Having Justin's Baby. Pamela Bauer
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were kids she’d been coming to them for advice, but before either one could tell her why he was wary of Michael, she’d looked at them and said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.”
He looked again at the Bulldog schedule. There was hiking, disc golf, sailing, volleyball, bonfires…all the things they had done in the past that had made everyone want to continue reuniting each summer. Only this year while doing the fun stuff, Paige would be looking at Michael with that lovesick-puppy gaze. Justin didn’t want to spend one hour, let alone an entire weekend, with the lovebirds.
He’d always considered a weekend at the North Shore to be more like therapy. No customer complaints to deal with, no long hours out in the hot sun digging and planting. It was a chance to reconnect with nature and with friends. Spending any length of time watching Paige act all lovey-dovey with her fiancé would be more like punishment.
“I hope you didn’t drink the last cold one.”
Justin glanced toward the doorway to see Kyle had come home. He looked heat weary and physically exhausted as he walked into the kitchen.
“No, there are plenty more,” Justin answered.
Kyle ambled over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer then dropped onto a chair opposite him. He twisted off the cap and took a long drink before saying, “I think it’s time we seriously consider accepting Harry Bonner’s offer to buy into the business.”
Justin sighed. “I thought we agreed that as beneficial as it would be financially to join forces with Bonner, it would also mean that we’re no longer a small local company.”
“No, we’d be a Midwest company. Bigger and better.” Kyle took another drink. “We could hire the additional employees we need to bid on the larger commercial projects and you and I could devote more of our time to managing the company instead of doing the physical labor. We were business majors in college,” he reminded Justin.
“I know, but I happen to like working with the trees,” Justin reminded him.
“And that’s fine. All I’m saying is that if we expand, we’ll have the option to delegate more of the work. We’ll also make more money. And that would be a good thing.” He used his beer bottle as a pointer. “We could also afford to move to a nice place—something a little more modern than this place.”
“Even if we sell the house we’re going to have to fix it up a bit…put some fresh paint on the walls.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Paige. She was always after me to put one of those designer colors on the walls…something called Mesa Sunrise.”
Justin grinned. “It looked like pink to me.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not living in a pink house. There’s nothing wrong with white walls.”
“Except these walls look more like dirty socks.” Justin toyed with the label on the neck of his beer bottle. “The whole house needs work. Every year we say we’re going to do it during our slow season and it doesn’t get done.”
“That’s because there’ve been better things to do—like lie in the sun on a beach in Mexico,” Kyle reminded him.
“Maybe this year we should think about staying home and taking care of the work that needs to be done around this place.”
“I thought you wanted me to look up info on those nursery seminars that are being offered in Oregon—which reminds me.” He sat forward, patting his pockets until he produced a folded piece of paper. “I have the name of a contact person. Another reason why it would be to our advantage to have Bonner come on board. You and I could take the seminar at the same time and still have someone running the company back here.”
Justin pondered that a moment. “Good point. Maybe it is time we bring on another partner.”
“What about the house? Should we have a real estate appraiser come out to take a look?”
“It wouldn’t hurt, but I suppose we really ought to talk to Paige before we do anything. She has been our silent partner.”
“Well, technically she isn’t, but we’ve treated her like one since she invested her first paycheck as a teacher to help us get started.”
“That makes her a part of us,” Justin insisted.
“Then we’ll tell her,” Kyle agreed. “I’m sure she’ll say that whatever we plan to do with the business is fine with her. We’ll talk to her about it at the Bulldog Reunion.”
“Speaking of the reunion…did you see this?” Justin slid the invitation across the wooden tabletop. “I thought we told her we didn’t want to have outsiders.”
“We did, but you know Paige. Once she sets her mind to something, she gets it done. And she wanted to bring her fiancé. She called me last week.”
“I hope you told her we weren’t bringing anyone.”
“Of course I did.”
“Good.”
“But then I asked Tammy to come along.”
Justin had been teetering on the back legs of his chair, but sat forward with a thump. “Are you telling me I’m going to be the only one flying solo? Why would you invite Tammy?” Kyle had only started going out with her recently.
“Hey—I had to,” he insisted in a defensive tone. “Paige is going to be bringing that Tiger Woods wannabe and I didn’t want to have to watch the two of them play kissy face all weekend. You know as well as I do that falling in love has changed Paige and not in a good way.”
“I know it’s affected her hearing.” Justin grimaced. “She hasn’t heard a word we’ve said about the guy.”
“I think her common sense has been pushed to the back of her brain.”
Justin didn’t want to talk about Paige. “Look, I’m not going to feel much like going to the reunion if I’m the only one without a date,” he said irritably.
Kyle raised his hands. “Just chill—you won’t be alone,” he said with a devilish grin. “I asked Tammy to bring her sister Tara for you.”
Justin groaned. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Kyle was clearly perplexed. “What is wrong with you? You’ve seen Tara. She’s not only beautiful, she’s fun to be around. Why are you groaning? I did you a favor.”
What was wrong was that he felt the same way as Kyle did about seeing Paige with Michael. But having Tara there wouldn’t help. Only he couldn’t tell him that, so he said, “You told Paige we weren’t bringing anyone, which means she’s made plans for eight people, not ten. You know how she hates a change in plans.”
“I don’t think she’s going to care about two extra people.”
“Yes, she will.” The weekend was becoming less appealing by the minute. “Maybe we ought to just skip the reunion this year.”
“And what about Tammy and her sister?”
He shrugged. “We could still go away—we just don’t have to go to the North Shore.”
“That would be fine with me, but what would we tell Paige?”
Justin didn’t have to think about that one very long. “She’d never forgive us for skipping out on her, would she?”
“No, we’re going to have to do this,” Kyle stated with a shake of his head.
“And listen to her talk about her wedding plans.”
This time it was Kyle who groaned. “Don’t remind me. Ever since he gave her that diamond on Valentine’s Day she’s been like a broken record…the wedding this, the wedding that. Michael says…blah blah blah.”
“It’s