“I know,” Linc murmured, picking up his coffee and taking a sip of the sweet, hot
liquid. “Rosa has taken good care of me and my home for years. Occasionally, she even takes
pity on me and cooks enough meals to last me all week, just so I don”t starve to death.”
“How long has she worked for you?” Mitch asked.
“Rosa”s been with me since I bought this house. She”s like family now, and the only
person I trust to take care of things around here. Even when I lived in New York, I never
worried, because I knew that Rosa would look after my home like it was her own.”
“Well,” Tomi spoke up, “I”ve only seen a few rooms, but it”s obvious that you have a
very beautiful home.”
“That”s right.” Linc smiled apologetically. “You never got the full tour.” When he”d
brought them to his home the night before, he”d left his manners outside in the car. The only
thing he wanted them to see was his California king-size bed. “Come on.” He picked up his
cup. “Let me show you around the place.” He waited for Tomi and Mitch to grab their coffee and stand up from the table before
he led them through the house.
Twenty minutes later, they entered his office, the last room left to see. Linc sat in the
overstuffed chair behind his desk, placing his feet on top of the walnut surface as he drank
the remainder of his coffee.
“Man,” Mitch began, as he had a seat on the leather couch, “you could fit at least five of
our condo back in New York City inside this place.”
“I remember that.” Linc smiled sympathetically, thinking about the place he used to
own when he”d lived there. The only thing big about it was the price tag. He suspected that
Mitch and Tomi”s condo probably cost nearly as much as he”d paid for this place when he
first bought it. It was just one more thing that he didn”t miss about the Big Apple.
He took a final drink from his coffee cup before setting it on the desk, his gaze on
Tomi, who slowly walked around the room.
“I can tell you spend a lot of time in here.” She glanced over her shoulder at him as she
looked at various family pictures throughout the room. “Aside from your bedroom, you seem
more comfortable here than in any other room in the house.”
Linc couldn”t argue that. He did spend quite a bit of time in this room, and not just
working. His office was one of his favorite places to kick back and put his feet up, just as he
was now. All the pictures in the room helped as well. Each one represented a special memory
for Linc, a way for him to feel connected to his family, even when they weren”t around.
“Is this Paul and Ava?”
Linc focused on the picture frame that Tomi held in her hand, immediately recognizing
the couple in the photo.
“Yes,” he confirmed, ignoring the sadness he always felt whenever he thought about
his deceased lovers. Mitch stood and walked over to Tomi, looking over her shoulder at the picture.
“They”re gorgeous,” he murmured, looking back at Linc. “Where was this taken?”
“Rio de Janeiro,” he said automatically, the memory still vivid in his mind, the picture
capturing a moment of happier times between the three of them before everything went so
terribly wrong.
Linc lifted his feet off the desk and dropped them to the floor, before standing and
moving across the room to join Mitch and Tomi. Looking down, he stared into the faces that
he knew so well. Paul was the serious one, a tough, strong firefighter with cinnamon skin
and warm, chocolate eyes, and Ava with her blonde hair and smiling green eyes, always the
peacemaker, always wanting everyone to be as happy as she always seemed to be.
“I bet the three of you had a lot of good times here,” Mitch commented.
“Actually, we didn”t,” Linc admitted. “I originally bought this house as a place for us to
get away, but Paul and Ava never saw it.” When Mitch and Tomi looked at him in surprise,
he shrugged. “We never could get our schedules to coincide long enough for all of us to be
off at the same time.”
“Do you miss them?” Tomi asked, her voice soft and gentle.
Linc thought about her question for a moment before he responded. “Yes,” he finally
said. “But not in the way you might think.” He paused again before continuing. “I miss
knowing that they”re alive and well and living their lives with someone who loved them the
way they deserved to be loved. I miss not having had the chance to say good-bye, and I”m
sorry; I wish things could have been different between us.”
He felt Mitch”s eyes on him. “So…do you think you”d ever want to be a part of a
relationship like that again?”
He met Mitch”s gaze. “You know, if you”d asked me that a few days ago, my answer
would definitely have been no. Now” — he looked meaningfully between Mitch and Tomi —
“I think I”ve had a change of heart on the subject.”
Chapter Eight
Mitch lay in bed, leaning on his elbow with his head resting in his hand, quietly
watching Tomi”s sleeping form next to him.
He absently stroked her hair, his mind a million miles away as thoughts of their
weekend with Linc raced through his mind.
Despite his intense attraction to Linc, the most that Mitch had allowed himself to hope
for was a nice evening out with a man who, if they were lucky, Tomi and he would consider
a friend once they returned home.
Somehow, their simple dinner had evolved somewhere along the way and turned into
so much more. He”d never formed a connection so quickly, so deeply, with someone other
than Tomi. Mitch felt drawn to Linc by an attraction that surpassed the mere physical.
The fact of the matter was that he liked Linc a hell of a lot more than he probably
should, considering he”d only known the man for three days. Tomi”s reaction to Linc,
particularly the way she trusted him enough to share herself uninhibitedly with him, seemed
to speak volumes about her
