Page 28 of The Troublemaker

“I really did think that you wanted to move here,” she said.

“I know we discussed that, and I am still open to it. I think this week will be a good chance for us to get our bearings. Maybe you can come to Virginia and visit me.”

“I just have a harder time covering things than you, because I don’t have any other person working my practice. Which is another thing. There isn’t another veterinarian here.” She thought about what Lachlan had said to her. About the way that it made her feel. She was the only one. If she left... If she left then somebody else would have to come and take her place, and it was difficult to get people to agree to come live in a place that was this small, this remote.

“I suppose it would be good to have two,” he said.

It would be. There was plenty of work here. But then...there was also the chance to start over. With something totally new and different.

She was just so deeply unsure of what she wanted. If she wanted to change; if she wanted things to stay the same...

It was a change to think about marrying him. To think about having a husband, and eventually having children. Yes. It would be a change.

And there wasn’t anything wrong with that. In fact, it was what she wanted. She just wasn’t sure if she wanted a complete change—a move across the country—or if she just wanted to take it one step at a time.

It was so very hard to say.

But they would have the week. A week of him visiting for them to get a better idea of what they both wanted.

He was incredibly reasonable. That was one of the things she liked the most about him. Rational. He didn’t lead with his feelings.

Whatever decisions they made, they would be so grounded in what was best. What they both cared about.

“All right. Send me your flight itinerary when you have it, and I will arrange to pick you up from the airport.”

“Oh, no need. I’ll get a rental car. Though I appreciate it. But that way I’ll be able to get myself around.”

“That’s thoughtful of you.” He was always thoughtful. “So we’ll meet at my house?”

“Yes. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thank you.”

“I got a new German board game I think you’ll like.”

In college they’d spent a lot of time in the board game store just off campus, finding obscure strategy games to play in their group of friends, and it was something they both still enjoyed.

Lachlan found the games dull and incomprehensible. His words. But he’d only said it after she’d cornered the market on sheep. So she was pretty sure it had been sour grapes.

“That sounds great!” she said, suddenly more able to picture her time with Byron. It had been a while since she’d seen him and she was feeling nervous, which wasn’t normal for them. But they were actually taking the next steps now, not just pushing the wedding off and off. Things felt more real. It was natural she felt a little nervous. “I’ll see you soon.”

She got off the phone with him and walked into her house. She was having dinner with Lachlan tonight.

That was suddenly the much larger thought on her mind. She had dinner with Lachlan all the time. But it was just funny because he had called this a date. It was a date, though, for her to evaluate his reformation.

His personal transformation into husband material, from whatever he was now.

It would be weird to think of him that way.

She knew whatshewanted in a husband. Everything that Byron exemplified.

It would be weird to look at Lachlan and try to apply those same sorts of metrics to him.

And what was she going to wear?

The sweatshirt and skirt that she had on now wasn’t going to work.

Are you going to change?

---