Page 19 of The I Do Over

Her eyes went a little wide. “What about me?”

“Do you keep in touch with any of the people we used to hang out with?”

She noticed he didn’t refer to them as friends and, honestly, she couldn’t blame him. “Um…a few.” Pausing, she took another sip of wine. “I still see Lisa and Cheryl and every once in a while when I’m home visiting my mom, I’ll run into someone, but…” She shrugged. “I made a lot of friends in college and those are the ones I still keep in touch with.”

“Where did you end up going to school?”

“Eastern Washington University. When I went to go and stay with my aunt and uncle, I found that I really like it up there and I wasn’t in any rush to go back home to Virginia, so…I stayed for a while.”

With a nod, he glanced away. “And your parents? You mentioned going to see your mom but not your dad.”

Sighing, she put her glass back down. “They’re divorced.” She paused and shook her head. “It was the year after I graduated college and at the time, I was shocked, but then I realized they’d never really been happy. My father is remarried and lives up in Maine and my mom has a little bungalow just outside of Richmond.” She took a moment before telling him the rest. “She has early onset Alzheimer’s and has a full-time aide living with her. I know it’s only a matter of time before she’ll have to go into some sort of assisted living facility, but for now she’s doing okay.”

He didn’t say anything but she saw the compassion in his eyes.

“The whole thing really took me by surprise, but my dad told me he noticed her having memory issues for several years.” Shaking her head again, she fought off the anger the topic usually brought. “Personally, I think he left because he didn’t want to have to take care of her. She wasn’t perfect anymore and therefore shouldn’t be seen or acknowledged. Just like they did to me.”

“Maddie, I…”

But she held up a hand to stop him. “I try to tell myself that I’m okay with it and, for the most part, I am. Every once in a while though, it’s hard to hide the resentment.” Letting out a long breath, she asked, “What about your folks? How are they?”

“They’re retired and travel around the country in an RV.” He chuckled. “They still have the house, but they probably spend nine months out of the year on the road.”

“Wow! Good for them!” Then she laughed. “I don’t know if I could do something like that. I really enjoy going home to an actual house and sleeping in a real bed.”

“Yeah, that’s how I feel now that I’m out of the service. For fifteen years I slept wherever I was told, whether it was comfortable or not. But now that I have a place? I’m in no rush to travel anywhere. This is home.”

She wanted to comment on how it was really someone else’s home that he just happened to own but decided to keep that observation to herself.

“I get that,” she finally said. “I was torn between moving back to Virginia or staying in Washington.” Swallowing hard, she decided to throw something out there. “You would have loved it. There was so much green space and they lived near the mountains and it was beautiful. I…in some of the letters I wrote to you, I told you about it and my aunt and uncle wanted to pay for you to fly out and see me.”

Then she held her breath and waited for his response.

But the doorbell rang and he practically jumped up and sprinted from the room.

Slowly, Maddie got to her feet. “Well, that timing sure sucked.” Picking up both their glasses, she walked into the kitchen and placed them down on the table and went in search of plates and napkins. Knox quietly came up beside her and helped and within minutes, they were sitting and helping themselves to pizza.

Figuring the moment was gone and not really sure she wanted to get it back, a change of subject seemed necessary.

“So tell me about your security business!” she said with a smile. “The facility was really impressive.”

“It’s actually a fantastic facility,” he said with pride. “We truly lucked out when we found it and were able to customize it to fit all of our needs. I think back to when the three of us first started coming up with ideas, none of us ever imagined it coming together the way it did. It was like everything fell smoothly into place. Daniel recommended Raleigh and we trusted him.” He laughed softly. “For a while, he had a huge ego about it and kept saying how we should listen to him on everything, but…that got voted down right away.”

“I’ll bet!”

“But every time we’ve listened to him, he’s been right, so maybe he’s on to something.” He took a bite of his pizza before going on to tell her all about their initial business plan and how much they’ve grown in such a short time. “Sometimes the schedule is crazy and now that Daniel is married with a baby on the way and Xander is engaged, I think we’re going to have to hire a few more people.” He shrugged. “Most of the time I don’t mind picking up the slack but I have a feeling that once the baby comes, it won’t be long before Xander and Daisy are doing the same thing and there’s no way I can work everyone’s shifts.”

“And you shouldn’t have to,” she agreed. “Have you talked to them about it?”

“A little. Daniel just keeps saying nothing’s going to change, but I think he’s being delusional. He’s going to want to be home with Josie and the baby as much as he can, especially in the beginning. Xander’s already planned a two-week honeymoon, and I know he and Daisy want to start a family right away.” Another shrug. “It just makes sense to start planning now and maybe start training someone.”

“That totally makes sense.” Pausing, she considered her next words. “What about you?”

For a moment he didn’t say anything and she realized she might have to clarify a bit.

“I mean…taking time off. It sounds like the guys have already tentatively planned their vacation time or whatever you want to call it. Do you ever take time off?”

It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to ask, but if she had asked where he was on the relationship front and having kids, it would have gotten really awkward really fast.

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