All of My Soul (3 page)

“Wow! It’s an honor to meet you,” the man
gushed. “I’m originally from Chicago and I remember the day you got
drafted. I think everyone was glad we got you, and you haven’t
disappointed us!”

“Thanks, man.” Lincoln handed back the pen
and napkin that now had his autograph on it. “That really means a
lot to hear. Have a great night.”

I looked back as we walked away from the fan
and the woman he was with, and I had to suppress a giggle. The man
was waving the napkin in his date’s face, and she was rolling her
eyes. Clearly she was not impressed.

Lincoln draped his arm over my shoulders and
pulled me close against his side as the hostess led us to our
table. It was in the back corner of the restaurant and was slightly
sheltered from the rest of the room. I wondered if Lincoln tipped
the staff in order to get some privacy.

We ordered our food and talked about the game
while sipping on our drinks. My brother grilled Lincoln about his
life. He asked how he spent his free time, what he did for fun, and
how he behaved on the road.

I interrupted my brother when he asked that
last question. “What do you mean by that?”

Frankie gave me a look. “You know. Sleeping
around, partying, drugs…”

“Oh my God, Francis. He’s a hockey player,
not a rock star,” I said in defense of my boyfriend.

“There’s little difference, Jillian. Both
professions mean a lot of time on the road and plenty of
temptation. Am I right, Lincoln?”

Lincoln cleared his throat before speaking.
“You aren’t wrong. All that exists when you’re on the road and at
home to be honest. There are plenty of guys that fall for every
temptation that comes by them, but I’ve never done that. It’s not
how I was raised. It’s not who I am.”

My brother crossed his arms over his chest as
he sat back in his chair and eyed Lincoln. It seemed like he was
debating whether or not to give Lincoln the benefit of the doubt
that he was a good guy.

Molly sat forward in her chair. “So what is
life like on the road? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking. I don’t
want to sound star struck, but I kind of am.” Her face turned a
faint shade of pink as she blushed slightly.

Lincoln smiled. “That’s okay. It’s a little
crazy at times. I never used to mind traveling and the long
stretches away from home, but it’s harder now.”

I bit my lip and smiled at him. I was the
reason it was suddenly harder for him to be away from home for so
long.

“But we’re making it work, aren’t we?” I
asked with confidence. I never once suspected him of doing any of
the things my brother accused him of, and typically the longer he
was gone, the better it was when he returned to me. Absence makes
the heart grow fonder, after all.

Lincoln nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, we
are. It’s not as bad as it used to be either. Everyone has
smartphones, and there’s video messaging. A lot of the guys have
families, so there’s a big push to be home as much as
possible.”

“And you’ll always have your Rome Racer.” I
poked him in the side.

Lincoln smiled sheepishly. Several of his
teammates and he were addicted to video games, specifically Rome
Racer, a car-racing game set in Italy. Competitors through and
through, they made the racing game into a competition and played it
in their downtime.

“So video games? That’s what you do when
you’re on the road?” Molly asked.

“Well, that’s one of the things we do to
entertain ourselves if we have downtime. But we have practice on
the ice, team meetings, captain’s meetings, gym time, travel time,
plus any media interviews and time with fans, and then there’s the
actual game. It can be chaotic.”

My brother raised his eyebrows. “And how long
have you been doing this?”

“Professionally? About four years.”

“Wow,” my sister-in-law said in awe. “So how
did you two meet then? Your mom said something about New Year’s
Eve?”

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much as I told
the story of how Lincoln and I met at the Razzle Dazzle Parade and
included several highlights from our short time together. Our food
arrived and our conversation diminished slightly as we concentrated
on our dinner. I was starving.

Once our meal was done, Lincoln paid for all
four of us as we left the restaurant and got into the stretched
sedan town car he had ordered for the night. It was slightly
smaller and less ostentatious than a stretched limousine, but the
four of us fit comfortably inside. There were two bench seats in
the back, one facing forward and one facing backward so the
passengers could face each other.

I had been enjoying watching the city of
Boston fly by outside my car window when Lincoln’s phone
interrupted our comfortable silence. I turned to see him fishing
his phone out of his coat pocket. He frowned at it before swiping
to answer it.

“Excuse me,” he said to my brother,
sister-in-law, and me before speaking into the phone. “Yes?”

I couldn’t hear the person on the other end,
but Lincoln’s whole body tensed up, and he suddenly radiated
stress.

“No. I’m out of town. Send the police.”

He waited a moment before nodding and then
hanging up. Frankie, Molly, and I looked at Lincoln with concern,
waiting for an answer.

“That was my security company,” he explained,
and my eyebrows flew up. “They received a burglary alarm at my
house.”

Molly and I gasped.

“Oh no! Someone broke in?” I asked.

“Not sure.” He brought up an app on his phone
and pushed a few buttons. “The company detected a window break. My
app says the doors are still locked.”

“Do you have video surveillance?” Frankie
asked.

“No,” Lincoln answered and put his phone back
in his pocket. “It could just be a fallen tree branch or an
animal.”

“Or it could be Mackenzie,” I added
quietly.

Lincoln shook his head. “It can't be. She'd
be violating the restraining order.”

My brother and sister-in-law's eyebrows flew
up.

“Restraining order?” Molly asked in a
surprised voice.

I cringed, thinking my brother and
sister-in-law didn’t need one more thing by which to judge
Lincoln.

“It’s a plenary stalking no-contact order.
One for Jillian and one for me. It’s a precaution so she won’t
bother us again.” Lincoln covered my hand with his and gave me a
small encouraging smile, but it didn't help erase the sense of
dread in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't shake the feeling that
Mackenzie was behind this incident. Maybe I was just being
paranoid.

“Has she been giving you trouble?” my brother
asked.

I shrugged. “Nothing we can directly pin on
her. The police eventually questioned her after my tires were
slashed, but she has an alibi for everything.”

Silence filled the car. There had been a few
incidents in the past couple of weeks since Lincoln and I reunited,
the worst being when someone took a knife to one of my tires—twice.
Resulting in me having to buy a new tire—twice.

My sister-in-law cleared her throat. “How's
your internship going, Jillian? I should have asked earlier.”

I was grateful for the subject change.

“Pretty good,” I answered. “Since I started
in early December, I’ll have my hours in by the middle of March and
I can focus on organizing my research results for my thesis.”

“When do you graduate?” Molly asked.

“June 14 is the commencement ceremony, but my
thesis defense is June 11.”

I had so much to do before then. Thinking
about it made my head spin and my anxiety level rise. It helped to
remember that once my internship was over I would have
exponentially more time to devote to my thesis.

Lincoln squeezed my knee and gave me a big
toothy grin, acting like he hadn't just received news that his
house had been broken into. He told me on a daily basis how proud
he was of my accomplishments.

“And what about after graduation? Have you
started looking for a job?” my brother asked sternly. After our
father died, Frankie took it upon himself to act as an
authoritative father figure. A good job after school was priority
number one.

I sighed. “I'm still hoping GenChem will
offer me something. I'd even take part-time to get started.”

Truthfully, though? I was worried. There had
been no mention of extending me a job offer. I kept hope that I
would hear something soon.

“You have other avenues to explore though,
correct? A backup plan?”

I nodded. “The Career Placement Center at
school has some good contacts, and my professors and advisor have
suggestions for employment. I sent out a few résumés last week.
I'll be able to send out more, if needed, once my internship is
over.”

Frankie nodded in approval. “Good. That's
good.”

Lincoln leaned toward me. “Tell them about
your latest breakthrough.”

“It wasn't a breakthrough, baby.” I blushed
slightly, but he just looked at me as if I had cured cancer. I
shook my head at him before explaining to my brother and
sister-in-law my most recent development in my research. It wasn't
ground-breaking, but it was an advancement I was proud of.

Finally Lincoln’s phone rang again, and when
he answered he put it on speakerphone.

A stern and commanding voice filled the car.
“Mr. Monaghan? This is Detective Murray with the Chicago police.
Your security company reported a burglar alarm.”

“Yes. They called me.”

“The first officers arrived on scene and
found a large pane of glass on the lower back of the house had been
broken. However, there were no obvious signs as to why it was
broken, and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of forced
entry.”

“So what does that mean? No one broke in?” I
asked.

“It means the doors are secured, and the
break in the window is not big enough for a person to fit
through.”

“So you haven’t searched the house?” Lincoln
asked.

“No.” Detective Murray paused. “But I can
have the officers check the house if you wish.”

Lincoln looked at me. “Yes. Please do.”

“We’ll have to break the lock on your
door.”

“Then do it!” Lincoln said sharply.

There was a moment of silence before the
detective answered. “I’ll call you back when we have more
information.”

The four of us sat back in our seats as the
call ended and Lincoln’s phone went dark.

My brother was the first to speak. “Sounds
like you were on the right track. A tree branch or animal or
something.”

“One of the downsides to having a glass wall
in your house,” Lincoln said and laughed a little, trying to
lighten the mood, but I was still tense waiting for the detective
to call back with more information.

Uncomfortable silence filled the car again as
the driver stopped in front of Frankie and Molly’s Back Bay
brownstone house. I had mixed feelings. I didn’t know when I would
see them again, but I was glad the night had ended early. If this
thing with Lincoln’s house ended up being nothing, we could have
some alone time and maybe salvage what was left of Valentine’s
Day.

The four of us got out of the car and said
good-bye on the sidewalk. I hugged Frankie and Molly, promising to
let them know what the detective said. I also made a point of
apologizing for ruining their Valentine’s Day. I don’t think any of
us expected the night to turn out this way.

Lincoln cleared his throat once the two of us
returned to the town car and told the driver to take us back to our
hotel. “I should call Kennedy,” he said. “See if she and Brian can
go over and board up the window… and the door.”

“I’ll do it in case the detective calls you
back. Plus she can’t get mad at me like she would you for ruining
her Valentine’s Day.” I pulled out my phone and unlocked it. My
background picture lit up the screen. It was a close-up of Lincoln
and me snuggling in his bed together. Lincoln smiled and grabbed my
hand to pull me closer to him. He kissed the top of my head as I
rested against his shoulder and held out my phone.

“Heeey.” Lincoln’s sister’s voice rang out on
speakerphone. “Why are you calling me? Shouldn’t you be doing the
nasty with my brother?”

Thank God my brother and sister-in-law were
no longer in the car.

“Ah, no,” I replied. “We kind of have a
problem.”

“Oh my God, Jillian. Please do
not
tell me you or my brother have some sort of a sex injury. I don’t
want to hear about that! Call your own damn sister. She’s a
nurse.”

“NO! Oh my God, Ken. No, it’s nothing like
that!”

Lincoln’s chest shook as he silently
laughed.

“Oh. Thank God.” Kennedy let out a relieved
sigh and laughed. “Okay, so what’s the problem?”

“Lincoln got a call that one of his windows
in the back of his house broke. Not sure what caused it. The police
are searching the house now, but they said there’s no sign of a
break-in.”

“Are they sure?” Kennedy’s voice had lost its
air of playfulness.

“We don’t know yet. The detective is going to
call us back, hopefully soon.”

“So you need us to go over there?”

“Would you mind too much? I don’t want to
ruin your Valentine’s Day.” Truly I felt bad about having to call
her.

“Don’t worry about it. You’d do the same for
us.”

“In a heartbeat,” I said immediately. I would
do anything for her. She was a great friend and wonderful sister to
Lincoln.

The phone sitting on Lincoln’s leg lit up and
rang. I quickly got off the line with Kennedy, telling her I would
text her with more information. Lincoln answered his phone with the
speaker on so I could hear.

“Mr. Monaghan, this is Detective Murray
again.”

“Yes? What did you find, detective?” Lincoln
asked.

“There was no intruder. It doesn’t appear
anyone has been in your house. Other than the window, nothing has
been disturbed.”