“Of course not.” Standing, Maddie accepted the woman’s cell phone.
After sticking his Retired Air Force Veteran baseball hat in his back pocket, the man put his arm around the woman’s shoulders.
Keith rarely thought too far into the future. And when he did, those thoughts didn’t include a wife. But just then, instead of seeing the older couple, Keith pictured him and Maddie standing in the same spot in forty years or so and asking a younger couple to snap some photos.
“We came here on our honeymoon fifty years ago today. I have a picture of us in about the same spot hanging on our wall,” the woman explained, accepting her phone back. “I’m going to put this one next to it.”
Fifty years with the same person.
A year ago, he would’ve said it wasn’t in his future. Today, it sounded possible.
“By the way, I’m Barbara, and this is my husband, John.”
Much like how some people insisted on hugging when they greeted you, he’d never understood why some people felt compelled to give you their name when you’d never see them again.
“It’s nice to meet you both. I’m Maddie, and this is Keith.”
“Would you like me to take one of you together?” Barbara asked.
They didn’t have any pictures together, and this was a beautiful spot. “That’d be great,” Keith answered.
Like Maddie had done, the woman took several photos before handing the device back and walking away.
Instead of taking her hand, Keith put his arm around Maddie’s shoulders as they continued their walk toward Perkins Cove.
“I love the water. And if we were in the Caribbean or even Florida, I’d go for a swim. But no way would you get me in it around here today.” Maddie pointed toward the handful of surfers and divers below.
“If I had a wetsuit with me, I’d go in a heartbeat. There’s nothing quite like the ocean. It’s one of my favorite places to be.”
“If you feel that way, why didn’t you join the navy?”
“My great-grandfather enlisted in the army after high school, and my dad joined after college. And my grandfather went to West Point. They would’ve kicked me out of the family if I had joined the navy.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
“You’ve never seen them during the army/navy football game.” Keith had learned many of the more colorful words in his vocabulary while spending time with the three men as they watched the games.
“Sounds like my dad when he’s watching college basketball, especially if Virginia Tech is playing. Tucker is the only person who’ll watch those games with him.”
He’d never understood some people’s obsession with college basketball—or basketball in general, for that matter. Keith enjoyed a pickup game with friends. However, he couldn’t handle sitting in front of the television and watching players run up and down the court. Football, especially at the college level, was another matter. And he occasionally stayed home on a Saturday and watched every game he could tune in to.
“Does he live close to your parents?”
Maddie’s parents lived in the Virginia Beach area, and now Spencer lived close to her. But he didn’t know where her older brother or younger sister called home.
“Tucker and his family live in Cape Charles, so they’re about an hour away from my parents, depending on traffic. But Autumn is only ten or fifteen minutes away from them. I think she spends more time at their house than her apartment.”
Maddie navigated them around a four-or-five-year-old kid having a meltdown because his parents wouldn’t let him climb down the rocks and touch the water. Keith couldn’t blame the kid for wanting to go down there. The water looked inviting.
“I know you’ve never met Autumn, but did you meet Tucker and his wife when they visited in January?”
“Nope. I was escorting Stan Bond’s sorry ass on one of his Venezuelan trips.”
A bigmouth oil guy from Texas, Stan frequently hired Elite Force to keep him safe when he traveled outside the country. The guy had made eight trips to Venezuela in the past ten months. Unfortunately, Keith had accompanied him four times, and he knew the man wasn’t traveling there for business, which explained why his wife had never traveled with him.
“Please don’t remind me of him. The seaweed in the ocean here has more class than him.” Maddie had landed the undesirable assignment in April.
To hell with the seaweed. The rocks on the shore had more class than Bond. Mega wealthy client or not, Keith hoped the guy took his business elsewhere the next time he traveled south of the border.
“Anyway, Tucker invited us over for Thanksgiving. It’s his and Brittany’s turn to host. My parents and my grandparents will be there too. Brittany’s parents always go to her brother’s house, so you don’t have to worry about them.” A hint of uncertainty lurked in her voice. “I told him I needed to check with you.”
Mom wanted him home for the holiday. However, after Keith told her he planned to spend Thanksgiving with Maddie and her family, she wouldn’t complain. She’d been dropping subtle hints since his niece was born about him getting into a serious relationship.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Honestly, he’d hoped to spend Thanksgiving with his family this year. Thanks to work, he hadn’t been able to make it last November. But he wanted to spend the holiday with Maddie more, even if it meant going to her brother’s house.
“I’m good with whatever you want to do.”