Then I answered his mother. “Yes.”
“Good Lord,” she breathed. “Is he as sweet as he seems?”
“Yes.”
“That…is…the…coolest,” Hailey declared.
“All right, let’s get serious,” Mags ordered. “Cranberry? Orange? Or pomegranate?”
“Pomegranate for me,” I put in my order.
“Me too!” Hailey cried excitedly, like that meant we were blood sisters reunited.
I was seeing I was going to like Hailey.
I shot her a smile.
She returned it.
“Me as well,” Mags stated. “Hails, put the others back. Alex, do me a favor, honey, and go grab the glasses. They’re over there.”
I went to where she indicated and grabbed the glasses.
I glanced at Rix while Mags mixed, and saw he was in a man huddle with his brother and father, but his gaze was on me.
I let my lips tip up.
He winked.
Okay.
There we were.
Boyfriend Bear Rix was standing down.
It was all good.
“He’s been on them all day,” Hailey said, so low, I knew I wasn’t supposed to hear her.
“Mm,” Mags replied in a way that it was both agreement, and a warning not to talk about it.
We were out back at the dining table on their deck.
We’d just had a dinner of marinated chicken breasts that Gare had grilled, corn on the cob and a pasta salad that Mags had already given me the recipe for.
The women were drinking wine, enjoying a cool evening post-food.
The men were in the yard, for no reason it seemed except they were men, and they felt more comfortable among trees, standing in the grass.
Rix had dark-haired, blue-eyed, adorable Kinsley curled in one of his arms. She was pretty much asleep, her chubby cheek on his shoulder and her dimpled hand on his neck.
They’d also pretty much been inseparable since she woke up, except for when she took another nap.
He’d even fed her.
All five times that had to happen.
Not so by the way…
It…
Was…
Insanely…
Beautiful.
“Did you know Rix before?” I asked Hailey.
Both women swung eyes to me.
“Pardon?” Hailey asked in return.
I clarified my question. “Before Rix lost his legs, did you know him?”
This question seemed to shock both of them for some reason, but Hailey recovered first.
“Josh and I were supposed to get married around the ti—”
Mags made a noise that was part clearing her throat, the rest was definitely a shut up.
But what Hailey said made me sad. “You had to postpone?”
“Rix was, um…Josh’s best man. And Josh wouldn’t…” she paused and finished, “So, yes.”
Then she said no more.
But she didn’t need to say more.
Even though that had to add to the heartbreak they were all experiencing, and it had to be a lot of work in reorganizing, in that moment I loved Josh with all my heart that he wouldn’t get married without his brother.
“Well, I’m glad it finally happened,” I told her. “And yes, he’s up on them more. He told me he was being lazy, but he’s barely using his chair at all these days.”
Both women stared at me.
It was Hailey who asked, “He told you he was being lazy?”
I nodded. “But thinking about it, I think it was that his work at the store was more physical. In the office, there isn’t that much needing to get around. He’s far from lazy. Since I knew him, and he was just back into life after rehab when I met him, he’s been fit and active.”
“The pictures on the Elsa Exchange, he seemed to be very active,” Mags murmured.
“Yes, he is,” I verified. “He’s up even before me if there’s a hike to be taken, and I’m an avid hiker.”
“Oh,” Mags said softly. Then she asked, “Is there pain?”
“Sorry?”
“Being up so often on them, is he in pain?’
I shook my head but said, “I don’t think so, but you know he wouldn’t tell me. He doesn’t complain. He just gets on with it.”
Though, I made a mental note to ask him.
“Right, but he tells you other things. Like he’s been being lazy,” Mags remarked.
I looked her in the eye and said, “Yes.” When she didn’t look away, as kindly as I could, I finished, “Because I ask.”
That was when she looked away.
Hailey was studying her wineglass.
Me?
I was getting angry.
“He talks about it. He likes to talk about it. It’s his life,” I pointed out.
Both women looked back to me.
“Okay, maybe he doesn’t like to talk about it,” I allowed. “But he has no problem doing it, and it is his life. Anyone wants to share important things about their life with people they love.”
“People they love,” Mags parroted.
“Yes,” I stated.
Mags and Hailey exchanged a glance.
After it was over, Hailey began smiling at her wineglass.
“You understand, there isn’t a manual about this kind of thing, how to deal with it on our end, when something like that happens to someone you love,” Mags told the yard, precisely where the men were standing in it.
“No, I don’t understand,” I said quietly, and she turned back to me. “I’m not a mom. I wasn’t around when it happened to him. I’m lucky. He’d been through the grueling part when I met him. I just get him now. Rix, awesome guy, funny guy, handsome guy, active guy, who also happens to have lost his legs.”