He plucked a blade of grass. “I talked to your mom. She said she and your dad came here a couple days ago. I thought about coming with them, but we decided that maybe it was best if I didn’t see them for a while. Let the wound of missing you heal a little bit.”

Lincoln fell silent for several moments. Brenda Lyons had dodged his call for days after she’d seen Daisy at his place. He’d thought about driving out there but didn’t know that he’d be welcome. Didn’t even know what he’d say.

Yesterday she’d surprised him by calling. Surprised him even more by apologizing.

You’re doing nothing wrong, Lincoln, by finding a nice girl. I hope you know that. Katie would have wanted you to love again. I hope you know that too.

He’d appreciated the words—they’d done a fair amount to ease the guilt as it pertained to the Lyonses.

But they’d done absolutely nothing to assuage the pain when he thought about the way he’d treated Daisy.

He’d been in limbo for days, refusing to talk to Cassidy, to Emma, Cole, his parents, anyone.

And after speaking with Brenda yesterday, he knew why. Knew whom he needed to talk to.

“I want to talk to you about something,” he said again to the headstone, before lifting his eyes and looking at the sky, in case she was looking down. “It’s a little weird, maybe a little inappropriate, but you used to be my best friend, and I need my best friend now, Katie.”

Lightning didn’t strike him down, and he took it as a good sign.

“I think I fell in love, Katie. Not while you were still here. I was loyal to you every single minute, loving you, I would have been every moment you were still breathing. Just because we were a few days away from actually saying the words till death do us part didn’t mean I didn’t honor them. But, see, the thing is, death did us part. And that hurt like hell, and I died inside right along with you, but then I came back. Someone brought me back.

“I know you only met her briefly, but…well, you’d like her. She’s funny and kind, but she’s also just good. She’s been hurt too, but she didn’t let it change her. Not for long anyway, and that makes her brave. More brave, I think, than I’ve been. Which is I guess the real reason I’m here, Katie. I want to be brave. I want to be brave enough to deserve her and get her back.”

Lincoln stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, getting right to the heart of it. “I’m here to say good-bye to you, Katie. I thought I did that in Costa Rica, but that was really just accepting that you were gone. But now it’s time for me to accept that I’m not gone. I’m still here, and I’ve realized I’d rather risk being hurt again than live alone. I have to be without you, Katie, but I don’t have to be without Daisy. And I just…I guess I wanted you to hear it from me. I’m not going to be around for a little while. I may not visit.”

Lincoln blinked back the moisture gathering in his eyes. Touched a hand to his heart. “But you’ll always be here, ’kay? Always.”

He stood there for long minutes after he’d finished talking, wishing she’d say something. Give her blessing, even as he knew she couldn’t.

But then he swore he heard her give a familiar sigh of exasperation. A sound he hadn’t heard in years, but he heard it now. The sound she made when she thought he was being an idiot.

Then he heard her. He heard Katie’s voice coming somewhere from deep inside him, loud and clear.

Lincoln, I love you too. But what the hell are you still doing here? Go get her.

He grinned. Kissed two fingers then placed them on the headstone before turning and walking back to his car, feeling lighter than he had in years.

Lincoln shoved the key in the ignition to make the drive back to New York, but at the last minute, he turned the car off and pulled out his cell phone.

He’d gotten Katie’s blessing.

Now it was time to bring in the cavalry.

Chapter 34

“Can someone please tell me why I have, like, ten people in my conference room on a Friday afternoon, only a handful of whom actually work for me?” Cassidy asked in exasperation.

“Shut it,” Lincoln said, scanning the room and doing a mental tally. “Julie, where’s Mitchell?”

The pretty blonde froze in the process of taking a bite of one of the sandwiches he’d had brought in to keep their strength up and have them at full mental working power. “Um, work?”

“Get him in here.”

Julie blinked. “Really?”

“Don’t fight it,” Mollie said, picking up a ham sandwich and taking a handful of chips. “I didn’t answer my cell at work, and he called the receptionist at my lab. Four times.”

“Damn straight. Only Sam gets a free pass,” Lincoln said. “Because he works out in the bowels of Brooklyn and I can’t wait that long.”

“Actually, he’s in Manhattan today doing a tasting,” Riley said around a mouthful of roast beef. She froze when Lincoln fixed her with a glare.

“And,” Riley said, swallowing and pulling out her phone, “I was just about to call him!”

“Good. Tell him to make it fast.”

“I’ve never seen him like this,” Grace whispered to Jake.

Lincoln barely absorbed any of this. He was too busy pacing around the room, waiting for the remainder of the crew to get here and figure out how to undo the absolute fuckery he’d made of his relationship with Daisy.