All of You by Jenni Wilder Read Free Book Online Page B

research would ever be able to help with is
to cover a prosthetic with artificial skin. Someday, hopefully,
you’d never know that person had a fake limb.”
    “Well, if you could do that, it could just be
a start. You could develop nerve and muscle cells essentially
giving them a new arm. Think of the impact that would have on our
wounded veterans alone.” Lincoln sounded in awe of my research.
    “Well, like I said, that’s being ambitious.
Right now I’m just focusing on getting my little cells to
grow.”
    Lincoln nodded. “I’m highly impressed,
Jillian.”
    “Thanks,” I said, blushing. “We’ll see how
things go. I might be just grasping at straws with my
research.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Research is trial and error. Lately it seems
like it’s more error than anything. But this is my first big
research project, so chances of it succeeding are slim.” I
shrugged. “At least, that’s what my boss says. I’m just an
intern.”
    “Your boss doesn’t support your
research?”
    “He does… to an extent. His family owns the
company, so it’s their money that’s funding my research. He knows
positive results are few and far between, and he’s fine with that
as long as it appears their investment will pay off eventually.” I
shrugged again. “It’s a gamble. But I’m not too concerned right
now. I’ve only really been working on this since my internship
started last semester. So far, there’s not a lot of time or money
sunk into it. It’s going to be a while before we know for sure that
I’ve failed,” I said with a small laugh.
    Lincoln looked concerned as he peered over
his sunglasses and met my eyes. “Why are you so sure you going to
fail?”
    I started getting uncomfortable. I was
talking about myself too much. “That’s just the likelihood.” I
looked down at my gloved hands as I wrung them. “I hope my research
produces something someday, but we’ll just have to see.” I looked
away, back toward the pond.
    “Jillian…,” Lincoln said in a tender voice.
He moved a half step closer to me and leaned on the railing next to
me. He drew a finger down the back of my hand to my coat sleeve. I
swallowed a gulp and took a step away from him.
    “Um. If this is about my coat, you really
don’t need to feel guilty for it. Like I said last night, accidents
happen.”
    “This isn’t about your coat. Although I am
still willing to buy you a new one.”
    “Then what is this about?”
    “I wanted to talk to you,” Lincoln said
plainly.
    “Well, if you didn’t want to talk to me about
the coat, what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked,
confused. There was nothing else the two of us could possibly have
to talk about.
    “Everything. Anything,” Lincoln said with a
smile. “I want to know more about you. I want to talk to you and
get to know you better. When I first saw you watching the parade,
you looked so beautiful. I wasn’t lying about your smile last night
in the tent. You looked so beautiful and happy. I couldn’t help but
stare.”
    Crap. It seemed like Rebecca was right, and I
didn’t know how to handle it. I wasn’t used to guys hitting on me
to begin with and Lincoln was way out of my league. I don’t even
have a league, I thought miserably.
    “But then there was the hot chocolate
incident…,” Lincoln continued. “And you didn’t even care about your
coat. I’m not used to that. Most women are more concerned with
their appearance and would never have wanted to get messy. But you
didn’t even care.”
    I blushed. That’s why he wanted to talk to
me? Because I didn’t care that he had stained my coat. Not only did
I feel ridiculous now that he thought I didn’t care about my
appearance, I also felt a flash of jealousy. Did he have a lot of
women around him? I supposed so. Women probably fell at his feet.
And they were probably all beautiful and worthy of his attention,
unlike me.
    Ugh. I nervously tried to fix the hairs that
had fallen out of my