Page 61 of Back To Our Beginning

“I imagine it is,” I told him.

We were quiet for a bit as we drank our beers.

“How does it feel being out of the teams?” I asked Roan.

“I told you at Simon’s party. But what really makes it okay is Lisa. She’s my touchstone. I don’t know what I would do without her. We’re so solid we’re trying for a kid.”

I chuckled. “Before the wedding?”

Roan laughed. “Dad broke his leg when he was deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida. He doesn’t want to be wearing the cast for the wedding pictures, so we agreed to put off the wedding for another six weeks. It’s going to be here in Jasper Creek.”

“What about Lisa’s family?”

“She’s an only child. She has her dad and grandpa who raised her, and she has aunts and uncles and cousins. So, there will be plenty of people on her side of the aisle. I’m pretty sure that all the guys in the shop are going to sit on her side of the aisle and not mine.”

I grinned. I could totally see that.

“So, kids, huh?”

“Yep. At least three.”

“Sounds nice.”

“What about you and Maddie?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t want to leave the teams. I want to get my twenty in.” I blurted out.

“So? What’s the problem?”

“Maddie lives and works here. Here’s where her family is.”

“Have you talked to her about moving to SoCal?”

“I don’t think we’re at that point yet,” I admitted.

“The way I hear it, you definitely are.”

I frowned. “How would you hear anything?”

“I work with the man who’s married to Maddie’s big sister. Sisters talk.”

I took another sip of my beer. I’d forgotten how close the Avery sisters were. I was kind of an idiot. Of course, Roan would be in the know.

I leaned over and put my elbows on my knees, twirling my bottle of beer between my hands. “I’m in love with her.”

“I’m not surprised. Simon’s told me about her. A social worker. That takes grit.”

I chuckled. “I gotta tell you, seeing her holding that softball bat while a guy almost twice her size was coming at her with a cast-iron skillet, was something to behold. She didn’t flinch.”

Roan laughed softly. “Lisa would have been pissed if I had taken away her chance to use the bat. I’d hear about it for a year.”

“Maddie’s not that bloodthirsty. She was defending someone. She’s not normally the violent type. I think it goes along with her social worker nature.”

“She sure doesn’t take after her sister Evie.”

We both started laughing at that thought.

“So, you say you’re in love with Maddie and you want to get five more years in. What’s your problem? Talk to the woman.”