“The best men often don’t.” Max’s gaze flickered to Jed, who was jogging around the lake with Joe while Danni and Cosmo took a nap. Then he tilted his face to the sky, closing his eyes againstthesun.
I let him be and tracked Jed and Joe around the lake for a while. Jed was moving well, like he had been all summer. The sun had done wonders for him, like he’d said it would, and it was goodtosee.
Pete nudged my foot. “What are you daydreamingabout?”
“Huh?” I squinted up at him. “Where arethekids?”
“Inside getting cleaned up with Danni. She and Max are going to makedinnersoon.”
“Oh.” Somehow I’d missed all that. “What are they going to make when we have nostove?”
Pete shrugged. “I have no idea, but Max seems to think he can cook with the trash can and a box of matches, and I’m not arguingwithhim.”
It would’ve made more sense to troop back around to Max and Jed’s place to use their kitchen, but I’d gotten the impression that Max was enjoying the change of scenery. Flo had died a few months ago, and he had yet to find a new dog to assist him, which meant he didn’t get out much if Jed was working or sick. He didn’t even have Zola to keep him company anymore, seeing as she was surgically attached to Pete and now livedwithus.
Pete claimed the space Max had vacated. He stretched his long, muscular body out beside me and smirked when he noticed me watching. “Something onyourmind?”
“No more thanusual.”
Pete snickered and his eyes blazed at me. He’d worked hard with Jed’s buddy Raffi to move past Maggie’s death, and it showed in every part of our relationship. I’d never entirely understand the knot his brain had twisted itself in for so long, but I’d learned that I didn’t need to. Understanding and empathy weren’t the same things. Besides, Pete had never hidden the fact that my own issues didn’t always make sense to him. And it didn’t matter because we had each other,always.
“So…”
I glanced at Pete, taking in his teeth worrying his bottom lip, and frowned. “What’sup?”
“Nothing.”
“Seriously? Don’t pull that shit. Whytheface?”
Pete released his lip and grinned, though he still seemed nervous. “I was bornthisway.”
“Don’t beadick.”
“Okay, okay.” He held his hand out to me, his fist closed. “Look, I meant to give this to you as soon as we got home from our first trip here, but then you got sick and the baby was born and then Liam came home and… life got in the way. And then we bought this place and we’ve been swamped eversince.”
“In a good way, though, right?” I said, eyeing Pete’s fist. “I know we’ve traveled a lot, but it’s all part oftheplan.”
Until we’d first come to Oregon, we’d taken each day as it was thrown at us, consumed by the past and rarely looking forward. But then Jed and Max had put their fixer-upper cabin up for sale, and we’d bought it with a plan to live a better life—a kinder life for all of us. Renovating the cabin had kept Pete and Joe busy for months, and once it was done, we would leave Chicago behind. Danni and Joe would settle in Portland, and Pete and I would live by the lake. The VA had offered Pete a job—if he wanted it—and there was no shortage of tattoo studios who’d give me a chair a few daysaweek.
“Of course it’s the good way,” Pete said. “I know we blasted through our savings real fast with the renovations, but I’ll make it up when I go backtowork.”
“You’re not going back to work in Chicago,” I reminded him, and he rolled his eyes, clearly trying not to smile. “Don’t laughatme.”
“I’m not. I just can’t figure how I ever got to the point where I thought quitting my job was agoodidea.”
“You didn’tthinkanything. You had Liam to take care of and yourself, for the first time ever, and we don’t need the damn fuckingmoneyso—”
Pete covered my mouth with his hand. “I know we don’t need the money, and I don’t regret it for a minute. I’m just surprised,still, that I saw sense. Must be all the meditation Raffi has medoing.”
My heart warmed again. Raffi was like no therapist I’d heard of, and I only had the barest idea of what he and Pete got up to in their sessions—or how much Pete had told him—but the change in Pete had been remarkable. Whatever he was doing with Raffi had set him free, and that wasenough.
“Anyway.” Pete took his hand from my mouth. “If you’d stop talking, I’ve got somethingforyou.”
“Yeah?” I sat up on my elbows. We didn’t buy each other gifts very often—even birthdays and Christmas were more about whatever precious moments we could snatch. Whatever happy memories we could build to erase the bad. And Pete hated shopping with a passion thatscaredme.
He tapped the side of my head. “Man, will you stop spacing for one minute? I’m trying toproposehere.”
“What?”
