Page 13 of I Found You
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Sleeping had been a joke. It’d been five days since I’d gone to Maeve’s and seen Baby Girl. Jane. I still hated that name for her. I had nothing against the name itself. It just wasn’thername.
I’d thrown myself into my work, but no matter how hard I was working, I wasn’t getting enough accomplished. It was like I was walking knee-deep in sand, always struggling to move ahead an inch at a time.
“Well, I was going to talk to you about proposing to Kayleigh. But I guess we’ll just work in silence for the day instead.” Reid always did know how to make me feel guilty. It was a trick he’d picked up when he was a kid, feeling left out when Luke and I would do something without him.
Reid and Kayleigh had been together for years, high school sweethearts even, but that news still surprised me. Cleaning my hands off on the rag I kept with me at all times, I turned to face Reid to give him my full attention. “No shit. You think you’re ready for that kind of commitment?”
This was a big deal, and I needed to make sure he understood what it meant. Our parents’ marriage was pretty damn near perfect. At least from a child’s perspective. Our mom got sick my senior year of high school, and she died a year later. Reid was just a kid when we lost Mom, being almost ten years younger than me. He was old enough to remember her, but he was too young to appreciate what we had as a family. But I was old enough to see what a real marriage looked like. What it should be when two people were it for each other. That was why I’d never married. There was never anyone in mylife that I felt the kind of love that I knew my father felt for my mother.
“You two are still young. You have time, you know. There’s no need to rush it.”
“Jesus. You sound like Luke. I thought you would be happy for me. We’ve been together for seven years, for Christ’s sake. It isn’t like we’d be rushing into things.”
I made my way over to where he was leaning against the car he was supposed to be working on and grabbed him on the shoulder. “No, you’re right. If you think that it’s time to take the next step, then I’m happy for you, brother. You’re going to do it right? With a ring, down on one knee, the whole fairy-tale thing?”
He scratched his chin where he was starting to grow out a beard. “Yeah. I’ve got the ring picked out, but I haven’t bought it yet.”
I didn’t like this plan, but it wasn’t my place to tell him. He was young and in love. Maybe they really were in it for the long haul. Maybe I was just being a grouch because I had never had that for myself. I saw the strain on Luke’s face every time we were together. His marriage was on the rocks, and it was making him miserable. I didn’t want the same outcome for Reid too. He wasn’t coming to me for advice though. He was sharing something that, in his mind, was all positive. I could be a champion in his corner.
“Congrats, man. Let’s head to Millie’s Pizza after work today. We can celebrate.”
“Well, we can’t celebrate yet. I haven’t asked her yet,” Reid chuckled. Any defensiveness from my earlier comments was gone.
Me: Millie’s tonight. 6:30 p.m.
I sent the text to our group chat. Reid read the message and typed out his response, standing three feet away from me.
Reid: Sorry, can’t. I have plans.
“What the fuck, man?” I threw my rag at him. He just laughed and typed out another response.
Reid: JK I’ll be there.
Wes: 10-4
Luke: Working, can’t make it tonight.
Seb: You know I’m in
* * *
The rest of the day went by quickly once we finally got back to work. I managed to keep my focus on the tasks at hand for the most part. My thoughts strayed to Reid on occasion, wondering how it was that my twenty-four-year-old brother thought he was ready for a lifetime commitment. At least, it seemed to be the distraction I needed to keep thoughts of Maeve and Jane at bay.
As soon as I walked into Millie’s, I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the scent of burning wood and dough that permeated the air. My stomach rumbled at the thought of food. Reid and I found Seb already here, taking a table in the front corner. I took the seat next to him, back facing the windows so I could look out into the restaurant. Reid sat across from Seb. It was busy in here, but it was a Thursday night at the place that sold the best pizza in town and had a liquor license, so that was to be expected. I nodded a hello to a few folks. My business was run by word of mouth. It wasimportant to always make sure I acknowledged people and made small talk on occasion. Today, I wasn’t really feeling it though, feeling somehow wired and like I could crawl under a rock and sleep for a fucking week.
A few minutes later, Wes walked through the door. He did the same appreciative deep breath that I did. It was nice to have Reid’s news and some friends around as a distraction, but my mind kept wandering back to the beautiful, stormy, anxious woman and the cutest little baby with round eyes and chubby arms.
“Wy, man. How’s things going?” Wes asked with a clap to my shoulder before taking his seat. “Reid, Seb.” That was Wes’s way of greeting. No flourishes. No pleasantries. Just an acknowledgment of your presence.
Reid told everyone about his plan to propose to Kayleigh.
“We’ll take the kayaks out to Easton’s Cove. Watch the sunset. I’ll have a picnic all set up. And once the sun starts to go down, I’ll pop the question. What do you think?”
It was a good plan, I had to give him that. Romantic, quiet, intimate.
“Not bad, but hear me out… fireworks,” Seb said.
“I don’t think I can afford a full fireworks display.” Reid’s face sank.
