Linc nodded. “Jasmine. She was three years younger than Jalen. She’s an accountant and has three kids. We hear from them at Christmas, and I talk to Joseph at least once a month.”
“We spent a second summer working with him.” Molly snuggled Callie, who was sound asleep in her arms. “And made a lot of good friends over those summers. It was the most rewarding work we ever did. Joseph built almost three hundred homes, and we still support the foundation he started to help other first-time homeowners.”
“And Dad didn’t go to England,” Max said.
“Not that fall, but I did get there eventually.” He smiled at Molly. “Your mom planned a trip for our tenth anniversary. You older kids might remember how she took me on a Beatles tour. We went to Liverpool, Abbey Road, Eleanor Rigby’s tombstone, Penny Lane and Strawberry Field, among other places. She was very thorough.”
“I never wanted him to regret giving up that year in England for me.”
“And I never did. Not for one second, as you know.”
“Mom, what would you have done if he’d had to go to England?” Hunter asked.
“I suppose I would’ve gone with him, but I’d promised Gramps I’d come to work at the store when I got home from Mississippi. I didn’t want to disappoint him, either.”
“What I want to know is how you ended up in Vermont running Mom’s family business,” Will said. “Any time we’ve asked you about that, you’ve always said it was a long story that was better left untold.”
“I still feel that way, but now I need to tell you because today I heard from my family for the first time since my father made me choose between him and your mother.”
Charley gasped. “What? Seriously? He made you choose?”
“Very seriously,” Linc said, gazing at Molly. “Of course, there was never any contest, but that was a terribly difficult time for us.”
The night before they were due to break camp and head home, Lincoln went looking for Molly. Since the camp wasn’t very big, she shouldn’t have been hard to find, but after he’d looked everywhere, he started asking the others where she was.
“She said something about going into town,” one of the other volunteers said.
“By herself?” Ever since Jalen’s arrest, he’d been more aware of the potential for trouble. Alarmed, Linc was running for his bike before their friend Gloria could finish confirming that Molly had gone into town by herself.
Just as he rounded the corner to head for town, he encountered Molly coming back and knew a moment of pure relief as he turned his bike to ride to camp with her.
“What’re you doing out here?” she asked.
“Looking for you.”
The rode back to camp together and stashed the bikes before going to sit inside Molly’s tent. “What were you doing in town by yourself, sweetheart?” he asked.
“I wanted to buy you a present, but I couldn’t find anything I liked.”
“You don’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted you to know how much I’m going to miss you.”
His heart broke when he saw her subtly swipe at a tear. Linc put his arm around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. “You’re not going to have to miss me. I’m going home to Vermont with you. I bought my bus ticket yesterday.”
“You did not!”
“I did, too. I told you… My plans have changed. I want different things now.”
“You can’t. You’ll regret not going to England.”
He held her even closer. “The only thing I’d regret is letting you get away. I’m going to Vermont.”
“You’ll hate it there. You’ll be so bored.”
“Will you be there?”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. If you’re there, I’ll never be bored.” He pulled back from her, tipped her chin up and kissed the tears off her cheeks. “I swear to God I’ll never regret not going to England, but I know for sure I’d always regret not going with you.” Then he kissed her lips, lingering over the sweet, salty taste of her. “I really need you to believe me when I tell you I’ve fallen madly in love with you this summer, and any chance I have of being happy is all wrapped up in you now.”
She wiped new tears from her face. “I’m still trying to figure out how that’s possible.”
“Have you met you? You’re the best person I’ve ever known. Anyone would want to be with you.”
“Do you promise you’ll never blame me for giving up Oxford?”
“I promise.”
“You’re sure, Linc? Really, really sure about this?”
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“I love you more than the Beatles.”
Chapter Six
“Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, and you’ve got to let it grow.”
—John Lennon
Molly laughed as she subtly tended to the tears that came any time she recalled the most important moment of her life, when she knew for certain that Lincoln Abbott truly loved her. “That’s what convinced me he was serious.”
“Dad had some serious game,” Hunter said. “I’m impressed.”
“I was, too,” Molly said. “When he said he’d never regret not going to England but would always regret not coming with me…” She fanned her face. “He definitely had me on the hook with that, but when he said he loved me more than the Beatles… There was no going back from that. Not that I wanted to.”
“So, you guys left Mississippi and came to Vermont?” Wade asked.
“Yep,” Linc said. “It was a thirty-hour bus ride that we spent making plans. I’d find a job, we’d get a place to live, we’d figure out how soon we could get married and get busy having the babies your mother wanted.”
“You never considered living anywhere else?” Landon asked.
“I knew from the way your mom talked about Vermont and her family that she wouldn’t be happy living anywhere else, and since I’d never felt that way about anywhere I’d been or lived, I was fine with doing whatever it took to make her happy.”
“You see why I fell madly in love?” Molly asked.
“This is heading into the TMI category,” Charley said in her typically blunt way. “What I want to know is what happened when Dad told his father he wasn’t going into the family business.”
“We’re getting to that,” Linc said. “But before we do, we should tell you about the first time I came to Vermont and met your grandparents.”
The bus ride was long, but being with Linc made it more than tolerable. He was so full of excitement and plans for their future that Molly could hardly keep up with him. She still wanted to pinch herself that the kind, intelligent, incredibly sexy man she’d met in Mississippi loved her more than the Beatles and wanted to marry her as soon as possible.
Her head was spinning, but in the best possible way. His excitement was contagious, even if she still worried that someday he’d be sorry he’d given up the chance to live in his beloved England for a year. He’d promised he wouldn’t, and she had no choice but to believe him, especially since he was making plans that required her full attention.