Page 4 of The Long and Winding Road

Life was good. Did he occasionally experience a pang of jealousy being around so many happily married siblings and cousins? Sure, but it wasn’t like he was lonely or anything. How could anyone be lonely in his family?

It was only sometimes, after Caden had gone to bed and the rest of the evening stretched before him with nothing much to do, that Max wished for someone to share his life with. Those feelings tended to pass as quickly as they came, however. At some point over the last few years, he’d quit dating or bothering to hook up for the sake of hooking up. He just couldn’t make himself care enough to bother with any of it. Which meant it’d been a long time since he’d gotten laid. So long that he couldn’t remember the last time.

Caden’s kindergarten teacher had asked him out on the last day of school after a year of subtle flirting. They’d had a nice dinner, great conversation and a few laughs, but at the end of the night, he’d seen her home and declined her offer to spend the night.

Jessica was a great person, a gorgeous woman who should’ve been everything he wanted in a partner, but again, he just hadn’t felt that special something for her.

That seemed to be his lot in life, to miss out on thethingthat everyone around him had seemed to find so effortlessly. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. It’d taken effort, some starts and stops, some heartbreak here and there, but for the most part, his siblings and cousins had made love look easy compared to what’d transpired—ornottranspired—for Max.

He’d had it once. A very long time ago. So he knew what he was looking for and what it felt like to be truly in love. Thanks to that relationship, he also knew what epic heartbreak felt like, and he wasn’t looking to experience that particular hell again any time soon.

Max wondered if he’d see her at the reunion. Would she finally show her face in town after going silent on him and everyone else for most of the time they’d been out of school? And after vowing to stay in touch with him—even though they’d decided to see other people in college—that hadn’t happened. When he thought about her, he felt angry and hurt at how she’d checked out of his life and disappeared.

That was the main reason he hadn’t gone to his fifth reunion and why he’d resisted this one, too.Shewas the main reason. If she decided to show up, he wasn’t sure what he’d say to her, especially if she came with a husband or boyfriend. He’d be hard-pressed to hide the resentment she’d left him with when she disappeared all those years ago. He didn’t want to see her, but he hadn’t heard any rumblings of her coming to the reunion, and he probably would have if she were planning to be there. News like that traveled fast through a town like Butler.

In addition to his concern about running intoher, he also wondered what he would tell his classmates about his life since they were last together. That he was still working for the family business and still raising the son they all knew about thanks to social media. After that, what would he have left to say to anyone? Did they give out superlatives at the reunions like they did in high school? If so, he would win the award for most boring first decade out of high school.

He no sooner had that thought than he felt disloyal to Caden. Nothing about being his father was boring or mundane. Fatherhood was the most thrilling experience of Max’s life, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything, even true love. If people thought his life was boring, then it was probably because they didn’t have kids.

Max had made himself good and angry by the time he pulled into the lot at the Grange, which was already packed with shiny sports cars, fancy SUVs and a couple of pickup trucks like his. After flipping down the visor, he took a quick look at his appearance and decided he looked as good as he ever did—as good as he cared to look.

“Whatever,” he muttered under his breath before getting out of the truck and heading inside, prepared to cash in on the bet with his mother if it meant he could be home and in bed in two hours.

The buffet wasn’t bad.It even included some of his favorites, including pasta and fried chicken. Maybe he ate like a seven-year-old, but that was easier than making two dinners most nights. He added a salad to feel better about his diet and found a table with an open seat.

“Max Abbott,” one of the women said. “I heard you weren’t coming!” She was a heavy-set blonde who Max tried desperately to place. She was too far away for him to see her nametag. “It’s me, Mary Jane Connor, or, well, it’s Foster now. I married Gig Foster.”

“Ah, okay. Nice to see you again.”

“You look exactly the same,” Mary Jane said. “I’d know you anywhere.”

“Thanks, you, too.”

“Now that is just not true.” She cackled with laughter. “Three babies and thirty pounds later, I look nothing like I did in high school.”

The others at the table joined the discussion about the childbearing and weight gain and how hard it was to lose the pounds with kids underfoot. He heard Mary Jane say she and Gig lived in Concord, New Hampshire, and rarely got back to Butler anymore. That explained why he never saw them around town.

“You have a son, right, Max?” Mary Jane asked.

“I do. Caden will be seven this weekend.”

“You got an early start,” Mary Jane’s husband, Gig, said. He’d lost most of his hair in the last ten years.

“I did.” Max figured they had the full rundown of how he’d had a son right after he finished college and then had to raise him on his own—with a ton of help from his parents and family— after the baby’s mother decided parenthood wasn’t for her. He wasn’t about to fill in any gaps for them.

“I’m sure you have pictures,” another woman said.

Max didn’t recognize her either. If he hadn’t seen a few people he knew at the registration desk, he might’ve worried he was at the wrong event.

This was every bit as dreadful as he’d expected it to be.

He glanced at his watch. Seven twenty. No way. He should’ve gone with his initial impulse and skipped this stupid reunion with people he didn’t care about.

“Max?”

A jolt of shock zipped down his spine. He’d know that voice anywhere. As he spun around in his seat, he tried to brace himself to see her again. But all the time in the world couldn’t have prepared him for the rush of emotion that overtook him when he took in the sight of his first love.

Lexi Bradshaw.

---