Summer Nights (Fool's Gold #8)

“Me, too,” Shane said in a low voice. “Divorce is hell.”


“Tell me about it. My parents were in love until the day Dad died. All my sisters are happily married. So is Ethan. The only reason Ford doesn’t have the perfect wife is because he’s in the military, traveling all the time. Otherwise, I’m sure he’d be married with a couple of kids. Now Mom has Max. I’m the relationship screw-up.”

Shane wanted to offer comfort, but he was in no position to do so. It wasn’t as if he had figured out his personal life, either.

“You’ve got a kid,” he pointed out instead. “That’s something.”

Kent nodded. “Reese is great. I’m lucky to have him. It’s just…”

He looked around, as if making sure everyone else was busy with their own conversations. “It’s been over a year and I still miss her, you know?”

“Your ex?”

“Yeah. Lorraine was ‘the one’ and now she’s gone. I keep thinking she’ll come back. That she’ll realize she needs us. But I’m kidding myself. She doesn’t need anybody. It’s hard on Reese.”

“Doesn’t he see his mom?”

Kent shook his head. “She walked out on both of us. She’s never around, never calls. He doesn’t say much, but I know he misses her.”

Shane swore under his breath. He couldn’t imagine a woman acting like that when it came to her own child.

“Have you started dating?” he asked.

“No.” Kent shrugged. “My mom’s been on me about it and my sisters mention it now and then. Even Reese says I should move on. But why? So I can date someone I’ll never care about? What’s the point?”

The point was to heal and then have a life. Kent sounded like he was caught up in the past and that was never good.

Sure, Shane had suffered through a tough divorce, too, but he’d managed to move forward. It wasn’t as if his ex still got to him. He didn’t use her to define the other women in his…

He tightened his hold on his beer as the uneasy truth settled on him. He wasn’t as different from Kent as he would like. The truth was that Rachel was the yardstick by which he’d carefully measured Annabelle. All of Annabelle’s actions were judged according to what his ex would have done. The two women had never met, had almost nothing in common, yet in Shane’s mind, they were exactly the same. Hardly fair to any involved party.

“Attention, everyone,” Josh said as he rose.

The group went quiet.

“This is the first time we’ve all been together without the women around,” he said with a grin. “Not that we don’t love our ladies.”

“Charity deserves a whole lot better than you,” Ethan yelled.

Josh laughed. “Yes, she does, but she loves me. Which makes me the luckiest man here.” He held up his plastic cup of beer. “Every man who got some last night, raise your glass.”

Shane and Kent groaned as all the married men, and Rafe, lifted their beers.

“And that, gentlemen,” Josh said to Shane and Kent, “is why it’s good to be married.”

Cups were raised and toasts accepted. Shane patted Cameron on the shoulder. “Beats looking after goats or giving cats vaccinations, doesn’t it?”

Cameron grinned. “It’s nice to get away, but by the time the game is over, I’ll be happy to get back to my girls.”

“How old is your daughter?”

“Almost nine.”

“So you’re a long way from worrying about her dating.”

Cameron winced. “I hope so. I was dreading that. Most teenage girls don’t want their dads tagging along on the date and that’s pretty much the only way I was going to let her go out. Now Rina can help keep me calm.”

“Fool’s Gold is a great place to raise kids. I grew up here,” Shane said.

“Rina and I are looking forward to having children together and Kaitlyn is very excited about being a big sister.” Cameron drew in a breath. “When my wife left, Kaitlyn was a newborn. I was terrified. What did I know about taking care of a baby? But I got through it and Kaitlyn and I became a family. Then Rina came along and she made everything complete. Life is funny that way. Little miracles show up when we least expect them.”

The players moved to the baselines and the announcer asked everyone to stand for the national anthem. Shane rose, along with his friends. They sang together.

When the last notes died, everyone cheered. The players took their positions and the game began.