I saw the intense look in his eyes before, the soft blush in his cheeks afterward.
Lincoln Carden was attracted to me. I knew what attraction looked like, and I’d been searching for it in his eyes for a long, long time.
But it would ruin me to risk it all for him. Still, I would. As pathetic as that may be. Because every part of me wanted to be with him in any way he’d take me. One night, even one kiss from him, would be better than anything I’d experienced with anyone else. The few seconds I spent in his arms feeling safe and cared for were already better than so many years of my life.
I did not imagine his enjoyment. But I also hadn’t imagined his sudden discomfort.
And to make matters worse, Link hadn’t replied either. Maybe I’d scared him off with my last message. Maybe he wasn’t Lincoln.
But if he was… Would that be better or worse?
I looked down at the drawing in front of me. It was covered in red pen, as though someone had bled over it. In Lincoln’s absence, one of the urban engineers had taken to giving me work, and I had no idea how to complete it. I made error after error, but he never helped me. He only told me it was wrong.
Was I meant to know all this stuff? Was Lincoln going above and beyond every time he taught me something?
I dug my nails into my scalp.Think, Lily.Figure it out. Now. Because if you don’t, you won’t get this job, which means no money, which means Mom did all that for nothing, and in the end, Douglas would be right.
There was only one week left of this internship, and I was deep in my self-imposter era and couldn’t figure out whether I was any better or worse than when I’d started.
I could already hear his voice:Waste of time.
But another voice came through, louder and real.
“Elizabeth?”
Someone neared. I shook the heaviness from my head.
“Elizabeth?”
My head snapped up, and I met Lincoln’s soft brown gaze—the one that melted away so many of my fears. And now, seeing him here after thinking about him nonstop since I last touched him exacerbated them.
“You’re here,” I said. “Thank goodness, you’re here.”
He leaned his hip against my desk, his brows hugging. “You look upset.” His gaze shot down to the drawing in front of me. “Oh.”
“It’s awful,” I whined, but I couldn’t help it. Lincoln was back, and that made me feel like it was okay to dig into my insecurities and lay them open for him to see. “Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it, this happens. I have no idea what I’m doing. I need to rethink my career choice.”
Lincoln lifted the drawing and brought it close to his face. “When did you graduate?”
“You know I’ve just graduated.”
“And you think someone who just graduated is meant to know everything about being an engineer?” he asked in the calmest voice. He lowered the drawing until he could look at me over the top of the Arch D sheet. One dark eyebrow popped upward. “Cocky, are we?”
“N-no,” I stammered. “But…”
He tossed the drawing aside and turned his full attention on me. “But what, Elizabeth?”
“I feel like I’m wasting everyone’s time and resources,” I admitted, swallowing the lump and hearing Douglas’s voice over and over.
Lincoln slid along the desk, scooting closer. “Jameson, who Iassume marked that up, is an urban engineer. There’s no way you should have known this stuff. Besides, Jameson can’t draft to save his life. He used to do everything by hand and then gave them to me to draw up digitally. It’s a pain and costs the company double for any task.”
“Seriously?”
“Uh-huh.” Lincoln shifted even closer, his thigh brushing against my forearm. “Fischer failed first year and third year.”
I craned my neck and took him in. His disheveled hair, his rolled- up shirtsleeves. He wasn’t wearing a belt today.
“Your boy Anders.” Lincoln coughed out a laugh and leaned closer. “Anders failed engineering math.” He held up a hand. “I know many engineers fail it, but he also came here and lost the company an incredible amount of money because he signed off on a road design when he didn’t know enough about it.”
