“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I shake my head. “Nothing, I just had a little run in with someone out front when I got here.”
Lincoln’s eyes are fierce, his jaw ticking as he works it back and forth. “Did someone touch you?”
“No.”
“Threaten you?”
Damn it, I shouldn’t have said anything. Now he’s never going to let me come back. “No. Nothing like that. It’s fine, really. He just made a comment about whether or not Rose knows I’m your girlfriend.”
Lincoln nods tightly, accepting my answer, and wraps his arms around me. “She knows.”
“Really? Are you sure about that? Because she was looking awfully cozy a few minutes ago.”
“Trust me, she knows.”
“Good.”
“I can’t control whether or not she comes here. Her dad owns the place.”
“I know. It just bothers me that she gets to be here—gets to know this side of you—and I don’t.”
“Why would you want to be here?” he asks.
19
Lincoln
“Because you’re here,” Adley answers softly. “I want to be part of this. You don’t talk to me about work. You don’t talk about your childhood or your parents or anything outside of what’s happening when we’re together. I’ve finally got you, but I don’t really have you. You keep parts of your life hidden from me, and I hate that.”
Resting my forehead on Adley’s shoulder, I take a deep breath. There are horrible things about my life. Things only Chloe knows. I’ve thought about telling Adley more about my background several times over the last few months, but I don’t want her to look at me differently or feel sorry for me. Yes, it’s a weight on my shoulders that I can’t seem to shake. The memories of my childhood are always there, dictating certain parts of my life. It’s something I have to talk to her about sooner or later.
Maybe sooner is now.
I’ve been waiting for the right moment, and what’s that saying? There’s no better time than now.
“My life outside of you isn’t pretty,” I say before I lose the courage.
“I don’t care what it looks like. If it’s a part of you, it’s part of me. Let me in, Lincoln.”
Shifting her off my lap, I move across the room. “My parents used to beat the shit out of me and Chloe.”
Adley gasps, and I don’t turn around to see the look on her face. Because if I see pity, it’ll fuckin’ kill me.
“It wasn’t always bad. I have a few good memories. But I’ll never forget the first night my mother backhanded me.”
“I can’t fathom a mother doing that to her child.”
“She wasn’t my mother—not the mother I’d known at least. I guess being a parent got the best of her. She started drinking heavily. When she came home drunk, she was an entirely different person. The smallest things would set her off. The first time she backhanded me, I didn’t know what to think. It shocked the hell out of me. She cried and begged me to forgive her. She promised it wouldn’t happen again.”
“What did your dad say?”
“Nothing. I think that hurt worse than her slap.”
I finally turn around to look at Adley. Her eyes are filled with tears.
“Her drunken rages became more frequent. There were nights she didn’t come home at all.”