He grinned. “Then I won’t.” He reached into his inner breast pocket of his leather cut and extracted a flask.
“A little early for that, isn’t it?” I asked.
“I haven’t gone to bed yet,” he said. “And it’s not for me. It’s for you.”
“What is it?”
“Bailey’s.”
I handed him my mug, and he poured a hefty shot into it. He gave it back to me. I took a sip and nearly purred in delight.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Just what the doctor ordered.”
“I might not be a doctor anymore,” I said.
“You’ll always be a doctor. You just might not be a surgeon.”
I stared into my coffee. “Ouch. Rip off that Band-Aid, Reap.”
“I’m sorry as fuck it happened to you, Linden. If any of us could undo it, we would.”
I nodded.
“Did Rach ever tell you how we met?”
“No.”
“Her friend dragged her to a party at the clubhouse. Wasn’t really her scene. Her friend ditched her, and she was kinda stranded. She went into a room, hoping to escape the party. Shit was getting rowdy. Real rowdy.” He grinned. “I was sitting in the dark, nursing a bottle of liquor. It was supposed to be a one-night stand.”
“Clearly it wasn’t.”
“Clearly,” he agreed.
“Why are you telling me this, Reap?”
“Because life doesn’t always go according to plan. And sometimes, even the shittiest situations bring something good. I was drinking alone in the dark because it was the anniversary of my first wife’s death.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, Reap.”
“Thanks, but that’s not why I told you.”
“Why did you tell me?”
“To remind you that sometimes life is shit, but shit is just manure, and beautiful things can grow in manure.”
It wasn’t poetry and it wouldn’t heal my wounds, but it was comfort. And I took it.
After the adults were fed and caffeinated, the Blue Angels began loading luggage into the cars of their Old Ladies.
I was going to ride with Joni since I couldn't drive myself. Colt put a sleepy Silas in the passenger seat of Mia’s truck and then had a not-so-private goodbye with his wife.
Rachel flung herself into Reap’s arms, and I could tell by the shaking of her shoulders that emotion was getting the better of her. After Reap had shared the story of how he and Rachel met, watching them saying goodbye made me a bit teary myself.