CHAPTER 24 JOLENE

Three short raps at the door and I know he's here.

I'm ready to see him again, and it's the sort of butterflies battering around my stomach that tell me this is more than just a weekend fling revisited.

It's everything we had twenty years ago but amplified by the fact that we're adults now and we're keeping this huge secret from everyone dear to us because the people dear to me are not the people dear to him.

It's a mess.

And it will remain a mess until we decide what to do. I don't think either of us sees this ending well, but at the same time, I can't seem to stay away…and apparently, neither can he.

I answer the door and usher him in toward Sam in the kitchen. "Samantha Reynolds, meet your new boyfriend, Coach Lincoln Nash."

"I mean, we've met. But it's a pleasure to be dating you, Coach," Sam says, sticking her hand out across the counter to shake his.

He smiles as he sets down a manila folder onto the counter and shakes her hand. "This is…well, it's interesting. I appreciate the effort and I'm happy to make your ex jealous in the name of hiding our relationship while we figure our shit out." He nods toward me.

She laughs and glances over at me. "He's funny, Jo."

I lift a shoulder. "He's all right."

He smirks at me then grabs me by my waist and hauls me into him. "I'll show you funny."

Sam fans herself on the other side of the counter. "Okay, okay. This well is dry over here, so kindly take it to your own bedroom if you're going to PDA all over the house."

"Apologies," Lincoln says with a grin, and he lets me go—much to my dismay. "What do I need to know about you?"

He slides out one of the stools at the counter and sits. I lean forward on the counter beside him, and Sam mirrors the way I'm standing.

"I've got a seven-year-old son named Cade. He's classmates with Jonah, and they're best friends. Jolene and I met in a mom's group when the boys were babies. We both left the mom's group years ago but keep up on the gossip of our peers. I'm an ER nurse but I get to make my own schedule, so I usually do three-tens a week and Jo picks up the slack with the boys when I'm on—unless Cade is at his dad's, in which event I pick up weekend shifts so I'm not sitting at home missing my kid." She shrugs. "That pretty much sums me up. What about you?"

He glances at me. "Uh…I'm a head coach in the NFL. I played three years and an injury sidelined me." If he catches Sam's narrowed eyes at that, he ignores it. "I took the coaching route and it'll benefit me greatly to have someone consistent on my arm at events, which tells me what we're doing will be a mutually beneficial arrangement. But I still think we should lay out some terms before we attend any events together. To that end, I've put together a contract." He slides the folder across the counter toward Sam and nods at her as if to say go ahead.

"Before I look, can I ask why having a consistent date would be to your benefit?" she asks.

"Well, it'll fend off at least half the women who see me as Vegas's newest bachelor."

"And the other half?" she asks.

He shrugs. "No moral code. They won't care if I'm seeing someone. They wouldn't even care if I was married. But I can handle them, and if it cuts the crowd in half, I'll take it. It'll open the door for the focus to shift to the season rather than my personal life."

She narrows her eyes at him a beat, but then she flips open the folder and scans the front page before she glances up at me. "Did you do this?" she asks.

"Do what?" I ask, completely dumbfounded as to what she's asking.

"Put him up to paying me. I don't want your money, Lincoln. I said I'd do it to help out my friend, and I'd prefer to leave it at that." She folds her arms over her chest emphatically.

He shakes his head. "Consider it an advance on the things you'll need to date someone like me. You'll need designer clothing for events and expensive jewelry. Sometimes you'll want to hit up a salon before the event. And to be perfectly honest, I will occasionally need you on weekends, and I'll need you at games, which could put a wrench into your working hours. This will make up for the loss of work while also giving you the means to purchase whatever you might need for events."

"I didn't realize dating someone like you meant I had to spend so much money." She shrugs as she purses her lips.

"You don't. Well, not your money, anyway. And if there's any left over, consider it payment for your time."

"We agreed this was mutually beneficial. I don't like the idea of taking your money if I'm benefitting in other ways." She gives him a pointed gaze.

"Please, Samantha. If you don't want to spend it, put it in a college fund for Cade."

"It's Sam," she grits out, and I reach over to touch her arm. She glances at me and must remember that this was her idea in the first place. I get that she's been working hard to make a life for herself and her son, but this could be a nice boost to give her some breathing room, too. She heaves out a heavy sigh. "Fine."

"Thank you," he says curtly. "There's other information in that folder, including a nondisclosure agreement, a calendar of upcoming events, and additional terms."

She nods as she flips through the papers, scanning them, and she digs through the drawer beside her, finds a pen, and signs at the end without thinking twice about it.

I didn't see the number on the top page, but it must've been pretty decent if she's signing off so easily.

She glances up at him. "Are there, like, any exes I can interview or anything so I have a better idea of what I'm getting into?"

He chuckles and nods at me. "You're looking at her."

She rolls her eyes. "You can't be serious. It's been like…what, twenty years? You can't honestly tell me you haven't been with anybody in that time."

"That's not what you asked. I don't have any real exes because I never took the time to get involved," he says a little flippantly.

I watch the two of them like I'm watching a tennis match.

"So how do you have time now?" Sam points out, clearly coming to my defense.

I nearly jump in to say I can fend for myself, but I also sort of want to hear the answer to that.

He blows out a breath and stands from the stool. He leans on the counter like we both are, too. "I should rephrase that. There was never anybody I wanted to get involved with because the heart that was broken twenty years ago remained shattered until I shared a hotel room with Jolene Bailey this past weekend." His eyes move to mine, and they're all hot and sexy like they get when he's propositioning me—a look I memorized in a hotel room in Ohio over the weekend.

"Right, then. Listen, I need to run to the, uh…I have an Amazon return to drop off. I'll be back in, oh, a half hour?"

"Forty-five minutes," Lincoln says, his eyes never leaving mine.

"You got it, boyfriend."

He cuts his gaze from mine as his head whips over to Sam. He wrinkles his nose. "None of that boyfriend-girlfriend shit. We're seeing each other. In the press, you will be Samantha. I will be Lincoln."

She holds up both hands a little defensively. "Fine, fine. You got it, Coach. You two kids have fun, and use protection. This place ain't big enough for another kid. Bye!" She waves as she heads out the door, leaving Lincoln and me alone in her kitchen.

"Another kid?" he echoes.

I smile tightly. "She's just being silly."

"Do you want more kids?" he asks.

"I figured this would be a quick romp, not a serious chat, Linc."

"You didn't answer the question."

I shrug. "You're right. I didn't. I don't know if I do. I don't know if I don't, either. Do you?"

He glances away from me out the window. "I'm not sure, either."

"Maybe that's why we're right together."

He shrugs and turns to look out the window fully rather than looking at me with his next words. "Or maybe it's why we're all wrong. I don't know, Jo. What are we doing here?"

I move in beside him. We're staring at the backyard that's virtually empty. It's rock and some bushes, a little patch of grass, and plenty of room for the kids to run around—except no equipment for them to play on. No swing set, no trampoline, no slide. Sam always says someday. Maybe someday is now.

I'm not sure why my mind wanders there as I contemplate how to answer Lincoln.

"I don't know. I think that's what we're both trying to figure out." My voice is soft when the answer finally comes.

"Yeah," he murmurs. "I guess you're right. I just…I'm not used to hiding and lying. I'm not used to these feelings." He reaches over and slings an arm around my shoulders. "I'm not used to having you back in my life, and I don't know how to navigate any of it with all the other changes in my life right now. I'm thirty-six. I should have my shit together by now."

I lean into him, resting my head on his shoulder, and I blow out a sigh. "I don't know that there's ever an age where you feel like you have your shit together. We all sort of just…fumble our way through life and hope we're good people doing the right thing, you know? Sometimes I think that's what life is all about."

He leans down to press a kiss to my temple. "You were always so smart, Jo. So much smarter than me."

I laugh a little as I straighten. "I don't know about that. We all have our strengths."

He pulls me into a hug and lowers his lips to mine. We share a sweet kiss here in the kitchen, and whether or not it leads to more remains to be seen.

Whether it does or not, though, this feels like a breakthrough.

I can only hope there are many more of those to come.