Page 32 of Begin Again

“So you’re coming for the picnic?” Evan asked. “Bring Liz. Let her meet everyone.”

He’d forgotten that Evan and Parker were having a cookout. It was more for Parker’s brothers and her father. Evan had been asking for a week and he said no.

Not that he didn’t get along with Jeremy and Marcus Reid, but he’d rather hang out with Liz.

“She has to work,” he said.

“Doesn’t she go in at night?” Evan asked.

“She’s going in at four,” he said. “She takes a lot of overtime if she can.” Evan lifted his eyebrow. “Don’t go there. She’s independent. She doesn’t even want her father to help, but she understands that she was getting taken for a ride on the kitchen.”

“You can still stop over for a drink,” Evan said. “Jeremy is bringing a woman.”

“I didn’t know he was dating someone,” he said.

“McKenna Preston. Her father, Dan, was the man who had the heart attack on the golf course that Jeremy brought back to life.”

“Shit,” he said. “Seriously? They are dating now?”

“Yeah,” Evan said. “Funny how life happens that way. You remember Dan, right?”

“Of course,” he said. “Everyone knows Dan.”

Dan Preston owned a funeral home in the area. He remembered Dan’s wife died in an accident along with Dan’s young son when he was a kid. It was horrible.

“Yeah. He’s doing well now and McKenna and Jeremy are dating. Jeremy bought the house behind the Prestons.”

“Small world,” he said.

“Like the world where your first bought the house you always wanted out from under you.”

“I’m out of here,” he said, walking to his truck to the sound of his brother’s laughter.

Christian drove the two miles to Liz’s house. There was a Sherman Fencing truck in the driveway. He’d be coming face to face with Liz’s father.

This time as Liz’s boyfriend.

Again.

He was starting to feel like the teen he’d been the last time.

He pulled behind Trevor’s truck, the garage door was open, and he went in that way past Liz’s used SUV. There was a dumpster that had been delivered that was blocking the other garage door.

“Hey, Christian,” Liz said when he walked in. “Dad, you remember Christian.”

“Good to see you again,” he said to Trevor. It felt awkward shaking hands with the man he’d known for years and had seen around a lot.

“You too,” Trevor said. “Let me give you a hand with some things.”

The two men went out to his truck and grabbed the tools he’d gotten from Evan’s and carried them in.

“Is this going to be fun or hurt?” Liz asked when they came back in with the last of everything.

“Depends on if you need to take some aggression out,” he said.

“Not really,” she said.

“Even with your job?” he asked. “I’m not sure I could handle that and what you see daily.”

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