Merry Christmas, Lincoln (A Take Care, Sara Christmas Novelette) Read Online Free PDF

drunk and she says I can be the chaperone.”
    “ Nice of her to volunteer you like that,” he said wryly.
    Shrugging, she said, “She was teasing. You know her.”
    “More than I’d like to.”
    “ Stop being so sexy and then maybe she’ll stop fondling you.”
    “ Oh, so it’s my fault she can’t keep her hands to herself?”
    “ Yep,” she cheerfully replied, opening the front door.
    “ I’m kind of nervous about showing this to you,” she said as they walked up the stairs to the second level of the house.
    “ Why? Did you paint a room black or something?”
    Sara glanced back at him. “No. But I painted.”
    “Let me guess: something yellow?”
    Wordlessly stopping before the closed door of the room that used to be Cole’s, he looked from his fidgeting wife to the door. He stared at it, dread churning through him. Obviously Sara had painted the room. It hadn’t been touched in years, always staying the same, and she’d changed it. Part of him was relieved to know she had let the past go enough to be able to do such a thing; part of him resented that last piece of his brother being taken away. Yes, he hadn’t walked into the room in months, but he’d known it was there, just the way it had always been. He knew when he opened the door that would no longer be true.
    “Stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking and just look at it.”
    Her strained voice broke through his musings and Lincoln frowned at her, studying the wideness of her eyes and her clasped hands, hands held so tightly together her fingers and knuckles were white. Sara was more than nervous; she was terrified . As it sunk in how worried she was about his reaction, he decided it didn't. Whatever she’d done to the bedroom didn’t matter. It was a thing , not a feeling, not a memory. Those couldn’t be taken away. And whatever she'd done had been done out of love and that made it okay.
    He grabbed her face and kissed her on the mouth, hard and quick, turning away before she could respond. Lincoln grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open. He stepped into the room, flipping on the light, smelling the dried paint. He slowly walked into the middle of it and stopped there, his eyes taking in the magic on the walls.
    White vines with leaves grew up from the base of the latte-toned walls, and on them perched little birds in shades of blues, greens, and yellows. She’d painted the trim marshmallow white and the neutral-colored curtains were gone, pale blue and green-striped ones in their stead.
    “ How did you get everything out of the room?” he asked, catching Sara chewing on her lower lip.
    She exhaled slowly before answering. “Mason helped.”
    “And where is it now?”
    “ In a storage unit. Until…until you decide what you want done with it.”
    “ There is another bedroom in this house you could have used. Why did you pick Cole’s room to be the baby’s room?”
    Sara blinked and a lone tear streamed down her cheek. He wasn’t asking the questions to be cruel. He wanted to know. Everything was still being digested and he was taking a moment to process the finality of Cole’s touch on his life, and the new life about to take over his. Already he could see it happening; his thoughts were consumed by the baby. He wondered if it was a girl or a boy. He wondered what they would look like, act like. He wondered all kinds of things, all of the time.
    His eyes dropped to Sara’s stomach, as they so often did now that he knew there was a little being growing inside of it.
    “ You’re going to think it’s stupid,” she said softly.
    His eyes lifted to her face as he waited.
    Sara walked to one of the walls and lightly traced the shape of a bird. “I thought maybe, I don’t know, it would be like he was watching over the baby, like he was here with him or her. It makes me feel better, safer, to think that way.”
    She looked at him. “This baby is ours, but there is also a part of Cole in it, the part of you that is