Chapter 43 #2
The first day of fall is a week away. Soon, kids will be heading back to school, the leaves will start changing, and Linc will go back to whatever his real life is—yachting?
Partying? Gallivanting the globe? I have no idea.
The thought makes me feel like I’m dropping rapidly to the building’s ground floor.
“True,” I say, sipping my latte to avoid their knowing looks.
They pepper me with more questions, but I play dodgeball by asking about work gossip and office politics. Still, when I go upstairs, I feel lighter. Ordinary friendships and normal conversations are the things that keep me grounded.
When I get back to the thirty-ninth floor, I find Maxine exiting the side door of Linc’s office.
“Can I help you, Ms. Drecken?”
“Just dropping off some files for Abraham.”
“You can leave them with me.”
She glances over her shoulder. “Oh, he’ll find them.”
Something about her shifty gaze and the slight tremor in her voice makes me remember that she’s after his job—not that he’s exactly eager to take it for himself.
In the coming days, Linc is busy with “business,” whether that’s shady dealings with thugs, uncovering fraud schemes, or regular, straightforward reports, I’m not sure.
But a mere week into fall, he and I are on a plane to Las Vegas for Mom and Brad the Dad’s anniversary party as if everything between us is … well, normal.
Linc insisted on flying us first class, which means I spend most of the flight trying not to gawk at the differences between the seating placements, complete with actual legroom. Even so, it’s hard not to fidget with the edge of my seatbelt.
“Nervous?” he asks as we start our descent.
“A little. My brothers can be …” I search for the right word. “Intense.”
“I can handle intense.”
He’s an only child and I was until the triplets came along. He has no idea of the amount of chaos he’s walking into. Yes, Bryce, Brody, and Brian are adult-sized, but it’s a cover for them still being the naughty, snotty little boys they always were.
Mom practically vibrates with excitement when we pull up to the stucco tract house. She’s wearing a new mauve dress and has had her hair done for the occasion.
I rush into her embrace—there’s nothing quite like a mom hug.
“Juliana! And this must be Linc!” She pulls him into a hug like he’s already family. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
He arches a questioning eyebrow in my direction. Then, with a charming smile that makes everyone love him instantly—and makes thugs side with him rather than their boss—he says, “All good things, I hope.”
“Well, now I see why Juliana has been so secretive.” Mom winks.
Brad the Dad appears from the back deck, wearing his grilling apron. Within minutes, he and Linc are chummy. The obvious topic of conversation is sports. When Brad mentions Linc’s athletic build, he shifts on his feet and asks about the cuts of steak.
The anniversary party is in the backyard, complete with a live band and more flowers than at their wedding—Brad said he got Mom one for every day of their marriage. She’s practically floating on a cloud—so happy as friends and coworkers congratulate them upon arrival.
Then the triplets show up.
Bryce, Brian, and Brody are twenty-three now, recent college graduates who still move like they’re joined at the hip. They’re even bigger than when I last saw them. Gym rats with confident grins.
“Jules!” Bryce scoops me up in a bear hug that lifts me off my feet.
“Easy, caveman,” I laugh.
He sets me abruptly down.
Brody squeezes me like a python.
“Gentler!”
Brian starts to toss me over his shoulder, but I play their least favorite game, “Jules has no bones.” I make myself a dead weight and drop flat to the floor.
From down there, I point to my rather large and imposing guest, calling, “This is Linc.”
He extends his hand and helps me to my feet.
The introductions are a blur of handshakes and back-slapping.
Brian studies Linc’s face with a puzzled expression. “You look familiar. Have we met?”
“I don’t think so,” Linc says smoothly.
“Are you guys getting married?” Brody asks with the subtlety of a freight train blowing its horn.
“What are you, still seven years old?” Heat creeps across my face. “Kids, they say the darndest things.”
“Hey, our brainy sister deserves the best,” Bryce chimes in, ruffling my hair.
His comment makes me freeze. Brainy sister.
I still carry the burden of the secret about my educational background—unbeknownst to them, I never completed college.
Being home, I’m afraid Linc might ask to see graduation pictures because one of my mother’s favorite pastimes is showing off her photo albums.
None of them includes my graduation day because there wasn’t one. The truth makes me regret all the deep-fried deviled eggs I’ve devoured in the last hour. Mom can never find out that I didn’t really graduate. Neither can Linc.
After we play a few group games—Mom learned early on that she has to keep the boys occupied and still always plans lots of activities for gatherings—she pulls me aside while Linc is deep in conversation with Brad the Dad about pickleball.
“He’s wonderful, sweetheart.” She squeezes my hand. “Are things serious?”
“We haven’t really defined it,” I say, essentially repeating what I told the office girlies.
“He seems like a keeper to me. The way he looks at you …” She sighs dreamily. “Like you’re the center of his world.”
If only that were true. If only I could believe that someone like Linc would choose someone like me for more than a temporary summer romance. He dated Iva Katz, for goodness’ sake.
Despite my swirling anxieties, we have fun at the party. Linc fits in with my family better than I could have hoped, laughing at Dad’s terrible jokes and listening to Mom’s stories about her succulent garden.
“I like your family,” he tells me as we slow dance to the band’s rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight.”
“Even my brothers?”
“Even your brothers. I never had siblings.” His expression is wistful.
“Do you ever wish you did?”
“Sometimes. Especially watching you with yours. The way you all tease and joke, but would clearly go to bat for each other. It’s rare, special.”
The song ends, and he spins me once before pulling me back against his chest. For a moment, surrounded by my family’s laughter and the warm Las Vegas evening, I can almost believe this is real.
That we’re real.
But as the night winds down, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m living on borrowed time. Fall is coming. And men like Linc don’t choose women like me for the long haul.
They choose women like me for right now.
And maybe, I think as I watch him laugh at something Brian says, maybe right now is enough.
Ultimately, it’s all I have.