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“Good job, buddy. Bea says she’s the happiest she’s ever seen her, even before, when they all lived in Texas.” They grinned at each other, and Ty stepped to the next person. He felt like he’d done something great, not just his job, and this whole party seemed a bit ridiculous.
But it was what Sage wanted, and when she wanted to celebrate, Ty woudn’t say no.
“Pizza’s outside,” Blake said, and Ty clapped hands with him too.
“I heard you have something to celebrate too,” he said, glancing around to find Lauren and failing. How he hadn’t realized that all of his closest friends had found their happily-ever-after while he’d been brokering real estate deals, Ty didn’t know. But looking around this house, this party, he saw it.
Blake and Lauren had gotten married last year, and they were going to have a baby this fall. Bea and Grant had just bought and moved into a bigger house—and yes, Ty had helped them. His daughter had come to live with them for her senior year, which was almost done, and Bea had three grown children with expanding families who came to visit.
“Yeah,” Blake said, ducking his head like he was embarrassed about having a baby with his wife. “Kind of surprising, but we’re both really excited.”
“Do you want a boy or a girl?” Ty asked.
“I’d take anyone who doesn’t trip over his own feet every third step.” Blake laughed, and Ty joined him. Tommy was a little accident-prone, and he once again looked around, searching for the teen.
He didn’t see him either, but the house was big and the crowd thick. There could be more people outside too. He appreciated the fact that the men had separated from their women, but as Ty spoke to each of them, they seemed to migrate back toward one another.
Scott and Joy were the newest married couple, and she’d just started teaching this fall while Scott continued to run his landscaping business with his brother. Another dog barked, and Ty didn’t recognize it as one that belonged to him.
Blake moved to let Scott into the circle, and he bent to get his dog’s leash first. “You brought Ghost.” Ty bent down to pat the almost all-white dog, and his dogs rushed him like he’d betrayed them mightily by even looking at another dog.
Another golden joined them, and Ty crouched down now, suddenly feeling peopled out. But dogs? He always had time to chat with them. “And what’s your name?”
“That’s Cass’s dog,” Oliver said. “Beryl.”
“Ah, he’s handsome. Yes, he is.” He chuckled as Brother muscled his way under Ty’s arm. “You’re handsome too, bud.” And if he didn’t praise Sherman times two, he’d get licked and barked at.
So he used both hands to scrub down Sherman’s jowls as he told him what an amazing black lab he was. Then, when he couldn’t avoid the humans any longer, he straightened and looked at Oliver.
“Good to see you, man.” Oliver gave him a light hug too and stepped back. “We really do have pizza on the back patio. Come eat.” He nodded that way, and then turned to go outside.
It took Ty another ten minutes to get outside to the patio, as he had to go through all of Sage’s Supper Club friends to get there. They were incredibly nice women, and they loved Sage completely.
As he saw the four boxes of pepperoni pizza spread across the big back table, he started to laugh.
“I didn’t know which place you liked best,” Sage said, finally returning to his side. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him. “So I got one from four of the top-rated places here on Hilton Head.”
She beamed up at him, and though all of their friends watched them, as well as Shelby and Tommy, Ty leaned down and kissed her. Everything in his life had started to align, and while he’d celebrated big sales before, there had never been a party this amazing and fun.
Because he’d never had Sage at his side before.
* * *
Ty ran down the beach,coming up on the lifeguard station where he turned around and headed back to his house. He toyed with the idea of running up the beach to Sage’s apartment just to say hello before either of them started the day. When he realized it was Thursday, and Sage wouldn’t be working today, he decided to definitely go stop in.
Maybe he could sit down to breakfast with her and the dogs for a couple of minutes. His fantasies ran as fast as his feet, and before Ty knew it, he raised his fist and knocked on the door. It came off like a pound, because his adrenaline hovered near the top of his head. It always did after a run, and his chest heaved, his calves cramped, and Ty couldn’t stop smiling about any of it.
Sage opened the door wearing her walking clothes and holding Gypsy’s collar. “Well, hello there,” she said with some level of surprise in her voice. “You’re not wearing a shirt.”
“I never do when I run,” he said good-naturedly. “I thought—well, it’s Thursday, and I know you’re not working today. I just wanted to see you.”
“Sage, who is—?” Thelma cut off when she saw Ty standing in the doorway. A smile spread her lips and she said, “Oh, your—hello, Ty.”
“Thelma,” he said.
“We’re packing today,” Sage said, her smile stuck to her face. “Thelma is moving out on Saturday.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Ty said.
