“Cut the shit, Linc,” he said, his voice clipped. “You want to tell me why the hell I’m hearing about a courthouse wedding from someone who isn’t my twin or my best fucking friend?”
I cringed and scrubbed a hand down my face, knowing I deserved every ounce of his righteous fury. “Okay, to be fair, it was a very small wedding. Just me, Willa, the judge, and an intern who looked high as fuck.”
The silence on the other end of the line practically roared, and I’d never been more thankful that he was half a world away than I was right now.
I grinned, brittle and fake. “I figured you’d appreciate not having to rent a tux or give a toast. I thought I was doing you a favor.”
It was quiet for several long moments before his voice came through, low and lethal. “You better not be taking advantage of her.”
I jerked back like he’d punched me. “What the fuck, man? You think I’d do that to her?”
“What I think is you’ve been into her for years, and now, suddenly, you’remarried? When she does nothing but bitch and moan about you whenever we talk?”
I forced out a laugh. “This might be awkward for you to hear, but that’s her version of foreplay.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t bite at my taunt. He always was like a dog with a bone when he got his mind set on something.
“I don’t buy it,” he said. “You and I both know she’s not the impulsive type. So if she married you this quickly, there has to be a reason for it. And it ain’t love.”
His words hit harder than they should have, considering that was true. This wasn’t about love. Just two not-quite-friends-but-not-quite-enemies partnering up to get shit done.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been missing since you’ve been gone,” I said, keeping my tone light. “You telling me how unlovable I am before noon.”
“Don’t fuck with her,” he said, his tone devoid of any humor. “I mean it, Linc. If you hurt her, you and I are going to have a real fucking problem.”
I blew out a breath, trying to keep my voice easy. “Noted. And hey, I’ll tell your sister you said hi.”
He hung up without another word—not that I blamed him since that was a dick move on my part. I stared at the screen longer than I should’ve, my thumb hovering over the end call button that had already gone dark.
The worst part of that conversation was he hadn’t been wrong. Willa hadn’t come to me for love. She’d come to me because she’d been backed into a corner. I’d said yes because she needed help.
And, well, because it was her. Simple as that.
For a long time, I’d seen the cracks forming around her foundation, the pressure getting to be too much for her to handle. And I thought that maybe I could ease some of that burden just a bit. If she got to save her legacy in the process? That was a win all around.
That was all this was. Had to be. Because I wasn’t ready to gamble away my relationship with my best friend on a maybe or what-if with the girl who’d been my teenage—and adult—fantasy.
I jammed the phone back into my pocket and headed toward the silo. Willa was absolutely going to freak out when I told her this, but she needed to know her brother was asking questions.
It didn’t matter whether this thing between us was fake, real, or something in between. I wasn’t going to let her dream go up in smoke because we hadn’t kept Beau in the loop.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WILLA
I could tellsomething was off the second Lincoln stepped inside.
He wasn’t whistling like he usually did when he came back from the coop, wasn’t cracking a joke, wasn’t smirking at me like he had a secret. Instead, he just shut the door behind himself and stood against it, his eyes locked on mine.
“What?” I asked, stomach already in knots for some unknown reason.
He blew out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “Just got off the phone with your brother.”
I stilled, my breath caught in my throat as a wave of heat washed over me before everything went cold.
“Shit.Shit.” I tried to get a read on Lincoln’s expression, but for once, it was locked up tight. “What did he say?”
“That he heard about our marriage from Mabel,” he said evenly. “Wasn’t thrilled.”
