Chapter 39

Lincoln

Still groggy from nodding off on the hospital waiting room chair, it takes me a minute to register what Griz is saying. I clear my throat, sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

Griz crosses his arms and stands in front of the three of us, the same way he used to do when one of us was in trouble. But it’s the look on his face that has my chest tight. Sad and nervous about something.

“Griz, the fuck is going on?” Grant asks, standing beside me.

Ace leans forward, elbows on his knees, and looks down as if he already knows what’s coming.

With his focus on me, Griz says, “What happened tonight is going to cause a chain reaction of events. There’re things that I can’t share with you boys.” He looks down and rubs at the back of his neck. “Linc, you know what Maggie had been doing—digging into Finch & King, but her reason why?—”

He cuts himself off, and I instantly know it’s because of what she witnessed the night that Tullis died. The fact that it was Waz King who killed him.

Glancing at Ace, he says, “There’s more going on than I even know about, only that Maggie isn’t safe staying here. Waz King might be dead, but...”

Ace finishes his sentence, “But Wheeler isn’t.”

“The Calloway girls need some time.” Griz continues while watching my reaction, but I feel frozen in place. “To visit their past and get right with it. I don’t know what story will come out of tonight. That’s going to be up to them. For now, the cover story is that Maggie is in the ICU.”

Griz grips my shoulder, sitting on the chair next to me. I’m trying to work through all the things he’s said. And all the things he may not be saying.

“Tell me she’s coming back, Griz,” I say quietly to him. “She wouldn’t just leave.”

Instead of answering me, he says, “If she’s fallen for you the way I think she has...”

I pull off my glasses, smiling to myself as I think about what she whispered to me. Words I hadn’t realized I was so eager to hear.

Griz gives me a smile. “Then she’ll come back and be a part of this family,” he says assuredly. “My granddaughters think she’s their soulmate—women, let alone Foxx women, are never wrong.”

I look down at my hands, my left ring finger bare, and it’s freeing. This morning I decided to keep it off. It’s the first time I’ve gone out without my gold band knowing I wasn’t going to put it back on. The girls hadn’t noticed, but I was okay if they had. I hadn’t worn it for any other reason than for them.

“People always think that you get one great love of your life, but I think whatever asshat said that never considered all the different kinds of love that could show up over the course of a lifetime.”

My eyes water. I don’t want to fall apart here, but I killed a man tonight. And while I should feel some sort of way about it, the only thing I can think about is I won’t be okay if she doesn’t come walking back out here.

Griz wipes his hand along his thick mustache. “I’ve been lucky enough to raise you and your brothers. Your father before that. I’ve had two exceptional women come into my life and love me in ways I never deserved, but had it anyway. And then you went ahead and had two beautiful girls who ended up being two more loves of my life.”

I lean forward, elbows on my knees as I take a grounding breath. “Loving someone just for them to leave?—”

He squeezes the back of my neck, cutting me off. “When someone feels right, you lean into it. Loving someone again doesn’t mean one has to be better or stronger. If you’re smart, you’ll fall in love as many times as the world will allow—sometimes, it’s with the same person and all the new versions of each other that grow over the years. And for others, who experience loss or goodbyes, it’s when someone new shows up, shakes you up, and all of a sudden, things feel a whole lotta right. Don’t think for one second that loving Faye isn’t the bravest thing you’ve ever done. Don’t give up on her yet.”