Page 14 of Begin Again

“That you have ideas for back here and are bummed I don’t. I get it. It’s the one that got away.”

He looked her over from head to toe and started to wonder if it wasn’t only the house that got away from him.

“There is always another one,” he said.

“I’ve heard that before too,” she said and moved past him into the house. He wouldn’t ask her what she meant by that. It was probably too personal.

“The place is going to look great when you’re done,” he said.

“Ten years or more from now,” she said, grinning.

“It takes time to find what you want and need in life,” he said.

“So I’ve been told,” she said. “Can I get you something to drink? I don’t have any beer. I never really developed a taste for it. No wine either, as I don’t care for more than a glass here or there. But I’ve got water, some diet ginger ale and unsweetened iced tea.”

“The tea is good,” he said.

She opened her fridge, mismatched like the rest of the appliances in the kitchen, pulled out two bottles and handed one to him.

“I’d ask what you’ve been doing with your life, but it seems like you work for your family?”

“What gave it away?” he asked. “The truck with Butler Construction on it earlier?”

He’d left that at the office and then drove over in his own truck this time. He didn’t want a company truck, but during the day when he was out and about, his father and uncle drilled into his head to make sure he used one. It was part of the advertising.

He wasn’t like Evan that drove everywhere nonstop.

His brother’s business truck was what he drove all the time. It always had been. Evan’s wife, Parker, had an SUV and then a sporty little Mercedes. Evan would drive that at times if he had to.

Christian was just content to do his own thing like he always had.

“That,” she said. “Plus I think it was a given you were going to. What do you do? Did you end up going for construction too?”

“No,” he said. “Engineering.”

“You said you wanted to,” she said.

He had, but not many believed him. Told him he was nuts and should just follow in his family’s footsteps.

He didn’t like to be told what to do much in life.

Sure, he knew he’d work for the family business and he was good with his hands like his father, brother, uncle, cousins and grandfather.

But it wasn’t what he wanted to do daily. Or felt like he was forced to do daily.

His father had been supportive of his decision to go for engineering.

“I did,” he said. “But I do construction on the side. It’s in the blood.”

“You know I was married,” she said. “The name change.”

“Yeah,” he said. He was surprised she brought it up. “Not me. Single now.”

“Definitely single now,” she said. “Been that way for over a year. It’s not easy to date living at home with my father. And well...I just needed the me time.”

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I was with a buddy in Vegas when you were writing your letter to put an offer on this house. My buddy Tate’s fiancée had just left him for someone else. Complete blindside and he wasn’t taking it well. He said he needed to get out of town and it was one of those drunken throw-a-dart-at-a-map nights. Next thing I know, I’m booking a plane ticket.”

“Geez,” she said. “That’s loyalty for you. But if I remember correctly, that is your style too. Just do what sounds good for the time being.”

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