“That’s fine. I should be home by the time you guys are done.”
“Let’s go, my man,” Wyatt tells him, slinging his arm around his shoulders.
“Have fun,” I call after them as they walk away. Wyatt’s voice fades as they head down the hallway to the back entrance of the bar, where we all park behind the building.
My head falls back against the chair. There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not grateful for Wyatt and Linc.
They have been there for my son and me in more ways than I could even fathom. They are family, plain and simple.
My office is far enough removed from the rest of the bar that the noises drifting in don’t tend to bother me too much. A female voice drifts in, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s Abby.
But I know deep down it isn’t.
I’m not going to lie—I hoped I’d run into her when we moved, but it hasn’t happened. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t live around here anymore.
We’ve been in town for several months and haven’t crossed paths once. I even drove by her house and found a completely different family living there.
I haven’t outright asked anyone about her, not even Benny. I think he has wanted to bring her up a few times, but he alsoknows where my head has been lately with Oliver, so he hasn’t pushed anything.
I think I’m just a little scared to find out for sure that she really is gone and I will never see her again.
It sucks, but it’s probably for the best. There’s no way I could start a relationship with anyone right now.
My entire focus needs to be on Oliver, and a change to the normal we’ve carefully built is the last thing he needs.
It doesn’t mean my stomach doesn’t sink anytime I think about her. At thirty-nine, I’m old enough to know that connections like that are a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.
I guess she’s just another part of my life that wasn’t meant to be.
CHAPTER THREE
Abby
“Mom, let’s go.”Mav’s voice carries into my room, probably from where he’s waiting by the front door. I grab a hoodie from my closet, pull it over my head, and jog out.
He’s standing exactly where I thought he would be: in the entryway with his coat and shoes already on. “We’re going to miss Dad’s game.”
“It doesn’t start for ten more minutes,” I tell him, sliding into my tennis shoes.
He lets out a heavy breath. “And we live six minutes away from the field, and it usually takes us at least three minutes to get loaded in the car.”
I look up at him with a small smile on my face. “Mav, you do know you are seven. Right?”
“Umm… yeah?” He looks at me like I have several screws loose in my brain.
Grabbing my purse from the hook by the door, I ruffle his hair. “Come on, let’s go. According to your calculations, we’ll be right on time.”
Mav was spot on, because just as we pull into the dirt parking lot beside the softball field, the guys jog out of the dugout.
Mav bolts from the car and runs to the dugout where Cole’s team is set up.
If you had told me a few years ago that Cole and his brothers would be playing on an intermural softball league in town, I would have thought you were bat shit crazy. It turns out falling in love does wild things to people.
I make my way over to the bleachers, finding all the girls grouped together. Their guys think it’s blasphemy that we sit together, even when their men are on opposing teams.
And when I say all the guys, I really mean it. By some weird twist of fate, all four of the ladies are in relationships with three different men each. That makes twelve men in total.
Riley pats the empty spot beside her as soon as she spots me. They all offer greetings when I make my way up.
