Chapter 7 Linc #2
“Yeah, he did. The rest of the world, no. But him? Yes.” I studied her. “In some ways, I’m like him, Sunny. I systematically set out to take him down and made him pay for every horrible thing he did. The people he hurt. How he treated my mother. His misuse of power. His hatred of me.”
“That doesn’t make you like him,” she replied. “That makes you human. And your endeavors helped people.”
I looked out over the town below. “I hope it did. It was the one thing that kept me going after I lost you.”
She stood and crossed over to me. I pulled her into my arms, holding her close.
“Are you still lost, Sunny?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “So much time, so many mistakes, and so much hurt has happened.”
“But you’re here,” I insisted. “You came to me.”
“To tell you off.”
“But you stayed,” I added, my voice low. “You’re still with me.”
She said nothing, her head resting on my shoulder.
“We would have to take it slow,” she said finally. “I have to learn who you are now, Linc, and you have to get to know me. I’m not the same girl you lost ten years ago. I don’t know how you went from the boy you were to the man you are today.”
“I know.” I reached behind me into the box and held out the stacks of envelopes. “You could start by reading these.”
She took them, confused. “What are they?”
“The letters I wrote you. My father obviously had them waylaid. I don’t know why he kept them, unless he planned on using them to hurt me at some point.”
She took them from my hands. “There are a lot.”
“I wrote you every day. Some days, it was the only way I could cope. It felt as if I was talking to you.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Are we too damaged for this, Linc?”
“No. We made it through all this shit for a reason.” I cupped the back of her neck. “Let us be the reason, Sunny.”
She bit her lip, the gesture familiar and comforting. “Slow,” she repeated. “It would have to be slow.”
“I’m good with slow.”
She stepped back. “I’m going to leave. I need to think, and I have some reading to do.”
I stood. “I’m ready to get out of here.” I slammed the lid shut on the metal container and slid it back into place. I’d figure out what to do with the contents later. Right now, my head was spinning.
“What are you doing with this place?”
“It’s being emptied, then I’m having it destroyed. I want to keep nothing of his, and I want no reminder of him in this town.”
“And the land?”
“I’ll decide that later.”
Outside, I loaded two boxes into my car. I looked around. “Did you walk here?”
“Yes.”
“Can I drive you down?”
“Okay.”
“And can I see you tomorrow?”
She smiled. “I guess you’re on a roll, Linc.”
I smiled as I slid into the driver’s seat. I pulled away from the house that had been another kind of prison to me.
I didn’t look back.
Iwas at the shop before it opened the next morning.
I had barely slept all night, thinking of Sunny.
I had kissed her when I dropped her off.
A long, gentle kiss that promised more. I would let her set the pace.
I made sure we had each other’s phone numbers and even texted her a few times to check in.
By her fast responses, I knew she was feeling the same anxiety.
The last time I’d kissed her goodnight, we’d been torn apart.
Morning couldn’t come fast enough for me.
I paced my hotel room, apprehensive, worried, and unable to settle.
I couldn’t shut off my mind or my thoughts.
I hadn’t planned on staying past one night and after that, never planned on setting foot in Mission Cove again.
But now, those plans, it seemed, were discarded.
She came to the door, rolling her eyes. “I’m not even open yet.”
“But I can come in, right? I smelled biscuits.”
“Of course you did.”
I stepped inside, leaning down and brushing a kiss to her cheek. “Hi.”
She turned and kissed my mouth. It was far too brief for my liking. “Hi.”
“You okay today?”
She nodded.
“You look tired,” I murmured, tracing a finger under her eye.
“I read some of your letters.”
“Just some?”
“They were difficult to read. I had to stop.” She hesitated, and I saw the look of pain in her eyes. “They upset me. Knowing what you went through. That you were alone and scared.”
“I’m here now. I was tougher than he thought. I was fighting to get back to you. To restart my life.”
She paused, frowning. “You always wanted to be a vet. You loved animals.”
I shrugged. “My life went in a different direction. I still volunteer when I have time. I love animals, and I support a large number of charities that help them.”
“Like the shelter here?”
“Yes, like the shelter here. And other places. My father took that dream away from me as well, Sunny. He robbed me of everything I loved all those years ago.”
“He robbed us both.”
“Yes, he did.”
She looked as if she wanted to say more. But I wanted today to be about us. Now.
“Um, biscuits?” I prompted. “Hungry here.”
“Right,” she replied, wiping her eyes and straightening her shoulders. “Savory or sweet?”
“Ah, both?”
“Sit down.”
I watched her from the spot I chose in the corner. She moved gracefully, confident with herself. I tried not to stare, but she was so beautiful. Even years later, there was an air of sweetness around her.
She placed a plate in front of me, piled high, and a small pot of jam alongside it. “Milk?” she asked.
I tried not to be too pleased that she remembered I always liked milk with biscuits. I shook my head. “Cappuccino, please.”
“You never liked coffee.”
I shrugged. “I learned.”
Without a word, she turned, and a few moments later, a steamy bowl of froth was set in front of me. “Thank you.” I looked up. “These are as incredible as I remember.”
Her smile was bright, her voice teasing. “I guess after making about a million fucking dozen, they should be.”
My biscuit froze partway to my mouth. “You don’t swear.”
She smirked, then turned and walked away. “I learned,” she called over her shoulder.
I chuckled as I ate my biscuit.
Learning. That was what we had to do. Relearn each other. Move forward from the past.
Could we do that? Could we be Linc and Sunny again?
She slid into the seat across from me, sipping a cup of coffee. She looked out the window.
“It’s almost summer,” she mused. “It’ll be busy here again.”
I reached across the table for her hand. She let me take it, and I liked how mine engulfed hers, folding over her small palm protectively.
“Will you try with me, Sunny? Can we use the summer to get back to where we were?”
She shook her head, and my heart sank.
“I don’t want to go back to where we were, Linc. It was too tumultuous and scary. Can’t we just be Linc and Sunny now? Two people who have met and want to get to know each other?”
“Let the past go, you mean?”
She looked down at our hands. “The past shaped us, made us who we are. It will always be a part of us, but I would rather face the future looking forward.” She smiled. “I know we still have a lot to talk about, and deal with, but I would like to try.”
“With me?” I asked, hopeful.
“With you.”
“Another summer of us, then?”
Her reply was all I needed to hear.
“I’d like to think of it as the start of us. A lifetime, instead of a season.”
There was so much I wanted to say. Thoughts and dreams I wanted to share with her. Memories I needed to talk about and clear from my head. But with her words, I knew I could. We would find our way, and with time, we’d heal and move forward.
Together.
I hunched over the table and brought her mouth to mine.
“I can live with that.”
She smiled as I kissed her.
And I was finally home.