CHAPTER 18 LINCOLN

I had a little time to process between when I dropped Jolene at Sam's place and drove back there for dinner, and I've realized a few things.

In order for all this to really work the way I suspect Jolene wants it to, we have to get her dad on board.

I know how important he is to her. We're not the same. She can't write her dad out of her story the way I just did mine, nor do I expect her to.

But a little mutual respect might go a long way between her father and me. Now that I've had time to step back and see the entire situation for what it is, I can see that our fathers pitted us against each other for no real reason. My dad was using me as a shield to protect himself, and Joseph reacted the way any rational man would…to avoid the entire family. Except this guy can clearly hold a grudge, and my new mission is to ensure that grudge is held in the proper place, which is against my father. Not me.

Because you know what? I also have a grudge against my father.

So I need to win Joseph over.

I'm just not quite sure how to do that other than to lay all the truths out on the table.

But tonight's not about Joseph. It's about his grandson, and when I arrive at the front door for dinner, I come bearing gifts.

It's a small gesture that I hope means a lot to them both.

Jolene opens the door, and she smiles as she opens it wider to allow me in. I drop a kiss on her lips as I walk in, and I hope this is one of the very last times I have to do this. I'd much rather just go home to have dinner with these two.

"Where are Sam and Cade?" I ask.

"At Devin's place," she says, and I follow her into the kitchen, where I find a very messy Jonah trying to clean up what can only be described as a flour explosion on the counter.

"Hi Lincoln!" he says brightly, and I grin.

"Need some help there, little dude?"

"Ba-na-na!" he says, and I chuckle at his impersonation of the minions.

"Ba-na-na!" I say back to him, and I grab the cloth in the sink and start gathering the flour into a pile. "It smells good in here. What did you two make?"

"Ba-na-na bread," Jonah says. "It was my idea."

I smile and muss up his hair a little. "That means a lot," I say.

"What's in those?" he asks, nodding toward the little wrapped boxes I dropped on the counter.

"Open the one with the blue paper and you'll find out," I say.

Jonah grins as he jumps over to open it.

"Hold on just a second there, Jonah Bear. Finish the job first, okay?" Jolene scolds lightly, and Jonah pouts a little as he continues wiping the counter down.

"Are we ready to tell him?" I ask her quietly when he's out of earshot, and she nods. "The box will give it away."

I help him out with the cleaning, and once we're finished, Jonah grabs his box and I hand the box with the white paper to Jolene.

They both tear off the paper, and Jolene gets a little teary when she sees the house key I had made for her with a Vegas Aces keychain attached to it along with another keychain that simply says Coach's Girl.

I watch Jonah as he opens his box.

He pulls out the housekey with a Minions keychain attached to it, and he looks up with a crinkled brow. "It's a key."

I nod. "To my house. Or, rather, to your house."

"My house?" he asks, and he looks at his mom. "The move is back on?"

She nods as she grins. "The move is back on! So let's eat some pizza and banana bread, and then let's start packing because we have to be out of here in five days."

All three of us laugh, and it's one of those moments that just feels perfect.

And I see so many more of them coming up in our future.

I know it won't be perfect, and I know we'll have our challenges. But it seems like we've already overcome so much together, and this is where we landed. We know what it's like to fight apart, but now that we know what it's like to fight together, that's how we'll do it from here on out.

We're finished eating and relaxing on the couch when Sam and Cade get home, and their hands are full. Cade has a bag that looks heavy for a seven-year-old, and Sam's wrestling with some boxes.

"Do you need some help?" I ask, lifting to a stand and rushing over to help Sam with the boxes.

"Yeah," she says a little breathlessly. "There are about forty more of these in my car."

"Maybe thirty now," Devin says, walking in with another stack of boxes. "Whoa. You're Lincoln Nash."

I grin and set the boxes down onto the kitchen table. He sets his stack on top of mine, and I stick out a hand to shake his. "I assume you're Devin?"

He nods. "It's nice to meet you."

"And you."

We head outside to get the rest of the boxes out of the car along with packing paper, and when we return, Sam has emptied the bag Cade was carrying—which was filled with packing tape and dispensers.

"Who's ready for a packing party?" Sam asks.

Nobody is, but we all pitch in to help anyway, and it's a start at least.

Devin and Sam are in the kitchen and I'm helping Jolene in her room when I sit on the bed for a beat.

"Can we talk about something that's been on my mind?" I begin.

She sits next to me. "What's up?"

I clear my throat. "I want to talk to your father."

"Oh, Linc," she says, and she stands and starts pacing. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I know it's not, but I've been thinking a lot about this, and I know that in order for you to truly get everything you want, your dad needs to be okay with this."

She twists her lips, and then she pauses and sets her hands on her hips. "How'd you know that?"

"Because I know you, Jo. I know what means the most to you."

She tilts her head as she lets out a little sigh of contentment. "God, I love you."

"Right back at you. Have you told your parents about the baby?"

She shakes her head. "I have not. I had a hard enough time getting up the courage to tell you."

I motion for her to come closer, and I loop my arm around her waist, pulling her on top of me so she's straddling me. "And look how that turned out. They deserve to know."

"I know," she murmurs, and then she lowers her lips to mine. "And I will tell them. Someday."

I laugh.

"We should probably lead with how we're back together. My mom will be okay with it. My dad…not so much."

"Speaking of all that, I think my mom will be okay with everything, too. She told me she always thought you were lovely."

She flips her hair. "Well, I am lovely."

I chuckle and kiss her neck. "I haven't had a chance to tell you this, but my mom told me she thought the accident—or, um, your dad's injury—had less to do with me and more to do with the bar than my dad led me to believe."

A small gasp rises out of her as it seems to click into place. "God. How you're related to such an asshole is beyond me."

My brows dip.

How you're related to such an asshole…

Her words twist around in my head.

Why my father treats me differently than my brothers.

Why he's always held something against me that I couldn't quite piece together.

Why he's never told me he's proud of me.

What if…

It's almost too crazy a thought to have, but what if.

"What are you thinking?" she says.

I shake my head a little as I try to put voice to the thoughts suddenly swirling in my head. "What if I'm not related to him? And what if he knew that, and that's why he's always treated me the way he has?"

"Wait…" Her brows dip together as she climbs off my lap. She sits beside me. "What?"

I stand and start pacing as this starts to make real sense to me. "Asher looks exactly like him. Right? And Grayson and Spencer, they have more of his features, too. But me, I'm the odd one out. They all have dark hair and blue eyes, but I look like my mom. Light brown hair, dark brown eyes." I stop and set my hands on my hips. "What if he's not my dad at all, and that's what he's held against me all this time?"

"If he's not your dad…who would be, Linc?"

I shrug. It's a great question, and one that I certainly don't have the answer to. But it suddenly makes so much sense to me, and at some point, I think I need to confront my mother with these questions.

Have I been lied to my entire life?

Maybe. Am I even a Nash?

Who knows.

It feels strange to even think it, but for the first time in my life, I'm starting to feel like I might be closer to finding the answers I've been searching for.