Page 111 of Statler

“Eliza showed it to me,” Statler revealed.

Mason grinned at him.

Stat could see the man’s bright white teeth in the moonlight, and knew he was about to say something cheeky.

“Did you kiss her while you were out here?” he asked with a chuckle.

Statler snorted. “What is this, middle school?” Son of a⁠—

“Well?” Mason wasn’t letting go.

Statler finally relented. “Of course I kissed her,” he admitted. “And before you ask, yes, it was good.”

That ought to assuage the nosy prick.

“So, she’s someone special, huh?” Clearly Mason was continuing to probe, so Statler might as well give all the way in.

Mason had known Statler for a number of years, and Stat instantly understood why Mase would assume Eliza was different. Statler had never spent more than a week with any one woman in all his adult, dating years, and had never hesitated to let that be known.

Statler didn’t keep Mason in suspense. At least not for too long.

“Yeah. I think she’s the one, Mase.” Statler tried the words on his tongue, and felt the rightness of his assertion.

His buddy didn’t look shocked.

“Okay. Then we need to make sure she stays safe,” Mason posited. “You remember when Everlee came back into my life, don’t you?”

“I do,” Statler nodded. “Nothing could have kept you from reconnecting with her. I didn’t quite understand it at the time, but now I do.”

Mason dipped his chin. “That’s right. When you know, you know. And Stat, we’re past the point of playing games. We’re not getting any younger.”

Statler laughed, feeling a little more centered now that he was standing in one of Eliza’s favorite, calming spaces.

“What the fuck? Are you saying I’m old?” he mock-protested.

“Well, forty-one isn’t exactly a spring chicken,” Mase pointed out. “And if you want to start a family like we have…”

That thought hit Statler like a sledgehammer to the gut.

A family.

He’d never, ever allowed his brain to go there before, because families… Well, other than Petula, his own people had been kind of a mess, before they were all just…gone.

Could he do kids?

Eliza’s beautiful face popped into his head, and Statler knew instantly that he could. She would be an amazing mother. And if he started out being a shit father, she’d be sure to teach him a thing or two.

But he was getting ahead of himself.

They hadn’t even had sex yet.

The most they’d done was kiss and do a little…petting, if that’s what it was still called these days.

Statler’s mind drifted to sex, and he knew without a doubt that with Eliza it was going to be epic.

More than epic.

He just needed her to stay safe so they could make it happen.