“You can’t apologize for your son’s behavior, Mrs. Burns. It’s not your fault. If he really wanted to apologize—please don’t take this the wrong way—but he’d man up and do it himself.”
I try to keep my anger in check. It’s not easy when I know he hasn’t done it because he doesn’t want to.
“Oh, I’m not apologizing for him,” Tillie says smoothly.
My eyebrows go up. “Then why did you say you’re sorry?”
“Because I feel responsible for this dreadful outcome.” Her body ripples with a sigh.
A single surprised laugh slips out of me.
“This is not your fault in any way, shape, or form. Not even indirectly. It’s partly mine for being stupid enough to get involved, to believe him. And a lot of it was his for being—” I remember I’m talking to his mom. “Umm—well—so Lincoln.”
She gives me a knowing nod.
“The boy can be maddening. I know, considering I’m the one who raised him. His father was the same way.” Her lips curl in this half smile, and her eyes are somewhere else. A different time and place.
“Lincoln told me you adored his dad...”
“Oh, I still do.” She shrugs. “That didn’t make him any less infuriating at times. But that’s not my point. I’m here to apologize for my role in this mess. I’m the one who talked Lincoln into entertaining this fake engagement marketing ploy while I hoped it would turn into something else. If I’d just kept my meddling mouth shut, the rest of this drama might have been avoided.”
I don’t follow.
“You did?” I whisper. I was under the impression Lincoln Burns doesn’t do anything he doesn’t damn well want to do.
Tillie nods slowly, frowning.
“Do you remember the first day we met?” she asks.
“How could I forget? You found me crying...” She must think I’m such a loser. The first time we met, I was having a nervous breakdown at work. Now I’ve had a tryst with her son that pushed him out of her company.
“That’s the day. Lincoln came around the corner, saw you upset, and was ready to kill someone—”
“Your son was the reason I was hurt,” I tell her.
There’s no point in hiding it if we’re spilling truths all over the place.
“Yes, I guessed as much.” She smiles sheepishly. “It bothered him, though. Deeply. I know when he’s upset. In fact, the only time I’ve ever seen him so flustered is when that young man he looks after gets in real trouble—”
“Wyatt?”
“Yes,” she says with a knowing smile.
“Not to change the subject, but how’s he doing?” I sincerely want to know.
“He’s on the mend. It hasn’t been an easy recovery, but when this all started, it wasn’t even certain he had another chance in the cards.”
I exhale pure relief, thankful that something went right.
“Anywho, back to business. I’m sorry I talked Lincoln into the fake wedding. He’s a grown man and he makes his own decisions, but I can’t help feeling like I might’ve been the decisive factor in his thinking. It’s just a trope in so many movies, and you two played off each other brilliantly when I saw you together.” She dips her head and looks up at me with big, sad eyes. “I had no right to intervene, Dakota, even if I’m obsessed with seeing my son happy. I just knew if he had to spend time with you—if he let his shields down, it wouldn’t stay fake for long.”’
“Yeah, well...” I can’t find the words to respond to that, so I shift in my seat.
“I assure you, I didn’t expect him to go and muck it up so dreadfully.” Again, she pauses and sighs, raw grief in her face. “I never knew it would trigger bad memories for him. Let alone bring him so close to making the same awful mistake twice...”
“What mistake?” I lean forward, my mind flashing back to that last horrible conversation with Lincoln and his cryptic comments about becoming someone else.
Everyone keeps dancing around some big forbidden secret.
Tillie looks at me sadly.
“You know how his last relationship ended, yes?”
I nod slowly. “He mentioned it. Cheating fiancée. Nasty fight. He said he caught her with her lover... It must’ve been pretty bad.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” She straightens in her seat, her mouth drawn tight. “I suppose he never mentioned the hideous aftermath?”
I shake my head, baffled at what she means.
“He’s an honest man, Dakota. When he goes all into something, he gives his entire heart, and it was like that with Regina, too. When he caught them together, he couldn’t hold back, right or wrong...”
Oh, God.
What is she getting at?
Tillie holds up a hand. “You didn’t hear this from me, but that poor excuse for a man he found her with, he had the nerve to laugh in Lincoln’s face when my boy ordered him to get out. Then he threw the first punch.”