Chapter 18 - Linc
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Linc
“Get your ass in here,” a voice rings out from behind me. I turn to see Abby peeking her head out of her front door. “It’s starting to snow. Get in here.”
I’m freezing, and I will probably be soaked to the bone in no time at all. Leah’s safety is more important, though. “I’m fine,” I say, waving her off.
“Linc,” she growls. “Get your ass in here, or I’m going to march over there and get you. Please don’t make me do that. I don’t even have shoes on.”
“I can’t keep an eye on things if I’m in there.”
“You can look through my front windows.” She points to the windows she is referring to. “There are even a couple of comfy chairs in that nook.”
My eyes move between her and the windows in question. Finally, I give in, walking in her direction.
“Ahh,” she shrieks when I graze by her in the doorway. The snow from my jacket falls to her feet, which are indeed bare.
I peel off my jacket and boots, leaving them by the front door. She guides me over to the nook by the windows.
It looks like she has made it into a reading nook of some sort. There are books that look to be hers and some I’m assuming are her son’s.
Instead of taking a seat in one of the chairs, I stand facing the windows with my hands in my pockets. I look at her over my shoulder.
“I won’t be in here for long. I’ll just warm up for a bit, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
She rolls her eyes dramatically, and it makes a part of me I usually try to keep dormant spark to life. It makes me want to smack her ass until it turns a rosy shade of pink.
I blink a few times, trying to rid my brain of such thoughts.
“Stop being a dumbass.” She really isn’t helping me tamp down the fantasy still running rampant through my brain. “You’re staying in here. End of story.”
So, now she thinks she’s the boss? If only I could really put that to the test.
Abby is a strong woman who is very much in control of her life on a day-to-day basis, but I bet in the bedroom, she can be someone completely different.
I would bet good money that during sex, a far softer side of her comes out.
I quirk my brow in challenge.
“Don’t sexy-eyebrow me.”
My lip quivers with the hint of a smile. Most people don’t make me smile, but this woman has an uncanny ability to bring it out of me.
She turns toward the kitchen. “I’m going to cook dinner. Hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” I mumble, watching her bend over to pull a pan from the bottom cupboard. Food isn’t the only thing I’m hungry for right now.
“Mav,” Abby shouts up the stairs. “Dinner’s ready.”
There’s a pattering of feet, then his voice carries down the stairwell behind me. “I’m still in the middle of working on this line of code.”
My ears perk up at the mention of coding. It’s a hobby I’ve dabbled in on the side. Maybe in another life, I could have made a career out of it.
“If you don’t eat, you aren’t going to have any energy to keep working,” Abby rationalizes with him.
“Can I bring my computer down?”
“Sure, just get your butt down here.” She says it playfully, in a way that sounds like she’s keeping herself from laughing.
I keep my gaze focused out the window, but I hear Abby make her way back into the kitchen to presumably dish up whatever wonderful-smelling creation she whipped up over the last hour.
She could probably hear my stomach growling even though we have been in separate rooms. The aroma seeping through the house was just too damn good.
Footsteps scamper down the stairs, and then there’s a brown-haired little boy with glasses staring up at me. He has an open laptop perched on his extended arm.
“Who are you?” he asks, staring at me quizzically.
“I’m Linc.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“Thanks,” I say with a small smile. “You must be Maverick.”
“Yup, that’s me,” he says, waving up and down his body with his free hand.
He tilts his head to the side, studying me a little more closely. His eyes light with whatever realization he came to.
“You’re Oliver’s Linc, aren’t you?”
That’s kind of a funny way of putting it, but I get what the kid means. “That would be me, yeah.”
“Cool,” he says, nodding a few times.
“Mav, here’s your food,” Abby says, appearing beside us with a plate of pasta, salad, and garlic bread. “Do you want to eat at the table or the counter?”
He looks up at me. “Where are you eating?”
My eyes quickly dart to Abby, and then back to Maverick. “I kind of need to eat in here,” I say, pointing to the reading nook.
His eyes widen. “Oh, you’re watching out for Leah.”
I nod.
“Can I eat in here then, Mom?” he asks, staring up at Abby with pleading eyes.
She looks at me. “Are you okay with that?”
“Sure,” I say. How would I turn that down in someone else’s home? Also, I really don’t mind. This kid seems fascinating already.
“Alright then,” Abby says with a shrug. “I guess we’re eating in here.”
She hands Maverick his plate. He takes it and nestles into one of the plush chairs.
After checking that everything is clear outside, I pull one of the dining room chairs over. Abby tries to get me to sit in the soft chair, but I insist she does.
What kind of gentleman would I be if I sat there instead of her? My mom wouldn’t give a shit, but Kane’s mom would tan my hide.
She has always been more like a mom to me anyway, so her opinions on the matter carry far more weight than the woman who gave birth to me.
The first bite of pasta has me fighting back a groan that I’m sure would be pornographic in nature.
Abby might have missed her calling in life because this food is fucking delicious. She’s probably a kick-ass nurse, but damn, this woman can cook.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?” I ask her.
She swallows her bite. “My mom and my grandma.”
“Grandma makes the best pancakes,” Maverick says around a mouthful of bread.
“Swallow first, talk second,” Abby says, shaking her head.
He roughly swallows the bite of food that probably should have been chewed a few more times. “Right… her pancakes are killer, though.”
Abby’s smile is filled with nothing but affection when she looks over at her son. “Yes, they are, bud.”
We all eat in silence for a few minutes. I enjoy every single bite. The pasta is superior, but the salad and bread are good, too.
A ding rings out from Maverick’s laptop, which he has propped up on the bookshelves under the windows. He leans forward, nearly pressing his sweatshirt into the sauce left on his plate.
“Yes,” he shouts, punching his fist into the air.
“What?” Abby asks, jerking back a little in shock.
“Theo said I did it right.”
“The code you were working on?” she asks.
He nods several times in quick succession. “Yeah. I sent it to him, and he just said it’s perfect.” His smile is so wide with a mix of pride and pure joy.
“Good job, bud,” Abby says, leaning over to squeeze his knee.
I am kind of amazed this kid is coding. Kane said he’s only seven, even though he’s in third grade with Oliver. Obviously, he’s smart… but dang.
Coding isn’t easy… at all. It took me years to figure it out on my own. I’m nowhere near an expert, but I can hold my own.
“What are you working on coding?” I ask.
“My uncle and I are making a website that leads you to videos, articles, and whatever else we can find about my favorite kinds of animals.”
Well, shit…
“And what kind of animal is that?” I ask.
“Snakes, mostly, but other reptiles will be included, too.”
“That’s pretty cool. Can I see the code you wrote?” I ask, pointing to his computer.
“Oh, sure.” He eagerly grabs it, handing it over. My eyes roam over the sequencing, trying to pinpoint what aspect he is working on.
“You actually know what you’re looking at, don’t you?” Abby asks.
I give a small shrug. “Yeah.”
“Really?” Maverick asks excitedly.
I nod. “I like to code sometimes. It’s not a job or anything. I just do it for fun.”
“That’s so cool,” Maverick says as I hand him back his laptop.
“The big, tough biker is also a closeted nerd,” Abby says, quirking a brow.
I shrug again. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not at all.” Her eyes shine with something that looks a hell of a lot like lust. “Quite the opposite, actually.”
“Mom doesn’t know anything about coding,” Maverick speaks up.
All three of us start laughing.
I get a text from Duke saying he’s on his way to relieve me. He’ll be here for most of the night, camping out in his truck so the snow won’t bother him.
I probably should have driven Kane’s truck over here tonight, but I’m not regretting how I ended up spending the evening with Abby and Maverick.
Abby wandered down the hall a few minutes ago into what I assume is her bedroom. I don’t want to just walk into her room, but I also don’t want to shout across the house that I’m leaving.
Maverick’s room is upstairs, and I don’t want to wake him up. I know how hard it can be to get Oliver to sleep sometimes. I don’t want to open that can of worms for Abby.
In the entryway, I put on my now-dry jacket and slide back into my boots. I am just finishing tying them when Abby steps in beside me.
I stand to my full height, taking in the Christmas pajamas she’s wearing.
“You know it isn’t December yet, right?” I ask, smirking at her.
“I have to get my money’s worth.”
She got her money’s worth, or maybe I am the one getting her money’s worth. The thermal-style pjs with tiny candy canes scattered all over hug her toned frame like a glove. The pattern might be ridiculous, but she still looks divine.
“Are you leaving?” Her question catches me off guard because I was so focused on her outfit. She must have noticed because when my eyes roam back up to her face, she’s smirking at me.
Sue me. She is fucking beautiful in whatever the hell she wears.
“Another guy is on his way, so I’m almost done for the night.”
“They can come in here. I don’t want anyone out in the cold, especially at night,” she says, glancing over to the windows where I’ve been holed up all night.
“No,” I say a little too quickly. “He’ll be in his truck. He’ll be fine.”
I don’t know how I would feel if it was Kane or Wyatt, but I definitely don’t want Duke in here. He’s a great guy, but the thought of him being here makes jealousy course through me.
Even though I have no right to feel this way, I can’t push the thought away.
She nods but doesn’t seem convinced. I step forward, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. It happens before I really even think about it.
Then I let my hand linger on the side of her face, instead of letting it fall to my side like I should. I really shouldn’t be touching her at all, but I’m committed at this point.
The way she’s staring up at me, with those wide, pleading eyes that remind me of burnt sugar syrup drizzled over homemade waffles, makes me forget everything else besides her.
Her hand slides up over my abs and chest, gripping two fistfuls of my jacket. I lean in until her mouth is just an inch from mine.
She licks her lips, and I want nothing more than to slide my own tongue over the same path.
My phone rings. The volume isn’t really that loud, but in this quiet bubble she and I are trapped in, it sounds almost deafening.
We both stumble back from one another as I pull out my phone.
“Hi,” I say a little breathlessly, when I really have no reason to be lacking oxygen. It isn’t like I just ran five miles or anything.
I just nearly kissed a beautiful woman. That’s all.
“I’m here,” Duke says in his matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I say, then hang up. “I should go,” I tell Abby, sliding my phone back into my jeans pocket.
“Okay.” It looks like there are a million other things she wants to say, but she settles for the single word.
“Thanks for letting me hang out in here, and for dinner.”
“Of course. Thanks for talking to Mav about all his nerdy stuff.”
I smile. “Anytime… I love that stuff.”
She gets a distant look in her eyes, like she’s imagining something far-off… so far it might be in another life. She lets out a heavy exhale.
I turn the knob, glancing back at her. She’s twirling a piece of her dark brown hair around her finger. “Good night, Abby.”
“Night, Linc.”
Riding my motorcycle in this storm is a horrible idea, but I have no other way of getting home. At least I’m not cold. Thoughts of that almost kiss keep me warm until I pull into the garage and the door slides closed behind me.
The same thoughts follow me into bed, where I try not to but find my release with images of her flashing through my mind and her voice saying my name.
Fuck…