Page 29 of Healing Home
Link dropped Frankie to the ground and stepped back out to finger the leaves again, harder. “Are you serious? Here I thought you went to all this trouble to plant flowers for me.”
BB snorted. “No. I know you’re not here enough to care for something like that.”
Lincoln laughed, shaking his head, then pulled her close so that he could press a kiss to her forehead. “I’m glad you told me. I would have felt stupid later.”
He led her into the house, closing the door softly behind her. “You looked beautiful today. Not sure if I told you before we left.”
BB smiled, flushing a little. “Thank you.”
“And you seemed to get along with the women like you’d known them for a long time.”
She shrugged, dropping her purse to the kitchen table. “They’re nice women. Very protective of you.”
Incredibly, she thought his cheeks went a little pink, but it was hard to see in the dim room. “Really? Did they tell you why?”
She leaned against one of the chair backs. “A bit. Mary said even she got sucked in a bit.”
Lincoln sighed, dropping down into the chair beside the one she was leaning on. “Alicia was a chameleon. She changed to suit whatever situation she was in. At first I thought she was just adaptable, you know? It took me a long time to see the manipulation in her.”
“She didn’t want you to see it. That’s the point.”
“Yes, I suppose,” he agreed eventually.
BB knew it was hard to be fooled like that. You began to second guess every decision made. “I don’t think you should grade your decision making skills on Alicia. She was a practiced manipulator. Mary said she’d been married two other times?”
“Yes,” he said darkly, leaning his elbows on the table.
BB sat down beside him. “Then she learned early to milk a situation and make it work for her.”
He sighed heavily. “Yes, she did.” He stared across the kitchen for a long minute before glancing back at her. “I’m sorry to talk to you about this.”
“Why on earth are you sorry?” She gasped, hand going to his arm. “Don’t be. I’m not passing judgement on you or anything. Hell, my ex fed me a line of shit for months before he finally asked for a divorce. And then he tried to take part of my creative property, too, a move I hope his lawyer put him up to. Alex had never been cruel but when we separated he became a completely different man.”
“Why did you split?”
Bb sighed. She’d wondered that herself many nights. “I’m not even sure. I think it eventually came down to jealousy. We’d known each other from college. He was an artist. Did these huge mixed-media panels on social issues. He had an agent at one time and several big shows, but nothing really ever came of them. He would sell a few pictures, but never as many as he wanted. Then I landed a syndication deal with the Post. Which is huge. He pretended to be happy for me, but he wasn’t. Not really. Alex always had this inflated belief that his work was more important than what I did, even though I made most of the money in the marriage.” She shrugged lightly. “I kept my head down and kept working. When he did eventually leave, I didn’t even notice for a couple of days. In my defense he was known for disappearing into the woods for days at a time.”
BB doodled on the tabletop with her fingernail. “Eventually I was served divorce papers in the mail. And because I had used Alex’s ‘form’ in a couple of my strips, the lawyer thought he deserved half of my income from those strips. I hired an entertainment lawyer from LA and he straightened them out quickly. My sister, being the know-it-all that she is, made us sign a prenup before we got married. Best thing I ever did. We each left with what we came with and we sold the house, splitting it evenly. Overall it wasn’t a bad divorce, but not something I plan on doing again.”
“I don’t blame you. Damn.”
BB grinned at him. “You’re not the only one allowed to fuck up.”
He grinned with her and nodded slowly. “I appreciate that.”
Taking one of her hands in his, he lifted it to kiss her knuckles. BB thought it was a very sweet gesture.
“I really like you, BrandiLynn Beatrice Jones,” he told her, holding her gaze. “You make me hope…” his voice trailed away.
BB leaned in, stroking a finger down his lean cheek. Her heartbeat was racing. “What do you hope, Lincoln?”
His jaw firmed and he cupped her hand. “It’s not important.”
He began to pull away, but she stopped him. “I hope I will find love, someday. I’m not sure what Alex and I had counted.”
Blinking, Link nodded. “Yes, I hope I find love someday as well.”
But his eyes lingered on her hard, as if he was trying to tell her something. Or trying to decide if she was actually the one.