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“Oh… no. I don’t think so, or she would have told me.”
“Yeah, I figured the same with my brother.”
“You’re close with him, aren’t you?” I asked. “Even though he’s much older than you.”
“It’s only nine years,” Troy said. “He’s forty-five now.”
“That’s a lot,” I said. “Nine years is a generation gap.”
Troy shrugged. “I guess so, but we’re close and it works.” Troy looked into his empty wineglass. “I need more of this. Can I top you up?”
I nodded, and Troy got up with the glasses, leaving the fort. I sank back against the pillows.
I thought about Scott and Hailey not getting together and me and Troy ending up together that night. And now. It was funny because Hailey had been the one to see them and liked what she saw, and I’d called them over for her.
Not that I’d meant to let it go this far—Troy and I weren’t supposed to see each other again.
Or maybe weweresupposed to see each other again, and that was why things had worked out the way they had for us.
Maybe it was just coincidence. Every little girl grew up with the idea of happily ever after, of fate and destiny and all that crap, but I didn’t know if I believed in it. It sounded a lot like a made-up fairy tale to me, just like a lot of other bullshit people come up with to try to make life more fantastical. I understood the need to make life beautiful, but there was a line. Hinging happiness on something like fate…
I wasn’t sure about that.
If I met someone and ended up being with them, it would be because it made sense, because things worked out that way. I guess it would, in a way, be on the back of coincidence. They said that there were a whole bunch of people someone could build a life with and that it was just a matter of making it work.
That made more sense to me.
Would I be able to make something work with Troy? Maybe.
I liked him. He was such a funny, sweet guy. He was a pest in the office, but away from work, I was attracted to him. I hadn’t been attracted to someone in a long, long time.
I didn’t usually date for the same reason I didn’t want kids—I knew what my priorities were, and I wasn’t going to force someone to take a back seat when I knew what I wanted in life.
If that person had the same kind of life, the same kind of priorities, and we could meet each other halfway, that would change everything.
Would Troy be someone like that, willing to meet me halfway? Would he be willing to find a compromising balance the way I needed to make a relationship work along with my career?
Maybe he actually would.
11
TROY
Whenwewokeupthe next morning, the phone lines were restored. They must have worked their asses off through the night.
It didn’t take long to get a contractor out to remove the tree and tow my car, and then we were back to business as usual. Mackenzie had been worried about getting someone out. I’d been right about her insurance—they didn’t have any.
“I can’t pay you back,” Mackenzie said, swallowing hard.
“I had to get my car out, right? It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
Mackenzie nodded. Money was a stressor, I was starting to see that more and more. I had more cars—that wasn’t an issue. I could get around while I waited for the insurance to take care of it. I was so aware of how different things were for me and how easy it was for me to get someone else to take care of something because I had the means to pay whatever it would cost.
“Thank you again for helping me out,” Mackenzie said. “And taking care of it all.” She glanced toward the tree.
“What about your gate?”
Mackenzie shrugged. “I guess we’ll just do without for a while. We don’t have pets, so it’s okay for now.”
