“Have a good day. Stop by and visit Aspen at the front desk for your next appointment.”
Lincoln’s smile hasn’t faded since I agreed to go with them. Instead of responding to my request, he leans over and presses a chaste, quick kiss on my cheek and says, “Thanks, Maevey,” and then opens the door to the lobby. He kissed me in front of Turner with such tenderness on his face that there was no disguising it from his son.
It takes several minutes and Aspen harping me to move on to my next patient. She doesn’t know why, but I’m sure I’ll talk with her about it after work today. I have to talk to someone about it because the line Lincoln himself drew in the sand was crossed. More than crossed, he cannon balled seventy feet past it and made a messy sand angel. I don’t have time to sort my feelings, they have to go on the back burner until I finish with my patients. The warm kiss on my cheek lingers all day.
Ramona fills Aspen’s glass with wine and asks if she should open one more. “Yes. One hundred times yes.” Shadow follows her as she pulls a chilled chardonnay from the wine fridge and uncorks it, then follows her back to the living room where we’re sprawled on the floor in front of a crackling fire. The snow is falling softly outside the window and for the first time in days I’m not worried about my tires getting slashed or someone stalking me. It’s probably the wine.
“I can’t believe Lincoln kissed you in front of Turner,” Aspen says once more.
I sip the cool wine. “It wasn’t like a kiss, kiss, but you should have seen the look on his face, guys.” Recalling it now warms my stomach and makes my head light.
Ramona is playing logic master tonight, and I half hate her for it. “How does that make you feel, though? You wanted to keep things casual because he… he… he’s Rexy two point oh, Maeve. Do you want him to kiss you in front of his son? Doesn’t that complicate the arrangement?”
Nervously, I spin the stem of my glass. “I did that thing. Where I only give myself an inch, but really want a mile. I don’t think I ever wanted casual. I wanted him to think I wanted casual.” I’m drunk, and it doesn’t even make sense to me, so I go on, “Do women ever really want casual?”
Ramona seems deep in thought. “Maeve, we need to play worst-case scenario here.”
I look at my friend and narrow my eyes. “Ew, buzzkill.”
“Stavros might be a cheating bastard but my relationship with him has given me a lot of… knowledge. Humor me for a moment.”
I sit up, take a swig of my wine and put the glass down on a coaster on my coffee table. It’s an enormous, polished tree stump I had custom made for the space. I trace the multi-colored burls in the wood with my fingertip. “Stavros is an asshole, and I’m sure you’ve learned lessons, but I’m not sure I can humor you.”
“If Lincoln Wilds dies in combat or by any other means related to his work. Tell me what you would do.”
I close my eyes and blink back tears. “You don’t think I fall asleep thinking of every scenario that could take him away?”
Aspen chugs her wine and pours more. “I need to be blackout drunk for this conversation,” she whispers, petting Shadow who flops down next to her.
“Of course you think of that, but what would you do? You ran from Cape Cod. Granted, you didn’t have that much holding you there, but will you keep on running?”
“Are we talking now or ten years from now? When does he bite it?” I sling back.
“Either or,” Ramona deadpans.
I flinch. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, just be specific.”
“Stop avoiding. Would you run? Would you stay and move on? Would it destroy you completely?”
“I… I’d have to be there for Turner in any way I could. For Lincoln. I wouldn’t run. Nothing can destroy me the way Rexy did again.”
She nods. “I think you knew all along this was never going to be casual. You aren’t a casual woman, Maeve. When you open up to someone, it’s someone who is going to hold you whether you want them to or not.”
I meet Ramona’s eyes. “I tried not to let him get to me. I really did.”
She sits next to me on the floor and puts her arm around me. “No one is saying you shouldn’t have let him get to you. Frankly, I’m happy you let it get this far. I have a theory that you’ve already endured the worst. It’s only upward motion for you. Fate isn’t going to deal you the same hand twice. Not negatively anyway.”
“If it does?”
“You get more street cred than anyone has any right to have.” She tightens her arm around my shoulders. “You are the single strongest person I know. You deserve everything you want. Exactly what you want. I’m happy for you, I knew you had to come to the realization by yourself first.”
I’m silent as I think about her words when the room is spinning around me. “Why did you say fate though? You know I don’t believe in it.”
“Easy. Fate requires proof. At least for you it does. What more proof can possibly fall into place for you to realize it’s real? A full-blown second chance is literally dangling in front of your face waiting for you to reach out and grab it.”
I grab my glass and sip. “I need to think on this more.”
“Drink on this more?” Ramona fires back, grinning.
Aspen turns up the music on the portable speaker
