‘You guys want to try my new stout?’ Sawyer sets the bottles on the counter.
‘I’ll try one,’ Brody says.
‘Sawyer thinks he’s going to win the hard cider competition next weekend,’ Gina says with a laugh. ‘In his dreams.’
‘Say whatever you want,’ Sawyer says. ‘But I’ve had a year to work on it and I guarantee I’m going to win.’
‘Don’t you two ever get tired of competing?’ I ask.
They look at each other. ‘No,’ they say at the same time.
Brody turns to Gina. ‘Why aren’t you in there with Milo? I lost Kate the moment she saw him.’
‘He’s too tiny. I feel like I’m going to break him. I’ll be more comfortable around him when he’s older.’
‘She doesn’t like holding him,’ Sawyer says. ‘She always thinks she’s going to drop him.’
As he says it, Nick walks in. ‘I dropped Sawyer all the time when he was a baby and he turned out okay.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Gina says, smiling at Sawyer. ‘Okay, I’ll go see the baby, but I’m keeping my distance.’
When she’s gone, I say to Sawyer, ‘What’s she going to do when you guys have kids?’
‘Probably wrap them in bubble wrap. Or make me hold them until they can walk.’
‘I can see it now.’ Brody laughs. ‘Sawyer holding the baby with one hand and serving beer with the other.’
‘Did you guys pick a wedding date yet?’ Nick asks Sawyer. He proposed to Gina back in August.
‘We can’t decide. Maybe next spring. She really wants her dad there. She keeps asking him when he could be here but he won’t give her a date. Even if he did, I doubt he’d show up.’
‘Tell her Dad will walk her down the aisle,’ I say.
‘Yeah, I might. He already told me he’d do it.’
‘When are you going to propose to Kate?’ I ask Brody.
‘Maybe at Christmas. She loves the holidays.’
‘The family’s getting so big we’re going to have to get another table for these dinners,’ Nick says.
‘Any news with you and Lyndsay?’ I ask, referring to their babymaking efforts.
He cracks a smile but doesn’t answer.
‘She’s pregnant,’ Brody says. ‘Look at his face.’
‘Is she?’ Sawyer asks.
A full-on smile takes over Nick’s face. ‘Yes. We’re going to announce it at dinner so act surprised.’
We all congratulate him. We must be too loud because Dad comes in and scolds us.
‘What’s all the ruckus in here? I could hear you boys from down the hall.’
‘Nothing, Dad,’ Nick says, giving us a look not to tell him. ‘We were just talking.’
Walter comes in behind Dad. He walks slow and uses a cane, but he seems to be moving better now than last summer. He gets more exercise here and goes out more than he did back in Boston. Mia said when he lived there, he spent all day in a chair, watching TV. Here he’s made some friends and actually does stuff with them. And he loves coming here and hanging out at the orchard and the barn.
