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“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
“Is there still nothing open after nine o’clock in Butler?”
“Pretty much.”
“And it’s too cold to be outside.”
“We can go back to my place. Caden is spending the night at the barn.”
She didn’t want to be nervous about being alone with him, but her belly was full of the butterflies that reminded her of dating him in high school. “Sure, that’d work.”
“I can’t recall what condition we left it in. There’re probably Legos all over the place.”
“That’s fine,” she said, laughing at the face he made.
“We usually do cleanup before bedtime, but I was in a hurry tonight to get him packed up and over to my mom’s.” He glanced over at her. “Sorry. You don’t care about our routine.”
“Sure, I do.”
“Eh, it’s nothing special, same thing every day, but that’s my life.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“It’s not what I expected when we left high school.”
“You’d talked about wanting to travel.”
“Still do, but that’s not going to happen for a while.”
He took a series of turns that led to a familiar street.
“Do you live at your grandfather’s house?”
“I do. He moved in with my parents and offered me his place. Told me to make it my own, so that’s what I’m doing one room at a time. It’s slow going. It hadn’t been updated in decades.”
“I remember how cozy it was and how cute your grandparents were together.”
“They were so cute. My grandmother died quite some time ago. We still miss her.”
“I can’t imagine your grandpa without her.”
“It was rough at first, but he’s found a good groove as a widower. He’s not living with my parents because he needs to. My mom wanted to take care of him, and he finally decided to let her.”
“That’s very sweet. I’m sure she loves doting on him.”
“She does, and he enjoys having her cooking for him and doing his laundry. You’d never believe he’s going to be ninety-one soon. He’s going strong.”
“I’m so glad to hear that. I know how much you love him.”
“We all love him so, so much.”
After a pause in the conversation, Max said, “Where’ve you been, Lex, and what brought you back to Butler?”
“I live in Houston now,” she said, glancing at him. “And I came back for you.”
ChapterTwo
“Love is lovelier, the second time around.”
