Chapter Three #2
She’d always been a little intimidated by him when they were kids, because he was so smart, and he was even more intimidating now, as an adult.
There was plenty of shame and guilt on her part, for how poorly she’d treated him.
Pride for the man who’d served his country and become a hero.
More than a little envy over his relationship with his mom and brothers.
And a bit of wistfulness because he always seemed to have his shit together.
On top of all that, he’d obviously done well for himself over the years, enough that he was able to buy this house on the coast. Sure, it needed work, but it couldn’t have been cheap. No houses with waterfront views were.
But under all those feelings was that little hum of attraction.
Linc was a seriously good-looking man. He’d certainly filled out since his high school years, when she and her friends had teased him about being a scrawny beanpole.
It wouldn’t be a hardship to see a man like him every morning and night.
“Mom!” Kash called out the second she opened the front door. “Hurry up! Linc and me made dinner!”
“Linc and I,” Harper corrected, as she walked into the house.
Linc hadn’t lied. The place needed a lot of work.
Under the smell of garlic, there was a hint of must in the air, as if it had been closed up for years and years.
The floors needed replacing, there was new drywall that hadn’t been painted yet, and the kitchen looked like it had been installed in the 1950s or so.
But the bones of the place were amazing. Harper took it all in, tilting her head back to look at the tall ceilings, what she thought was original woodwork around the doorframes, and the centerpiece of the room—the wide curved staircase.
“Wow,” she whispered, impressed.
“That’s one of the reasons I bought this place,” Linc told her as he reached for the bags in her hand. “I told you that you didn’t need to get any food,” he said next, sounding grumpy.
Harper ignored him, but she did let him take the bags from her. “What were the other reasons?” she asked.
“Huh?” Linc asked, frowning.
“You said the staircase was one of the reasons you bought this place. What were the others?”
“Oh. There aren’t any neighbors within a mile, the cove is far enough from Rockville that it doesn’t get a lot of traffic, and .
. .” He gestured toward the windows in the main living area with a small smile.
“It’s dark now, but when the sun comes up, you’ll see why I didn’t hesitate to plunk down an obscene amount of money for such a run-down place. ”
Harper could imagine. She’d dreamed of owning a place like this once. Now? She’d be content with a tiny little house in the middle of town. As long as it was her own, she’d love it.
“Mooooom, you can look at the house later. Come see what Linc and I made for dinner! He let me do most of it too! Look! Homemade pizza!”
Harper blinked. She’d kind of expected something like frozen chicken pot pies and green bean casserole. But pizza? It was such a bachelor thing to make.
As if he could hear her thoughts, Linc leaned over and whispered, “For the record, I’m no chef, but I can cook more than pizza.”
Worried he thought she was disappointed or upset with the dinner menu, Harper said quickly, “I love pizza. For a while, that’s all Kash and I ate. But I’m sure this is way better.”
Linc frowned.
Shoot, she was messing this up already. Harper felt tongue tied around this man. Unsure of what she should and shouldn’t say.
Kash rescued her from saying something else that might irritate Linc by grabbing her hand and dragging her to the small table next to the kitchen. It was old as well, a little wobbly, the top scarred and watermarked.
“I set the table,” Kash informed her. He was practically glowing, and it was such a change from the reticent boy he’d been recently that Harper didn’t care if the pizza was terrible, she’d eat every bite with a smile on her face if only to make her son happy.
“Cloth napkins and everything!” Kash said. Then he whirled around and hurried into the kitchen. “Linc says he doesn’t have fancy plates, but I think the ones he has are super fancy,” he continued, as he used his fingers to put a piece of pizza on a plate.
“Tongs, Bud,” Linc drawled. “Touching food isn’t polite.”
“But I touched it while I was making it,” Kash said with a confused frown.
Harper hid her smile. She’d been in Linc’s shoes many, many times over the years. Informing her son of something that was socially acceptable, only to have him turn around and make a perfectly valid point that contradicted what she’d just told him.
“Yup. And you washed your hands before you started cooking,” Linc said calmly. “Since we put the pizza in the oven, you’ve unpacked your books, set up your telescope, and helped me clear out your mom’s side of the garage. You think there weren’t any germs or dirt in any of those activities?”
Kash wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, probably.”
“No probably about it, Bud. Why don’t you go ahead and wash your hands now. I’ll dish up the pizza and serve it.”
“Don’t start without me!” Kash yelled, as if it wasn’t going to take him less than twenty seconds to wash and dry his hands right there at the kitchen sink.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Linc reassured him.
Watching her son with Linc made Harper’s eyes tear up.
She turned away to stare blankly at the back of the sofa nearby.
She’d seen Linc be kind to Kash more than once.
Hell, the entire Young family had taken him under their wing.
But for some reason, seeing this interaction, something so .
. . ordinary . . . had her close to crying.
She wished she could’ve given Kash experiences like this for the last twelve years of his life. Instead, he’d had no male role models and only an exhausted mother who felt as if she was barely keeping her head above water.
She heard Linc nearing and did her best to blink away the tears.
“You okay?” he asked softly, for her ears only.
Harper nodded. She didn’t know if she was, but she’d be damned if she ruined this first meal under Linc’s roof.
Looking at the plate Linc put in front of her, Harper was surprised at what she saw. Yes, it was pizza, but it was some of the best-looking pizza she’d seen in a very long time.
“It’s nothing special,” he told her, after glancing over to see Kash still at the sink. “Store-bought French bread, large amounts of garlic mixed with the bottled sauce, tons of cheese, turkey pepperoni, parmesan cheese sprinkled on top with a dash of hot pepper flakes your son swore you loved.”
“I do love hot pepper flakes. Linc, this looks . . . delicious.”
“Again, not fancy, but it was easy. I wanted to be sure Kash wouldn’t fail with his first cooking experience.”
He turned back to the kitchen, and while he was warning her son to dry his hands on the dish towel hanging on the fridge and not his pants, Harper was still processing his words.
The care he was taking with Kash was like nothing she’d experienced before. Of course, she did everything in her power to build up her son’s confidence, but dinner for them was usually fast food, or something simple like sandwiches or a rotisserie chicken she brought home from work.
Her dad had never taken the time to teach Kash how to cook. And for Linc to go out of his way to make something Kash couldn’t fail at . . .
The pesky tears she’d managed to banish a second earlier were back.
“Did you try it? How is it?” Kash asked, bouncing over to the table and climbing up onto his chair, one leg tucked under his butt while he hovered over the plate.
“Sit, Kash. On your butt,” Harper ordered. “At least pretend like you’re civilized.”
Kash laughed. The sound never failed to make Harper smile. She’d fucked up a lot of things in her life, but her son was always a bright spot in an otherwise very tough few years.
“We toasted the bread, and Linc even let me use the oven mitts to put it in and take it out of the oven. I mixed some spices into the sauce and made sure the pepperonis were perfectly spaced out. Is it good? It’s good, right?”
Harper had just taken a huge bite, and she smiled at her son as she chewed. After she swallowed, she said, “The best pizza I’ve ever had.” And she wasn’t lying. Sitting here at Linc’s table, seeing how happy her son was, warm and satisfied, it was the best pizza she’d ever had.
“Linc says it’s because of the bread crust. It’s garlic bread. So it’s extra flavorful.”
Harper had a feeling she’d be hearing “Linc says” a lot in the next few weeks. She didn’t mind though, especially if it meant seeing her son so content.
Dinner went by quickly, partly because Harper was so hungry, but mostly because the pizza was so good. Kash insisted on doing the dishes, since “Linc says it’s the responsible thing to do.”
Harper offered to help, and with the three of them washing, drying, and putting dishes away, the chore was done in record time.
“Can we show her now, Linc? Please?”
“Show me what?”
“Come on!” Kash said with a huge grin on his face. He grabbed her hand again, this time tugging her toward the stairs.
They went to the second floor, but Linc stayed downstairs. Harper wondered if he was ready for some alone time . . . Kash could be a lot.
“We were going to paint today but ran out of time. Linc says we’ll have plenty of time to do it this winter.
He also found out he has to replace some walls up here, so he didn’t want to paint and then have to do it again after putting in new walls.
But he said once it’s all done, I can pick out the color I want for my room. Isn’t that cool?”
It was cool, but also worrisome. They weren’t going to be here permanently.
Her son was going to be disappointed if they moved out before he got to pick the color for his room.
Harper had a feeling even if she promised he could paint his room in the color he chose wherever they landed next, it wouldn’t be the same.