by Mary Stone
Her eyes widened. What did that mean? Did that mean he was going to close up shop soon? Retire? After she’d finally found a job she was good at, a job that made her want to wake up in the morning. And she still had over a year before she could get her own PI license. If she was ever going to do this permanently one day, did that mean she needed to start working with another PI before Greg retired? “But wait, what does that—”
“Short stuff. This ain’t like you.”
She stopped short, worry and confusion crashing together. “What do you mean?”
“You’re always chomping at the bit for juicy cases. Now I give you one, and you’re dragging your feet. Why?”
Right. She was known for diving into things headfirst. Kylie studied the piles of paper on her desk. No, that wasn’t the real reason she was hesitant. And she definitely knew Greg would be fine without her.
As much as she wanted to jump at the idea, it wasn’t just herself that she had to think of now.
She was part of a couple. Successful couples took each other’s feelings into consideration. If she was going to get married, she knew she’d have to start doing that, sooner rather than later.
And though juicy cases were all she ever thought of…Linc had quite a different opinion of them. Especially where Kylie was concerned.
She thought of where he probably was right at that moment—in his office, dealing with an online seminar because his injury was still healing, and he’d had to take some time off from physical training. He was still recuperating from the gunshot wound from Kylie’s last case, which had started as a personal search for her father and had ended up…
She shivered, not wanting to think about that.
Kylie looked at her boss’s forlorn face, then thought of her handsome husband to be.
They could think of it as a little vacation away from Asheville, especially since their last “vacation” up to New York had been cut short when they realized the mafia was after them. She really loved the idea of working with Linc, as a team.
But she couldn’t answer for him. He’d had a rough year, dealing with resurfacing memories from his time in Syria. He’d been working through his PTSD, but the last thing she wanted to do was push him.
“I know I should be jumping on it, but I have to ask Linc first. I think his expertise is just what this case needs, but I’m not sure he’s up for it yet, considering his shoulder is still bothering him.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. He’s frustrated.”
Greg nodded. “Then, by all means, talk it over with him. But let me know tonight. I don’t want to leave Ollie hanging. He’s in enough pain as it is.”
“Okay,” Kylie said, jabbing in a text to Linc.
He was normally a very calm, stoic man, but this injury was pushing him to the limit. She wondered if he’d resorted to throwing things and hurling curses into the air yet. Upkeep at the farm had all but gone to pot since he’d been injured. She’d tried to keep up, but she hadn’t had much luck mucking stalls and brushing llamas. She wasn’t a farm boy, like Linc. He lived for that stuff, almost as much as he lived for nature and tromping through the wilderness.
Kylie sighed. They were supposed to be planning that wedding too. Linc seemed to be pressing her, albeit gently, to get her shit together where that was concerned. But in the weeks since he proposed, she hadn’t done a single thing.
The truth of it was, though the idea of getting married to Linc thrilled her, putting together all the details of the party? Hives. Massive hives. That was her job, though, as bride, wasn’t it? The bride was supposed to love the idea of planning a wedding. But even her mother seemed more excited about the details than she did. She wondered what she could do to psych herself up for it.
Maybe she was still suffering from leftover daddy issues. Even though she felt like she’d resolved most everything with her father and decided that Linc was nothing like him, the concept of forever?
It was a scary thing.
Whenever anyone brought up setting a date, she felt like she was part of a snowball about to be pushed down a hill. Once the planning began, she knew it would pick up momentum, and nothing would be able to stop it until she crashed.
No. She had no doubts about Linc. He was everything to her.
It was really just…the wedding. That was the problem. The whole “make this the best day of your life OR ELSE!” thing that always seemed to haunt her every time she thought of the details.
What if she did it wrong and ruined the best day of their lives? Wouldn’t that mean their marriage was doomed before it even started?
She forced herself to stop thinking about it before that sick feeling started to bloom in the pit of her stomach again. “I’ll definitely ask him as soon as I get home. Things have just been crazy. You know, with Linc being down and out. It’s been a whirlwind couple weeks.”
“Gotcha. If it’s easier, short stuff, you can work the job from home. That way you can help Linc out at the farm too.”
She smiled at him. As grumpy as he was, he really was the best boss. “Thank you. I might just. He’s kind of at the end of his rope.”
“All right, kid. Maybe you should give me another tutorial on this space-age coffee machine, just in case.”
She laughed. She’d already given him three, but she figured one more wouldn’t hurt.
3
Another red-letter day of getting not enough done.
Damn shoulder.
He’d tried. It ached. Dully now. Was it that he was getting older? He didn’t remember his last gunshot wound hurting this much.
Today had definitely been Farm 1, Linc 0.
Now, exhausted and beaten, Linc sat on the porch of his farmhouse as the sun set behind him, waiting for Kylie to pull up the driveway. It was a good thing that he’d been tied up with the online seminar most of the day because the few chores he’d gotten done had been a struggle. It pissed him off.
Flanked by Storm, his trusty German Shepherd, and Vader, Kylie’s Newf, he stroked their ears and studied the phone on his knee, which contained a text from Kylie. Love you. Have something to ask you.
He wondered what hare-brained thing his fiancée had gotten into her head today.
She was excited about getting married. At least she seemed so, since she kept talking about everything they could do as “man and wife.”
She didn’t seem quite so excited about the actual wedding, though. He’d had to reel her back from some of her craziest ideas, most of which involved jetting off, just the two of them, and tying the knot at some exotic locale.
Yesterday, she’d read an article about a couple who’d exchanged vows on the rim of a dormant volcano in Maui. Linc had seen that look in her eye and talked her down real fast. With Kylie’s sometimes scattered personality, he couldn’t put it past her not to fall in.
He smiled, thinking of it. He was excited too—but about all of it. The wedding, especially. He was trying to steer her toward a small wedding at the farmhouse this Christmas. By then, hopefully, his shoulder would be back to normal. Tent, white lights, big cake, and all of their closest friends. So far, she hadn’t bitten. He’d figured it was because she was distracted by all the bright, shiny options available, but part of him had begun to wonder if it was cold feet.
No. They’d gotten over her issues with her dad. She was all in. They were deliriously in love.
Christmas. The farmhouse. He’d nail her down for that tonight.
The dogs’ ears perked up, and he straightened as he heard her Jeep pinging gravel as it made its way up the drive. He moved, and pain shot up his arm. The shot he’d sustained from Kylie’s father’s wife was the second bullet wound in his shoulder, but this one definitely hurt a hell of a lot more than the first. He’d been able to get back into the swing of things fairly quickly after the last one, but the doctors said there was more musculature involved in this one. He still wasn’t able to lift much of anything with the arm.
Taking care of the farm one-handed had pro
ven all but impossible. Kylie’d helped as much as she could, but she worked in downtown Asheville and had her own things to worry about. He couldn’t rely on her to do everything.
He stood up and walked toward her vehicle as it appeared from behind the trees. The evening sun illuminated the bright smile on her face. He grinned back.
Hell, he loved her. More and more every day. He’d never had a woman make him so happy just by showing up. And clearly, by that smile she was sporting, she felt the same way.
He walked around to the driver’s side of her car as she stepped out and pulled her into a one-armed embrace. She wrapped her arms tight around him and kissed him, long and slow. When he pulled his lips from her, he took a good look at her lovely face. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she said back, grinning.
The dogs circled around them, wanting to get in on the lovefest. Linc took Vader’s collar and led him toward the house as he wagged his tail happily.
Kylie bent down and ruffled his ears. “Hi, baby! Hi, boy! You miss me?”
He licked her face in response, his tail wagging against her side like a beating drum.
She looked over at the front of the house, where the bulbs Linc was trying to plant for spring blooming were still in their containers. “Have trouble?”
He shrugged, immediately wincing at the movement. “A little,” he confessed when she gave him a pointed look. “I dragged the food for the dogs out of the back of my truck, but I might’ve pulled something.”
Her eyes widened as they went to his shoulder. “You shouldn’t have! I told you I would—”
“Seventy-five-pound bags?” he countered with a scoff. “I don’t think so.”
“I can do it!” she insisted, flexing her nonexistent muscles. “You shouldn’t be! You know what the doc said.”
“I’m not having my fiancée lugging around something I should easily do. It nearly weighs more than you. I’m taking care of it. But…” he looked down at the bulbs, “it’s just going to take a little longer than usual.”
Hopefully, he’d get them in before it got too cold, rendering them useless.
She shook her head and looked at the thriving mums and other fall flowers he’d planted before he was injured. “You always make this place look so beautiful, but you don’t have to. It’s more important that you get better.”
His mouth twisted as he considered it. The place had been his grandparents’, and since he inherited it, he’d always felt a certain burden to keep it up in the way that his grandparents once had. That meant always having the lawn out front trimmed, keeping the inside clean, and putting flowers in all the window boxes and in the flower bed outside the porch. He hadn’t changed a single thing in the years since he’d taken ownership, and he liked that. He liked keeping it as a tribute to them.
Until now.
Until Kylie came into his life, and he started thinking about renovations and updates that would work better for a wife, and hopefully, a child. Some day. Maybe a couple of them.
“I am taking care of myself,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I know,” she said, her eyes filled with compassion as they walked up the steps to the porch. “I’ll plant the rest of the bulbs after dinner. That way you can just take it easy and relax, like you’re supposed to be doing. What do you want?”
He opened the screen door. “I made spaghetti.”
She sniffed and threw her purse on the little bench in the mudroom, then walked to the island, which he’d already set for two. “You shouldn’t have! What happened to resting?” She made a fuss, but he could tell she was glad. She hated cooking. “I knew I loved you for a reason.”
He went to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red, pouring her a big glass. “I’m not letting you go out and plant after dinner. It’ll be dark by then.”
She laughed. “We have lights out there. And news flash…I’m an adult, Linc. I’m not afraid of the dark.”
“Screw that. You’ve been working all day.”
“Sitting on my butt most of the time. I need the exercise. Trust me,” she said, leaning over and kissing his cheek. “It’s fine. Besides, you cooked for me. I feel free as a bird. I have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day.”
He grinned at her, reaching under the table to tweak her ass. “We could screw.”
She rolled her eyes. Yes, he’d become such a horndog since he proposed. Now that he had the ring on her finger, he wanted to make love to her all the time. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he couldn’t get enough of her.
“Really? You’re so romantic. We’re not even married yet, and that’s what it is?”
“I’m sorry. Making love.” He said it in a very flowery and grandiose way as he brought the pot to her plate and gave her a heaping helping of pasta carbonara.
“Actually, when you say it that way, I prefer dirty. Oh, my gosh,” she said, sniffing the pile of creamy pasta with cheese and ham he’d placed in front of her. “I’m definitely going to need exercise after this.”
He sat down and winked at her. “Like I said. I have no objections to helping you with that, you know. Upstairs.”
“Screwing?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She laughed and tangled her feet with his as they sat together. “I’m not averse to that, but let me get the bulbs taken care of first. Then I’ll have a double dose of exercise, which I think I might need because...” she shoved a forkful into her mouth, “this is indescribably delicious. I’m going to lick the plate.”
He sighed. “If you must.”
She polished off the food in record time, and all the while, he kept smiling like a sex-starved teenager at his pretty fiancée and thinking dirty thoughts.
Yes, he was a horndog. But weren’t they supposed to be? They were engaged.
“Don’t say it,” she said to him, not looking up.
He had to laugh. He liked that she got him. That he didn’t have to say a word, and she knew what was going through his mind. That was the way it should be, with husbands and wives. He knew her best too.
Her eyes trailed over to the pile of mail propped up against the wall. She lifted a brochure out from it and opened it. Linc noticed it said something about Fairy Tale Weddings. She wrinkled her nose as she read it. “Gosh. Two-hundred dollars a plate. That’s ridiculous.”
“Right. That’s why I think we should have the wedding up here. We can rent a tent for a couple thousand.”
She nodded. “Yes, I guess,” she said absently, still studying the brochure.
Linc eyed her curiously. She didn’t seem enthused about that. Was she not into the idea of having the wedding at the farmhouse, or not into the idea of a wedding at all? “Did you send away for that?”
She closed the brochure, checked the postmark, and shook her head. “No. I really haven’t had time to think about it. I wonder how they knew?”
“The jewelry store where I got your ring downtown probably shares info with them.”
“Oh.” She stared at her ring and smiled. “I guess we should start getting serious about it, huh?”
Linc nodded. “Yeah. I’m still thinking a Christmas wedding would be perfect.”
She stuffed a mouthful of pasta in. “That feels so soon.”
He shrugged. “It’s not soon. That’s two months away.”
“Yes, but…” Her expression was that of a trapped animal. “What if it rains? Or snows?”
“That’s why we’ll have tents, with heaters in case there’s a cold snap.”
She still seemed doubtful. Okay, there was definitely something holding her back. As close as they’d become since they met, he had no clue what was going through her mind, and he didn’t like it.
“Hey. Kylie. Level with me.” He took her hand and stroked her palm. “What is it?”
She sighed. “I know I’m being stupid. It’s just that forever is a long time. And this day is supposed to be the first day of our forever.”
She’d always been in
secure when it came to men. It’d taken months for her to finally make the jump from casual hook-up to exclusivity, and even after they started dating, she was always suspicious he’d run off with no explanation, the way her father had. He’d gradually earned her trust, though, and after the issues with her father were behind them, and she finally had the ring on her hand, he’d hoped those days were gone.
Apparently not.
“You trust me, though, right?” he asked, kissing her hand.
She nodded and met his eyes, giving him a solemn look. “Yes…I do. I just…” She looked lost, unsure how to complete the sentence.
“Don’t trust yourself,” Linc finished. They’d been over this before. She’d told him she was afraid that she had her father’s blood in her, and that she’d let her ambitions get the best of her and make stupid decisions. “I told you. You’re not like him. You just worrying about this shows me that you’re not. And even if it turns out that you are, that’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
She smiled a watery-looking smile. “I know, I know. But, it’s…nothing. Forget it. I really do want to marry you. I have no reservations about that. Honestly.”
“So…Christmas? Or if you want, we can wait until spring. Or next fall. Right now, having a date will ease some of the worry I’m feeling, but I don’t want to pressure you if you want to wait.”
As relief flooded her features, he smiled. He would give her time. There was really no rush, after all. His ring was on her finger and she slept in his bed each night. That was enough.
She leaned in to kiss him. “I love you, and I promise that we will pick a date. Soon.” She grinned and ran her fingers through his short hair. “Maybe on our way to Georgia?”
“Um…what? Georgia?” Linc knew he looked as confused as he felt. “Why are we going to Georgia?”
“Greg has a case for us.”
Linc wiped his mouth with a napkin. “For us?”
“Yes. For a friend of his.”
“A friend of his?” He sounded like a damn parrot. “Why would he give it to us? Why wouldn’t he want to help his friend himself?”
“I don’t know. He’s been acting weird. Maybe it’s just me, but he’s been getting more and more removed as the months go on.”