“I’ll talk to the adjusters,” Kyle promised, putting a hand over hers.
“And I just moved into a new building,” Boomer offered. “I can walk to work so if you need to use my truck for a while, it’s all yours.”
That was Boomer. He was the single most generous dude Deke had ever met. Except when it came to his lunch. Boomer liked to eat. Did he have enough snacks?
“I can pick her up.” Kyle pulled a card from the stack. “I finally got my car.”
“But you live all the way across town,” MaeBe argued. “I can take the train. I just miss my car.”
Hutch’s wife, Noelle, stared at Kyle. “Are you trying to block me?”
Kyle’s brows came up. “Uh, I’m not trying, but if it happens, well, that’s part of the game, right?”
Noelle turned MaeBe’s way. “I blame you for teaching him how to play.”
MaeBe grinned. “He thought it was silly at first, but now he’s really good.”
Deke was pretty sure Kyle had started coming to game night because he couldn’t stay away from MaeBe. Her game nights were legendary around the MT offices. The younger generation met up almost every Thursday to play boardgames. It was often the highlight of Deke’s week.
Since it wasn’t like he had a lot to look forward to. He loved his friends, but they were all pairing off, and he never would.
“Hey, Deke, I have a friend,” Noelle began.
Deke frowned. “Absolutely not. No setups. I’m done dating for a while.”
Boomer polished off the chips Deke had set out. “That’s smart, man. You told Charlotte you didn’t want to go out with her new friend, so she better not find out you’ve been letting Noelle set you up.”
He would never hear the end of it. He would be kicked out of the grapevine, and he enjoyed being a part of that.
Damn, that was probably his last bag of chips. The food at the wedding had been good but not plentiful enough to fill Boomer’s gut. “I think I’ll order some pizza.”
Boomer got cranky if he didn’t eat.
“That sounds good,” MaeBe said. “I’ll go in with you.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got it.”
It wasn’t like he had anything or anyone to spend money on. He’d saved a lot over the years. He didn’t need much more than his two-bedroom condo. He’d bought it with the thought of having visitors, but he always went home to see his family. They’d never been to Dallas. His sisters rarely left the Northern California rural town he’d grown up in.
He excused himself to call in the pizza order, walking into his neatly kept kitchen. It was neatly kept because he almost always ate out. He took extra shifts or met his friends for dinner because eating alone was sad and made him think about big family dinners with all the chaos and energy they brought.
He’d found a family here, and he genuinely loved them. He wouldn’t leave Dallas. He belonged here.
But damn he missed his hometown.
You don’t miss that town. You miss her. You’ll miss her until the day you die, you idiot.
Deke shook that thought off because he wasn’t going to spend his night mooning over his high school girlfriend. He’d broken that relationship off because Madeline Hill was not meant to live her life in a small town waiting for her dumbass boyfriend to come home from the military. She’d been stubborn, ready to turn down a full-ride scholarship to Yale to stay behind and help out with his family.
So he’d made sure she didn’t. He’d broken her heart, and he’d been right to do it. She’d gone to Yale, and now she worked for one of the country’s top inventors. She lived the high life in LA, and someday he would find out she’d married a man on her level and started her family.
God, he still missed her.
He ordered five pizzas. Two for Boomer and three for the rest of them and hoped he would have leftovers because he was pretty sure the milk in his fridge was bad, and all he had for breakfast was cereal.
He could hear Noelle and Kyle arguing about whether or not he really needed to call yet another auction for a railroad.
Kyle probably thought he had enough points to win and wanted to end the game.
Kyle kind of bulldozed his way through games.
Like Maddie used to bulldoze her way through problems.
Why was she so on his mind tonight?
Because he’d been to another wedding. Because he was pretty sure the reason none of his relationships worked was because he’d never gotten over her.
Because she was the one, dumbass.
There was a knock on his door.
“That was quick,” Hutch said. “Do you live next to the pizza place?”
He didn’t. It would be at least another half hour before the pizza showed up. He moved to the front hall. “Nah. It might be Jamal. He said he would head over if he had time.”