“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Lexie said. “And that’s comingfrom someone who knows nothing about either of you beyond what I’ve learned in the last few hours.”
Ignoring both her and my sister, I looked at Berkley.
“How did you do it?” I asked quietly.
I knew about Berkley’s past. We were from a small town, after all. Had gone to high school together. I knew about her ex, and the way he’d manipulated, cheated on, then ultimately broke up with her when she questioned his loyalty. I felt a kinship with her in that regard, to have our first serious relationships betray us so deeply. But she was beyond happy now, and I wanted that for myself.
“It’s easy to be brave with the right one,” she said softly, giving me a little shrug and a smile, though the latter was directed across the rooftop at her husband, who stood with the three other guys, conversing.
“But what if he’s not?”
“You won’t know unless you try,” Chloe said, reaching out to settle her hand atop mine, her touch instantly grounding me.
“I know I don’t know you, Delia, but speaking from experience”—Lexie glanced over at her own husband, who looked up at the same moment and shot her a wink—“I fought it for a long time with him—”
“Too long,” Berkley interrupted on a fake cough into her fist.
“—and in the end all I did was waste that time. I knew from the moment I met him he was the one. It just took a long time for my mind to catch up, for it to recognize that the person meant for me would take care of my heart if I gave it to him. Do you think Owen is that guy for you?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do,” Lexie said, smiling faintly and inclining her head toward the guys. “I think you’ve known it all along.”
And when I glanced up at them again, Owen was already looking at me.
“What do you thinkthey’re talking about over there?” Brent asked, inclining his head toward the women.
“Knowing our wives,” Mitch said to his best friend, “probably us.”
I quirked a brow. “They have a habit of that?”
Logan snorted. “Those two are thick as thieves,” he said, pointing at his sister and Lexie. “And with Chloe added to the mix…well, you’ve seen how Delia is with her sisters, right? It’s like that.”
“What’s going on with you two?”
Though I kept my eyes trained on my whiskey glass, I knew Brent was asking me. “I don’t know.”
Mitch snorted. “Been there, brother.”
I looked up at him then. “Seems we have a lot in common.”
Mitch nodded sagely. “It really was a shame about your shoulder,” he said quietly. “Speaking from experience, I know how hard it is to go downlike that.”
I shrugged, not wanting to get into it here and now. I knew he understood, and that Brent likely did too, having been on the frontlines when his best friend lost his career. Not to mention getting onto that ice every night with the knowledge that the same thing could happen to him.
“It worked out okay,” I said, though my shoulder twitched slightly, as though itching to pick up a football and give it a toss. There were days when missing the game was the phantom pain of a long lost limb, but I powered through.
In the grand scheme, I had a lot to be thankful for.
“How’s the distillery construction coming?” Logan asked. “My dad has been MIA for months now.”
I grinned sheepishly. “It’s good. We’re just about ready to start painting and decorating, which is why I asked Delia to come with me this weekend.”
Logan snorted. “Yeah,that’swhy you brought her.”
I gave him a good natured slug on the arm as the four of us devolved into laughter.
“I like her,” I said quietly. “A lot more than I ever thought I could or planned on.”
