“Isn’t it?” He turned to face me fully. “Tell me honestly, if you could do anything, go anywhere, be anyone, what would you choose? And don’t tell me you’d choose exactly what you’re doing now. I won’t believe you.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Because he was right. If I was being completely honest with myself...
“I’d want to build something of my own,” I admitted quietly. “Not inherit it. Not maintain someone else’s legacy. Actually create something from scratch that’s mine.”
“Okay. What else?”
“I’d want to wake up excited about the day instead of just going through the motions. I’d want to feel like my life is moving forward, not just staying in place.”
“And?”
“And I’d want to wake up next to Leigh every single morning for the rest of my life.”
There it was. The truth I’d been avoiding.
Xander smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“But I can’t just…”
“Yes, you can. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You can sell the garage. You can move to Blue Point Bay. You can start over. You can build a life that’s yours, with the woman you love.” He gripped my shoulder. “I know it’s scary. Believe me, I know. But staying stuck because you’re afraid of change? That’s not living, man. That’s just existing.”
I took another long drink, trying to process everything he was saying. “What if I move there and we don’t work out? What if I give up everything and it’s for nothing?”
“What if you don’t move and spend the rest of your life wondering what if?” He countered. “What if she’s the best thing that ever happened to you and you let her go because you were too scared to take a risk?”
“Moore!” Trace called from across the room. “Get over here. You’re up.”
I looked at Xander. “We’re not done talking about this.”
“I know. But go. Play pool with our brother on his last night as a single man. We’ll talk more later. Maybe rope in Booker for his sensible, stick in the mud type of advice.”
I walked over to the pool table shaking my head and with a smile on my face. A genuine hopeful smile because Xander had put a thought in my head and now that it was there, I was starting to see options where before I’d seen nothing but barriers.
Trace was lost in his own bubble of happiness and grinning like an idiot. “Ready to get destroyed?”
“In your dreams,” I said, chalking my cue.
We played, and trash-talked, and I tried to focus on the game. But Xander’s words kept echoing in my head.
You’re maintaining, not living.
Build something that’s yours.
Wake up next to her every morning.
“You’re distracted,” Trace observed, sinking an easy shot. “Not like you.”
“Just thinking.”
“About Leigh.”
“Maybe.”
He straightened, studied me. “You love her.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah. I do.”
