Page 35 of Over the Verdant Hills
“I did. Congratulations again, I guess. Lots of marriages going around.”
And a death. But he didn’t say that. Again, it really wasn’t his news.
“Maybe you’ll have one in your future.”
“I think we’re the only two bachelors in our class. And… If I got married, I wouldn’t be representing the bachelors very well, would I?”
He was making light of the situation. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get married. He would like to. But he had the feeling that women looked at a man in his thirties who wasn’t married and who still lived with his parents and figured that there was probably something wrong with him. Some reason why other women hadn’t been willing to give him a chance.
“Maybe I’m too old,” he muttered, not really expecting Trevor to say anything.
“Don’t forget, we’re the same age, and I’m engaged for the first time.”
“Good point. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were too old.”
“I always thought Claire had a thing for you. I know that she always acted like she had something for me, but we both know she didn’t. And there was that truth or dare game.”
Josiah grinned. Was the whole class there that day? “It’s funny. The only person I remember being there that day was Claire. And…yeah. Maybe she didn’t have a thing for me, but I had a thing for her. And I wonder how long that lasted.”
“You dated around. I saw you with some other girls.”
“I did.” None of them were Claire. None of them took. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered that they weren’t Claire, if they had been exceptionally interested in him. But he hadn’t found anyone like that.
“All right. I’ll quit bugging you about it. I guess when a guy gets happy, he wants everyone to be as happy as he is. It’s funny, because I’ve never been a matchmaker.”
“And yet you got your parents together.”
“Did you hear about that?”
Josiah laughed. “It’s a small town, remember?”
“All right. I’ll just leave it at that. Grace will be in touch with Claire. She’ll be happy to know that Claire is not angry. I hope they can work it out. Grace really wants to put the past behind her and rekindle her old friendship with Claire.”
“I hope they can too. I think it will be good for everyone involved.”
The tragedy loomed large over the whole town, and if the friends could get back together and put it behind them, he couldn’t imagine that everyone wouldn’t benefit. Including him.
Chapter Fifteen
“How did it go?”
Josiah stood on the lift, scraping paint. He’d already talked to Claire, who had asked him to give her a hand with painting the house after she’d found out about her grandma.
He’d seen them come home a little earlier from their doctor’s appointment and had been dying of curiosity, but had not stopped working. His conversation with Trevor had been at the top of his mind too, and he wanted to talk to Claire about Grace. But he already knew she had heaps of things on her plate. The last day of school was sometime soon. That would have her stressed out as well.
“I don’t know. Good, I guess,” she said, coming around the corner with two glasses of tea in her hand. “Do you want to take a break?” she asked, holding a glass of tea out.
“Sure,” he said. He wasn’t going to turn down tea, but more than that, he wasn’t going to turn down time with her. If she wanted to talk, he was going to be there for her. Even if they never became anything more, he knew enough to know that that was what friends were for.
He lowered the lift so that it sat on the ground and then opened the gate and stepped off. “Thanks. Go sit down. You look like you’reabout ready to fall.”
“I’m just tired. It was…emotional.”
“Okay,” he said as they went and sat down on the small bench in the yard. He had the porch mostly torn apart, propped up by two-by-fours, with the porch swing down and the rocking chairs in the shed.
“Thanks for the tea,” he said as they sat and he took a sip, waiting for her to start talking. He didn’t know what question to ask. She’d said it went well. But she looked exhausted and not especially happy.
“The doctor said six months.”
