received a hug and a gentle back slap, and then Robert held out a meaty hand to Emmett. “Pleased to meet you, son,” he said.
“As am I,” Emmett said. “You have a lovely home.”
“Thank you. Anyone Lincoln there has seen fit to finally bring home is always welcome here.”
“Um, thank you.” Emmett seemed a bit stunned, and yeah, okay, so Lincoln had never brought a guy over to meet them before. He’d never met one worth the effort.
He’d never met one he wanted to do anything and everything possible to keep in his life. Emmett was that guy.
“Are you from the shore, then?” Robert asked as he settled into his recliner.
The action signaled everyone else to sit. Lincoln stayed close on the couch cushion without invading Emmett’s space too much.
“Not originally, no,” Emmett replied. “I grew up in Baltimore County. My aunt Beatrice was married to my mother’s brother, but he passed away when I was very young. I moved in with her and my cousin last summer.”
“I see. In school?”
“I’ll be taking classes online in the fall again, yes. I haven’t really decided on a major yet.”
“He needs to pursue singing,” Lincoln said. Maybe his praise would embarrass Emmett a little, but he couldn’t help it. He was crazy proud of how amazing Emmett’s voice was—a voice more of the world needed to hear. “He’s just as good as Trey, if not better.”
“I’m not better,” Emmett said. “I have a different range than Trey.”
“Whatever. You’re amazing.”
“High praise, I’d say,” Zelda said. “Especially coming from someone who was so hard on Benji when he first joined XYZ.”
Lincoln shrugged. “I knew he could be better than he already was with more training, and he got better. Right?”
She laughed. “Yes, he did. You always were the group motivator, pushing everyone to do their very best.”
“It worked, too. It got us all the way to Unbound.” Lincoln’s enthusiasm for the conversation dimmed. “Anyway.”
Emmett nudged his knee. “It’s getting you back to Unbound this year, too. Don’t forget that.”
“Yes, Roxy mentioned a new instrument you’re trying,” Robert said. “Tell me about it.”
Lincoln did. The conversation meandered from his new routine of practicing with Emmett, both on the QChord and on vocals to improve his own range, to Emmett’s job at Off Beat. Then Roxy took over for a while.
Their eldest daughter Taisha joined them for an afternoon of board games while ribs smoked on the barbecue.
Percell and Dominic couldn’t make it for dinner, but they both called to wish their dad a happy Father’s Day.
After dinner, everyone presented Robert with presents.
Lincoln had had no idea what to get the man, considering that everything he bought was with Robert’s own money, so he’d got a card and put two tickets to Friday’s Unbound performance inside.
They hadn’t been able to attend last year because of work, but Dominic mentioned they wanted to try this year.
Robert looked at the tickets and nodded. “Wouldn’t miss this reunion concert for the world.”
Lincoln wanted to explode with happiness at that statement.
Taisha went last, presenting a flat box wrapped in shiny paper. Inside the box was something that looked like a folded apron. Robert lifted it out and stared at the printing on the front. Zelda glanced over his shoulder and gasped.
“‘World’s Best Grandpa,’” Robert read.
Lincoln startled, then stared at Taisha.
She was practically vibrating in her chair. “I just entered my second trimester. We’re pregnant!” “We” was herself, obviously, and her husband Roger.
Roxy squealed.
The family kind of exploded at the news of Taisha’s pregnancy, everyone so loud and excited over what was probably a first grandchild that Starr started getting agitated by the noise. Emmett wasn’t altogether comfortable with it, either, and it seemed like a family moment.
He slipped out of his chair and over to Starr’s. “I see a swing set over there. You want to go swing with me for a while?”