A wide grin stretched across my face. This was what happiness felt like.
“So what are we doing today?” I asked.
“I’d like to take you out on a date. Somewhere nice and fancy. I haven’t figured out where yet.” He curled an arm around me andkissed my cheek. “But first, breakfast.”
“Pancakes?” I teased, despite knowing he preferred eggs.
“For you, I’ll eat pancakes. Every day. For the rest of my life.”
I hoped he would. But before I could say that out loud, he pulled me in for a long kiss. “You were about to say something filthy with that sweet mouth.”
I giggled and went in for a slow, luxurious kiss. He slipped his tongue between my lips, and my body prickled with desire.
I pulled back, sucking in a deep breath of air. “You could kill me with those kisses.” I leaned in for another. “But it is a worthy way to go.”
There was a knock at the door. My chest sank, and panic swirled in my belly. No one had this address. Except my gran, who didn’t drive, and Alistair.
Noticing my inability to move, Lincoln opened the door.
“Hi,” a woman’s voice said. “I’m looking for Elizabeth?”
A voice I knew. A voice I’d missed.
“Mom?” I asked.
Lincoln stepped aside as my mother ran toward me and pulled me into a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her small frame and squeezed, afraid I might break her. Her floral scent took me back years, through good and bad times, but I couldn’t let go. “Mom,” I whispered. “Mom.”
“My love, my Lily,” she said, her voice muffled by my hair. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you,” I said, and loosened the hug, but I didn’t release her. I was afraid if I did, I’d lose her again. “What are you doing here? You haven’t replied to any of my texts.”
Her red hair was pulled back into a stern bun. I hadn’t seen her hair up in years. Douglas preferred it down.
She ran her hands down her royal-blue shirt. “I know. I was busy with something very risky. Something I once asked you to trust me with.”
I stared at her, afraid to say the thing I was hoping for.
“I left him, Lily.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, matching hers. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “It took me so long, and I had to keep so many secrets because I needed to make sure that, when I left, he understood that if he ever came after us or dared to write about you again, he would regret it. It took me years to dig up enough evidence of his schemes. I may not be able to bring down the entire GB empire, but what I have is enough to scare him into submission.” She lifted her chin, and I finally saw the brave woman my grandmother always spoke about. “We are free of Douglas Gordon-Bettencourt and all his henchmen.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My heart was racing. “Mom, it must have been so scary doing this alone. I could have helped.”
“I got us into this mess. I wanted to get us out. And I wanted you to focus on your life, on your career, on…” She glanced at Lincoln and raised an eyebrow before leaning in. “Is this the gorgeous boss my mother’s told me about?”
Lincoln cleared his throat and shifted on his feet, looking anywhere but at us. “Hello,” he said with a small wave. His lopsided smile came out, and the spark of joy in my chest spread through to the tips of my fingers and toes, setting everything alight.
“Mom, this is Lincoln Carden, the love of every life I’ve lived.”
EPILOGUE
LINCOLN
[Yesterday]
@pancakesareelite:
