Page 40 of Romance Reset
Oh, she didn’t have time for this. More importantly, she didn’t have the energy or emotional stamina. “Lincoln?”
He didn’t stir. He really was asleep.
She moved closer and knelt beside him, only then spotting the bouquet of hydrangeas and jasmine on the ground by his hip. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty, wake up.” She gently shook his shoulder. “Lincoln?”
He awoke with a startled jolt, grabbing her hand.
“Hey,” he said, squinting and blinking as though trying to focus. “You’re finally home. What time is it?”
“Five fifteen. In the morning, Lincoln. Have you been here all night?”
He closed his eyes drowsily and she wondered if he was actually awake yet. “Lincoln?”
“Sleeping Beauty doesn’t wake up until he’s kissed,” he murmured.
“Yeah, well, Sleeping Beauty shouldn’t be sleeping here. It’s a wonder my neighbors didn’t call the cops on you. Lincoln?” Seriously? He wasn’t going to respond until she kissed him? “Oh, for pity’s sake.”
Since it might be the last time she ever got the opportunity to kiss him, she leaned over to press a quick kiss to his lips only to gasp when his hands shot up to grasp her shoulders. He kept her there, his lips fastening on to hers with all of the intensity and chemistry they’d shared from day one. The kiss deepened until she had to end it due to lack of air.
“You taste minty,” he murmured, his long fingers tangled in her hair. “I like it.”
She liked this. This sleepy-eyed, hair-pulling, incredibly sexy Lincoln. Amelia crouched over him, hands on his chest for balance, body quaking. How was it possible to want someone like this, even though it hurt so much? “Don’t do this to me, Lincoln. Please. I can’t—”
He kissed her again, stopping her complaint.
“Invite me in.”
“Mm. No. No, I don’t— Ican’t. I just stopped to pick up a charger that I forgot. I’m on my way to Atlanta.”
“I was afraid you’d already left. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for days, but you wouldn’t answer or return my calls, and the news said the filming had ended early. I’ve been out of my mind wondering if I was too late. I had to get the kids off to college yesterday, but I came straight back here hoping to catch you and talk to you before you—”
“You’renotgoing to talk me out of it. Because of my age and issues, I know I might not be able to have a baby, and if that happens, I’ll accept it, but I have totry, Lincoln. Iwantto try. I want ababy.”
His hand tightened in her hair a bit more, and a shiver seared her nerve endings as he locked gazes with her.
“That’s why I’m here, sweetheart. Because if you want to have a baby, I want it to be with me.”
Chapter 16
Lincoln waited for Amelia to respond, barely able to breathe due to the fist in his stomach. Her doorstep wasn’t the place to have this conversation, but he couldn’t bring himself to wait even longer. Not when he’d agonized and paced and worried himself into exhaustion waiting on her to appear.
He’d gotten so desperate he’d Googled sperm banks in Atlanta, but due to the laws, he wasn’t able to get any information when he called trying to find her.
“What?”
Lincoln stared into her beautiful gaze and struggled to clear the fog in his brain. He needed his wits about him to argue all the reasons why she needed to give him a third chance. “Sweetheart, when you mentioned a baby… all I could think of was that I was almost agrandfather.”
“You would’ve been a young grandfather.”
He narrowed his gaze, earning a slight smile from her. Having slept against her door all night, he now felt every ache and pain, and he definitely didn’t feel as young as he used to feel. “Yeah, well, in a few years, I’m likely tobea grandfather and… you talking about babies threw me, and Bree’s pregnancy scare threw me even more. All of it crashed in on me. Dating and babies andyou.It’s fast for someone who’s moved at a snail’s pace the last twenty years, raising two families.”
“I’m sure it is. I’m sorry I’ve made things even more difficult.”
“No. No, don’t be sorry,” he said, using his hold on her to settle her weight entirely against him so that she sat beside him on her doormat. “Because the thing of it is, all of this—namely you—has made me feel more alive than I have in a very long time.”
“It has?”
His gaze lowered to her mouth and he watched as she flicked a tongue over her lips in response. “It takes a lot of practice to make a baby.”
