“Chicago. I was a lawyer there.” I say this directly to Paul, because I know he’s a lawyer too.
“Didn’t suit you?”
“I like the work. I just don’t like how much work there is to do. I don’t want to lift my head up from the desk one day and find life has passed me by.”
A look comes onto Paul’s face, one that I recognize. It says,I’m stuck on a hamster wheel of my own making.
“The missus tells me I work too much.” Paul sighs, looking down at his wedding band. “She’s right. I’m the only lawyer this town has though. Unless,” he draws out the ’s’ sound, his eyebrows lifted optimistically.
My hands dart in front of me, palms out and agitating the air. “I’m not here for that.”
Ralph whacks Paul on the back. “Quit trying to lure in the new guy. He came here to save old guys and take away other people’s shot at Addison West.” Ralph winks at me to let me know he’s joking. “I don’t even know who she is, but she must be something.”
“You wouldn’t know her,” Paul informs him. “She was closer to my youngest brother’s age.” He looks at me. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t know who I was a couple days ago.”
Ralph nods. “She came around long after my time chasing skirts. I was probably off serving the country when she was starting kindergarten.”
This piques my interest. “You served? What branch?” I’m genuinely curious, plus it steers the topic of conversation away from Addison.
Ralph straightens, his shoulders pulling back as if a puppet master has pulled his strings. “Marines,” he answers in a deep, proud voice.
“Thank you for your service,” I tell him. Every chance I get I thank the men and women who serve our country. I didn’t choose to serve, and a part of me regrets it.
Ralph accepts my gratitude with a single, solemn head nod.
“I think,” Paul says, reaching out and resting a hand on my shoulder, “that we should take our new friend out for a beer sometime. I’d like to properly thank you for what you did for my dad.”
Ralph looks down at his watch. “It’s just about drinking time right now.”
“MaryAnn made some kind of complicated dinner.” Paul clears his throat and shuffles his feet. Under his breath, he says, “Something about the anniversary of our first kiss.”
Ralph howls and Paul shoots him a death glare. When Ralph sees Paul’s dirty look, he shuts up.
“Sorry, bud. I didn’t mean anything by it.” He shrugs. “Hell, if we’d celebrated the small things maybe Jaclyn and I wouldn’t have ended up on the wrong side of the divorce statistics.”
My head’s spinning from all I’ve learned about these guys in the last two minutes. They certainly aren’t the stereotypical, keep it all on the inside type of guys. It’s kind of nice to be around. Finn’s my best friend and always will be, but getting him to talk about feelings is sometimes harder than pulling teeth. Lennon could always extract his emotions, though. Once again, here I am thinking maybe she knew what she was doing when she chose him after all.
Ralph and Paul decide two nights from now works for them, and obviously it works for me. I don’t do anything at night except warm up my dinner in a microwave and stream a movie on my iPad until I fall asleep. The only exception was the one evening I spent with Addison at the beach.
I hop in the Jeep, hoping this will be the last time I have to drive it. Ralph follows in my new-to-me truck, and Paul is behind him.
We pull into the circular dirt drive at Sweet Escape and get out. Ralph hands me the truck key.
“She’s all yours,” he says with a grin.
I take the key and shove it in my pocket. Behind us, a door opens.
“Brady, did you get the strawberries?” Addison steps out. Her hair is piled on the top of her head and a smear of what I’m guessing is flour decorates the front of her apron. She looks gorgeous.
I walk over and hand her the bag. Her eyes dart from me to Ralph and Paul. She waves politely, then looks back to me and asks, “Are you throwing a party?”
“Nope.” I back away and walk to the truck, laying my arm on the side of the bed. “This is my new truck.”
Addison laughs. “The Jeep wasn’t cutting it?”
“I don’t want to keep asking to use it.”
Addison eyes me playfully. “Good, because I have some places I’d like to go and I hate driving that Jeep.” She grins, says goodbye to Paul and Ralph, and goes back inside, the bag of strawberries swinging.
