Handle With Care (Shacking Up 5)

“Bald men all over the world must loathe you,” Ulrich murmurs. He’s still running his fingers through Lincoln’s hair, almost like he’s petting him. He moves around to stand in front of him, and I follow. “And what about the beard? Are we shaping? Trimming? Getting rid of it?”

“Too bad we can’t donate it as well.” Against my better judgment, I run my fingers through it too, which seems to shock Lincoln.

He recovers quickly, though. “Who says we can’t? We could make merkins out of it.”

I drop my hands and bark out an incredulous laugh. Ulrich doesn’t seem to get the joke.

I’m almost positive Lincoln’s smirking. “We could have one made for you, in case you wanted to change things up every once in a while.” He glances briefly at my crotch. If he were Armstrong, he’d get a warning, but Lincoln’s comment isn’t accompanied by any kind of smarminess, and it’s actually kind of funny, even if it’s also embarrassing.

“You’re unbelievable.” I give him a cautioning glare.

“I thought it was a good idea.”

“Right, well, whatever you want to do with the beard is up to you. Let’s clean this up and make it camera-ready.” I motion to his face in general and grab my purse. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Lincoln’s thick, warm fingers wrap around my wrist, but he releases me just as quickly, possibly because he hasn’t seen the contract I signed and doesn’t know whether or not his includes the same self-defense clause as Armstrong. “Wait! Where are you going?”

“I have a quick meeting. I won’t be long.”

“With who? I thought your job was to babysit me today.”

“I’m not a babysitter, Lincoln.” I pat his cheek; it’s condescending, as it’s meant to be. “And while my job might often feel very much like babysitting, I do have other things to take care of. Don’t worry; you’re in good hands. Oh, and be nice. I’ve authorized back waxing should you prove to be unpleasant with the staff, so be on your best behavior.”

I leave him with Ulrich and head down the street to the café to meet up with my friend Dani. Beyond being my bestie, she’s also a PI, and I’ve asked her to look into Lincoln and see if she can dig any skeletons out of his closet. Everyone has them, and I want to find out if Lincoln’s are ones we need to worry about.

“I ordered your usual,” she says as I slip into the booth beside her.

Her short, blond bob is tucked up in her customary baseball cap. While I wear dresses most of the time, Dani lives in black jeans, sports jerseys, and combat boots or Chucks. Her face is pixie sweet, and her tongue is sharp.

“Thanks. Sorry I’m late.”

“Everything okay?”

I wave off her worry. “Just a busy morning.” Because of the nature of my contract with Moorehead Media, we don’t discuss my job, and since she’s a PI, we can’t really discuss much about hers either.

“So you’d be jealous if I told you I rolled out of bed half an hour ago?”

“I might be, except I’m pretty sure you went to bed around the time I got out of mine.”

“If you got up at six in the morning, you’d be correct in that assumption.” She rubs her hands together. “So, I did some preliminary recon while I was waiting. You want to get right down to the dirty?”

“Might as well.”

She turns her laptop, so I can see what she’s pulled up so far. “So, I have the usual, school, family, yadda, yadda. While there’s lots of drama there, it seems to revolve mostly around his brother. Anyway, he got into some trouble at Harvard, but other than that, I haven’t found anything else.”

I perk up at that. “What’d he get in trouble for at Harvard?”

“You’re going to love this. Protesting the sanitation products in student bathrooms. They’re manufactured in a plant that was known for ignoring child labor laws.”

Well, that’s commendable but disappointing. “He can’t really be that squeaky clean. I mean, he has to have done something bad at some point that someone will use against him. What about his relationship history? Ex-girlfriends, that kind of thing?”

Dani shrugs. “I haven’t found much apart from a grainy prom pic and a few college photos, but as far as I can tell, he either hasn’t had much in the way of relationships, or he’s extra careful about not being public about them. It’s possible his family has paid to keep him off the web, but aside from a few pictures of him working on projects in various countries over the past few years, there’s a whole lot of nothing. It’s tough when there’s no social media to work with. And he doesn’t appear in family photos. Obviously I’ll dig deeper and see what else I can find, but so far he’s coming up roses. Nothing like the brother.”