Paige perked up immediately. “I think I found one! It’s a little further out of town than I wanted, so I’ll have to drive to work, but it has a big barn and some land and a room that will make a great home office.”
“She showed me pictures of the master bathroom, too,” Mitch said. “Huge shower.”
When Paige blushed to the roots of her hair, Ryan decided not to ask why the shower size ranked so high on Mitch’s list of important details.
“Why not just move in here?” It seemed like a good compromise. There was plenty of room, Paige wouldn’t be alone while Mitch traveled, and it would take some of the burden off Josh’s shoulders.
There were a few seconds of awkward silence, which made Ryan wonder if it was something they’d already talked about.
“We both own businesses,” Mitch finally said. “We can help with the lodge, but it can’t be a full-time thing. And it’s important to Paige—to us—that we have a home that’s ours to raise our kids in.”
“Kids?” Rosie asked.
Paige laughed. “Not yet.”
“But soon.”
Ryan concentrated on his mashed potatoes while Rosie tried to pin Paige down on how long they were going to wait before starting a family. The woman was desperate for a grandchild. The Kowalskis might not be her kids by birth, as Katie was, but they were close enough for her to claim their grandbabies as hers should they ever get around to giving her any.
“I talked to Aunt Mary,” Mitch said, probably to change the subject before Paige got so desperate to avoid interrogation that she dragged him off to make a baby for Rose right that very second. “They can all come Columbus Day weekend.”
“The whole weekend?” Rosie asked.
“They’re going to come Friday and stay until Monday. They were going to leave Sunday afternoon so the kids would have all of Monday to settle in and get ready to go back to school, but the Patriots are playing the four o’clock game Sunday and they don’t want to miss it. So they’ll leave early Monday morning.”
“So you’ll get married Saturday afternoon, then?”
“Yes,” Paige said. “I don’t want half the family sneaking off to get a score check during the ceremony.”
Ryan laughed. “You haven’t even met them yet and you’ve got their number.”
“Speaking of which,” Mitch said to Paige, “I have a quick trip to make this week, but next weekend, if you can get your shifts at the diner covered, I’d like to take a trip over to New Hampshire so you can meet everybody. Aunt Mary said it wouldn’t be right to see you for the first time when you’re walking up the aisle.”
“Will they all be there?”
“She didn’t say, but you can almost guarantee it.”
“It’s like jumping into the deep end of the pool,” Josh said. “There’s no dipping your toe in. You’ve gotta cannonball.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Paige said.
Ryan shoved his empty plate away and leaned back in his seat. “You can either make the drive over with Mitch or, at some point in the next two weeks, the entire family will show up at the diner. Trust me, you don’t want that.”
“He’s right,” Mitch agreed.
Paige threw up her hands in surrender. “Fine, I’ll make sure I can go.”
Ryan sat back and half-listened to the idle banter between the others, sneaking peaks at his phone under the table. An electrical inspection on a key project was supposed to have happened yesterday afternoon and he still hadn’t received a status update on it. He keyed in a second text to the foreman on the job and hit Send. He’d give the guy a couple of hours and then he’d call. After all, he’d been away for only five business days, so if things were falling apart down there, he’d be pissed. They should be able to do their jobs without him looking over their shoulders.
“Ryan, are you playing with your phone at the dinner table?” Rosie was giving him the look when he glanced up.
“Nope.” He set it on the table, since he was already busted. “I’m working with my phone at the dinner table.”
“It can wait until everybody’s done eating.”
He figured she should cut him a little slack since he was doing them a favor, but it wasn’t worth arguing with her. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I think we’re done anyway.” Mitch pushed back from the table and piled his silverware and napkin on his plate to carry it into the kitchen. “I have the preliminary workups for the new website and Facebook page for the lodge, so I thought we could all take a look at those and see what we think. We need to get them up ASAP, because people will be starting to think about reservations soon. It’s getting colder and guys’ll be pulling the sleds out of storage and tuning them up soon.”