All of My Soul (16 page)

“All right,” Lincoln said to his parents. “I
have to go, but I’ll meet you at your town house as soon as I can
after the game.”

“Well, just remember. The longer it takes you
to join us, the more embarrassing baby pictures Lizzie will show to
your girl.” The senator winked at me.

“Great,” Lincoln replied with a roll of his
eyes. “You just gave mom an idea.”

“Oh, no, sweetheart,” his mother said as she
hugged him. “I’ve had the baby books out for days, just waiting for
Jillian.”

Lincoln groaned. “Oh, God. Jillian, please
don’t listen to anything they tell you.”

I giggled at how awkward and uncomfortable
Lincoln seemed right now. I hadn’t seen him like this before.
Kennedy gave him a hard time, but Lincoln gave it right back to
her. He couldn’t do that with his parents.

“Have a good game, son,” Senator Monaghan
said before ducking into the back of their town car.

“Be safe!” Elizabeth said and blew a kiss at
her son before joining her husband in the car. She left the back
passenger door open so I could join them once I said good-bye to
Lincoln.

“Are you going to be okay with them?” he
asked me quietly.

“Of course. I know I was worried earlier, but
you were right. They are great.”

“Okay. But when they show you pictures, just
remember everyone has awkward teenage years they’d rather
forget.”

I bit my lip trying to contain my smile. “You
had awkward teenage years?”

Elizabeth’s voice rang out from the backseat
of the car. “Lincoln, for heaven’s sake, we’re just taking her for
a walk by the marina before the game. Stop freaking out.”

I grabbed his face and pulled him down
slightly. “We’ll be fine, baby. Now go kick butt.”

He leaned down and kissed me. His lips
lingered on mine, and I liked that he wasn’t embarrassed or awkward
about kissing me in front of his parents. It made me feel
secure.

“I love you,” he said softly.

I smiled. “I love you too, baby. Stay
safe.”

He nodded and kissed me again quickly. I
sighed as Lincoln turned to walk to his town car, and I joined the
senator and Elizabeth in the backseat of their car. It always
sucked to say good-bye to Lincoln. Even if it was only for a little
while.

Lincoln’s mom and dad sat together on the
bench seat that faced forward forcing me to sit with one of their
security guards on the other. I smiled at him awkwardly as I took
my seat, and he politely nodded but that was all he said or
did.

“All right,” Elizabeth said with a smile as
our vehicle pulled away from the curb. Lincoln’s car was already
gone. “Who’s ready for a nice walk?”

~~~~~~~

“Oh, here’s a good one. I think he’s about
three and a half years old there.”

I took the picture from Elizabeth as we sat
at the dining room table of their Georgetown town house with a
photo album spread open in front of us. “Why are his pants
wet?”

“Oh. He probably peed in them. He was always
wetting his pants when he was little. I constantly had to have at
least two extra sets of clothes for him if we went anywhere.”

I burst out laughing.

“Mom!” Lincoln called from the kitchen where
he was preparing dinner for us. “She doesn’t need to know
that!”

“Well, it’s true,” Elizabeth said. “Carter
was potty trained before Lincoln was.”

“MOM!” my man exclaimed with frustration as
he walked into the dining room. His hair was still wet from
showering after the game. He had raced to get here as soon after
winning the game as possible.

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much as I
looked over the pictures Elizabeth had collected. Despite his wet
pants, Lincoln had been an adorable child. I desperately tried to
ignore the thoughts in my head about how adorable our child would
be. Someday. Not anytime soon. I never thought I’d meet someone who
would want to have a family with me, but as much as I wanted to be
a mother, I knew we were both way too busy to be parents right now.
However, the thought of holding a mini-Lincoln in my arms stirred
something deep inside me, and I liked it a lot.

“Okay, I think picture time is over,” he said
as he set down a glass of wine in front of me. I laughed at him as
he started haphazardly collecting the pictures and shoving them
back into the photo albums. “The steaks are almost done,
anyway.”

The senator was flipping steaks on the grill
on the balcony, and Lincoln had been preparing some vegetable side
dishes in the kitchen.

“Do you need help with anything?” I offered
as Elizabeth put the photo albums away.

He smiled and kissed my temple. “Can you set
the table?”

“Absolutely.”

The four of us talked and laughed over our
meal. Now that I was becoming comfortable with them, I was able to
relax and enjoy our time together. They were wonderful people. I
don’t know why I ever thought they would disapprove of me. I knew
they were wary of their privacy, and trust did not come easy in
this family. But once they met me and got to know me, I think it
was obvious that I would never do anything to hurt Lincoln or their
family.

One thing I had noticed today was that
Senator Monaghan was never far from his cell phone. He had received
several calls while at the game and two while he was grilling. It
was the nature of his job though. Important people needed to be in
contact with him and vice versa, so I wasn’t surprised when his
phone chirped from where he had set it on the table next to his
plate. He swiped his finger across the screen, and his face broke
into a wide smile as he read the text.

“It’s Carter. He says they showed us on ESPN
watching the game.”

He tapped on his screen and held up his
phone. A video of the game started playing. The camera zoomed in
close on Lincoln’s face as he stood on the ice breathing heavily
waiting for everyone to get into position before the action
restarted.

“Monaghan’s oh for two for shooting so far,
but he’s got plenty of time to make up for it,” the announcer
said.

The camera flipped to a shot of Lincoln’s
parents and me sitting in our private club box. It was a clear shot
of us from across the arena. Elizabeth was leaning toward me,
talking into my ear before my face broke out in a smile, and I
laughed at whatever she had said.

“Monaghan’s family is in attendance tonight,”
the commentator explained in a deep voice.

I watched myself sit forward in my seat, cup
my hands around my mouth and cheer for my man. Lincoln’s parents
smiled at me and then at each other before joining in with me.

“Ronald Monaghan is, of course, Senator
Monaghan from the great state of Illinois. His wife, Elizabeth,
heads several charity organizations here in DC and in Chicago, and
Lincoln’s girlfriend is getting her master’s degree in Biology at
UIC. Talented family proudly cheering for their Hawks tonight.”

A loud horn sounded in the background of the
video and the image switched back to the action on the ice. The
referee dropped the puck, and Lincoln and the other players burst
into action before the video went black.

Lincoln jerked up from the table, sending his
chair flying backward. His whole body radiated with tension, and
the knuckles on the hand holding his water glass were turning white
as if he was just barely stopping himself from smashing it.

“Lincoln! Calm down!” Elizabeth
commanded.

He glared at his mother. “Calm down? Were you
watching the same video I was?” His voice was sharp and angry.

“Lincoln,” his father started to say in a
calm voice. “It’s a miniscule problem that will resolve itself
shortly.”

“Miniscule?! Her safety is a miniscule
problem to you?”

Was he talking about me? What problem?

“No. But you’ve already taken precautions,
correct?”

Lincoln paused before answering. I could see
his jaw clenching as he stared at his father. “Yes. I have,” he
finally answered.

“Then don’t worry. It’s not the end of the
world.”

Lincoln set his glass down with force causing
the water to slosh out onto the table. “It will be the end of my
world if anything happens.” He glared at his father before giving
me a sad look and walking out of the room, leaving me sitting with
his parents.

I looked down at my hands in my lap. I didn’t
know what they were arguing about, but I had a feeling it was about
me. What had I done?

“Jillian.” Elizabeth’s sweet voice was
calming. “Would you like some strawberry pie for dessert?”

I gave her a small smile and nodded. She
began to clear the table, and I offered to help, but she dismissed
me and walked into the kitchen to get dessert, leaving only the
senator and me at the table. An awkward silence hung over us, and I
wondered where Lincoln went.

“He’s overreacting.”

I looked up at the senator. He smiled at me,
trying to be reassuring, I think, but I still wasn’t sure what he
was talking about.

“Lincoln?”

He nodded and took a small sip of his red
wine. “I understand how you would be worried, especially after your
trip to the hospital, but the situation is under control. You don’t
need to be frightened.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t really know what you’re
talking about.” I felt stupid admitting it, but I really didn’t
understand what was going on.

“They announced where you attend university
on national television. Doesn’t that concern you?”

Oh. Lincoln was concerned about exposure.
Privacy meant protection. There was still someone out there who had
slashed my tires. Someone who had threatened me. Someone who had
poisoned me. And the more information they had on me, the more
vulnerable I was.

“‘The problem will resolve itself shortly’?”
I quoted him.

“You’re graduating in a month, correct?”

I nodded.

“After that, it won’t matter who knows you
attended UIC.”

“It shouldn’t matter now. I haven’t been on
campus in ages. The majority of my classes are online, and now the
only thing I have left is to finish and present my thesis. If
someone was looking for me there, they would never find me.”

“When do you do that?”

“June 11.”

He smiled at me. “I remember presenting my
thesis. That was a lifetime ago, and of course, it wasn’t in
biology, but I remember being scared shitless.”

I laughed at his blunt honesty. “I’m trying
not to think about that part of it yet.”

“From what it sounds like, you know your
subject matter forward and backward. You’ll be just fine.”

“Thank you. I hope so. I just need to polish
off a few sections, and I think I’ll have a decent paper. I sent my
rough draft to my advisor before we left for the weekend, so I’m
anxious to see what he has to say.”

Lincoln returned to the table in time for
dessert. He apologized for his outburst, and by the time we left
his parent’s townhome that night for our hotel room, I had pretty
much forgotten the incident. Or at least I thought I had.

Chapter Twelve

A small warm light from inside Lincoln's
house caught my attention as I walked up to it. I smiled as I stood
on the front steps, looking in. The light reminded me of the
candles Lincoln had surrounded the bathtub with on Valentine's Day.
The orange glow grew larger. Was he making a fire in the fireplace?
The flame grew even larger still. What in the world could that
be?

My smile faded as I realized something wasn’t
right. The flames crawled up the wall until they umbrellaed out
across the ceiling. Panic prickled through me. Lincoln's house was
on fire! I needed to get help! I looked around for anything useful
but there was nothing. Where was Lincoln? I tried to call out for
him, but no sound came out.

Suddenly my view shifted, and I was inside
the house looking out. Flames surrounded me and feathered up my
arms and neck. I was melted in place, unable to move to escape the
burning. No! Not again!

“Lincoln! Help me! Lincoln!!”

I jerked awake in the darkness. I was
drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. I thrashed out of bed,
tumbling to the floor as my legs twisted in the wet sheets.

A light came on from Lincoln's side of the
bed. “Jillian?”

Relief washed through me, burning through the
adrenaline in my system. It was just a dream. I was in the hotel
room in Washington with Lincoln. Everything was fine.

Lincoln knelt in front of me and grabbed my
shoulders, forcing me to look up at him. Worry was written all over
his face. “Baby, what's wrong? What happened?”

Needing to confirm he really was here with
me, I launched myself into Lincoln's arms and wrapped myself around
him before burying my head in the crook of his neck as a sob broke
free from my chest.

Lincoln hugged me tight before his hands
roamed over my sweaty, naked body in a comforting way. “Princess,
did you have a nightmare?”

I nodded against his neck. He squeezed me
tight again and then stood up, taking me with him in his arms. He
carried me to the bathroom and into the shower. Without setting me
down, he turned the faucet on, and the showerhead began to spray
warm water down on us.

“Cold. Cold water, Lincoln,” I demanded in a
shaky voice. I could still feel the nonexistent flames on my
skin.

He set me on my feet and moved to turn the
water to cold, but I clung to him, not able to let go. He wrapped
one arm around me and turned both of us so he could adjust the
water before holding me tight against his chest.

We stood like that for a long time, but
Lincoln never once complained about the temperature of the water.
It felt so good, reminding me I was alive, unharmed, and safe here
with my man.

When I began to shiver, Lincoln let go of me
and turned the water back to warm. He cupped my face with his hands
and kissed me lightly on the lips.