I was the one who’d made him laugh. He stalked through town like he was a brooding mountain man, and how wrong had that impression been? He was congenial and, at times, even jovial.
Of course, he’d been a salesman for years. He’d run the Bozeman offices and arranged deals that had put the Baileys at the top of their industry.
“Let’s have them pack our food to go. We can picnic somewhere.”
A picnic. It wouldn’t be his place. Disappointment flowed through my veins. I could’ve been in his house. I might appreciate being protected from possible rejection, but the regret was growing too large to care right now.
“That sounds nice.” Thankfully I’d gotten beef tips and didn’t have to worry about how to saw a steak with plastic flatware.
Fifteen minutes later, we were sitting on a picnic bench in the park outside of town. The picnic area was several yards above the water. It was June, and the waterline was high this time of year with the mountain runoff. The rush of the river mingled with the bugs and birds.
“It’s gorgeous out.” The wind ruffled my hair, but I was riveted to him. Eating out of a foam container shouldn’t be so sexy. He’d talked the chef into chopping his steak. This was the fanciest meal I’d ever had outside.
“This is my second favorite fishing spot.” He dug a bun out of the to-go bag and handed it to me.
I accepted it. He must have scammed more buns out of Curly too. “I’ve heard there’s good fishing here. What’s your top fishing spot, or is it a secret?”
His grin was quick. “A lake near my house. I used to spend so much time there with my brothers. It was a place we could get away from the girls and any other annoying kids that were living with us at the time.”
“Was that hard? Going from a family with three kids to seven and sometimes more?”
He nodded but couldn’t hide the guilt. “It was. To go from the three of us to the four girls was an adjustment, but then Mom and Dad kept accepting fosters. As an adult, I can admire what they did and how they tried to help.”
“But as a kid?”
“Everyone in your business? Having to share all your shit? It sucked. But then I’d feel bad. Some of them would come to our place with nothing.”
“That’s awful. I don’t know the homelife of my students, but a lot of times, I can guess.”
“What did you think of Chance’s homelife?” He grinned as he speared a piece of steak. “Truthfully now. I won’t get offended.”
I almost didn’t play along, but it wasn’t like I had anything bad to say. “Well, I was already friends with Autumn and Summer. They said you were a corporate big shot.”
He groaned. “They do not describe me like that.”
“It wasn’t accurate?”
“I didn’t wear suits,” he grumbled, and it was adorable. The big bearded guy was offended that I might think he was a paper pusher. “Unless I had to. It’s a distillery, but when you’re asking someone to spend millions on your product, you wear a damn tie.”
“They painted a stern picture of you. So, I thought you ran a tight ship at home. Then I met Chance, and I had to decide if it was such a tight ship he acted out when the restraints were loosened at school, or was it a normal home, but he felt like he was missing something.”
“You think he feels that?”
“He misses his mom,” I said softly, but only because Tate knew that already. He’d alluded to it at our meetings.
“He does. She calls a couple times a week. And she’ll be in Bozeman a few weeks before the end of summer. He’ll stay with her then. She can handle two weeks.”
Was he trying to convince himself? “That’ll be good for him, but I imagine you’ll see some regression in his behavior.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
I ripped a chunk off the bun. “For what it’s worth, you and your ex are doing really well.”
He impaled another piece of meat, a line running across his brow. “Oh yeah?”
My fingers itched to push a lock of hair off his head and smooth the line away. “Yeah. Trust me. I see the fallout of bad divorces a lot more than I care to.”
He sat back and thought for a moment. “Thanks. I know we did the right thing for us, but I always wondered if it was the right thing for him.”
