“Since our national team made it.”
“Fair enough. I might have a flight that day, but if not, I’ll swing by.”
“I thought maybe you were going to say you had a big date,” he says, dipping a chunk of lobster meat into the butter dish on his TV tray.
“Nope. No, thank you.”
He gives me an upward head nod. “Still keeping it simple?”
“Yup. Bypassing all the hassles and getting on with the good stuff.”
Jack swallows, then says, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. It’s all well and good to live like a retiree when you’re seventy, but it’s a whole different thing to spend your entire life this way.”
“Yeah, it’s smarter. I can skip all the stress that comes with the whole wife and family thing.”
He tilts his head to the side. “The thing is, if I hadn’t had the wife and family, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now. To be honest, these evenings are the best part of my week. I’d hate for you to miss out on that.”
“I’m not missing out on anything,” I say, standing and picking up my plate. I walk into the kitchen and put it down and plug the sink so I can fill it with soap and hot water. “Believe me. I know myself, Jack. And I’m not cut out for any of that. I tried it. It didn’t work out. One and done.”
Jack follows me in and says, “Leave it. It’ll give me something to do tomorrow morning.”
There’s a knock at the door and Jack’s friend Cal strolls in. Cal’s son, Todd, married my ex-wife, Lisa. (It’s a small island and everybody knows everybody.) You’d think itwould make things awkward between Cal and me, but it hasn’t. Mostly because I’m glad to be rid of her. Not that Lisa is a bad person, because she’s not. We were just all wrong for each other.
He sets a six-pack of Bud Light on the coffee table and says, “Hey, Big Mac. How’s it going?”
“Never better,” I tell him.
“I’m a little early for poker night. Maude’s sister is in town for a couple of weeks. I had to get out of there.”
I give Jack a meaningful look. “See that? The man had to leave his own house because his sister-in-law is there. If he wasn’t married, he could just stay home.”
Cal narrows his eyes, looking back and forth between us. “What’s going on?”
I roll my eyes. “Jack is trying to talk me into getting married again.”
“I never said anything about marriage,” my grandpa tells him. “I was just telling Mac he might miss out on some pretty great stuff if he skips out on having a family.”
Cal shakes his head. “I don’t know about that. Raising kids wasn’t exactly a good time, but having grandkids? Now, that has made it worth it.”
“Too bad you can’t skip the kids and go straight to being a grandparent,” I mutter, popping the last bite of garlic toast into my mouth.
“Speaking of grandkids, Lisa had the baby on Monday.” He pulls his phone out of his pants pocket. His grin is from ear-to-ear as he hands the phone to me. “A little boy.”
I stare at a photo of the baby’s wrinkled up little face and impossibly tiny fingers. There’s something oddly familiar about him, and I’m sure it’s because I’ve seen so many pictures of Lisa at her parents’ place. For some oddreason, this feels a bit like taking a shot to the solar plexus. Jarring and uncomfortable.
“Calvin Junior.” His voice breaks a little when he says the name, and I imagine he’s going to be choked up about that for a long time.
Jack walks over to take a look. “Would you look at that? Cute little thing. Good thing he takes after his mother.”
Cal swats my grandpa on his arm, then swipes through a few photos to show us the happy family all together, and one of the baby laying on Lisa’s chest while they sleep. “He looks exactly like Todd when he was born.”
“Adorable,” I manage. “Everything went well? They’re both fine, I take it?”
Cal nods firmly. “Oh yeah, Lisa is a real trooper. She was up and around in no time at all. She was sitting up writing thank you cards right there in the hospital bed.”
Sounds about right. That’s totally something she would do. Thoughtful. Kind. Pointless. “That’s great. I’m glad they’re doing well,” I say, returning to the sink to wash the dishes.
“I said I’ll do it tomorrow,” Jack tells me.
