Sincerely,

  Your friend Elmer

  The Abbotts and Colemans—Five Years Later

  The Abbotts

  * * *

  Hunter and Megan: Carson, Cory and Claire

  Hannah and Nolan: Caleb “Callie” and Colby

  Will and Cameron: Chase, Molly and Murphy

  Ella and Gavin: Sarah, Caleb and Cecilia “Cici”

  Charley and Tyler: Took in his orphaned nieces, Maisy and Kendall, ages 9 and 7, after their parents died in an accident

  Wade and Mia: Carlee and Corbin

  Colton and Lucy: Christian and twins, Camden and Cooper

  Lucas and Dani: Savannah “Savvy,” Sawyer and Sienna

  Landon and Amanda: Stella, Sloane, Sarah, Stefan

  Max: Caden

  * * *

  26 grandchildren for Linc and Molly

  The Colemans

  Grayson and Emma: Simone, Hannah, Finley and Rowan

  Noah and Brianna: Elliott, Ethan and Elias

  Izzy and Cabot: Mia, Miles and Madelyn

  Vanessa and Troy: Declan, Bennett and Alice

  Alison: Single mom to Kingston and Axel

  Jackson: Engaged to marry Autumn

  Henry: Engaged to marry Emerson

  Sarah: Dating Nathaniel, expecting engagement any time

  * * *

  15 grandchildren for Hannah + Lucy’s 3 for Ray = 18

  Elmer Stillman: 41 great-grandchildren

  Chapter One

  “Whereof what’s past is prologue; what to come,

  in yours and my discharge.” —Shakespeare

  “What’s the point of a high school reunion when I see most of my classmates on Facebook or Instagram just about every day?” Max asked as he glanced at the invitation that had come to the barn earlier in the week.

  “The point,” Molly said, “is to see each other in person. Remember what that’s like?”

  “Eh.” Max tossed the invite in the trash. “I see who I want to see.”

  “What’s a reunion?” Caden asked as he stuffed ice cream into his face while seated at the table with Grandpa Linc.

  “It’s a stupid thing that people do to see people they don’t really want to see while spending a ridiculous amount of money for something they don’t care about,” Max told his son.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw Linc load another scoop into Caden’s bowl. His son lit up with delight, as he usually did when Grandpa Linc spoiled him, which was all the time. Max didn’t mind because Caden was a polite, well-behaved child who was the absolute light of Max’s life, and if his father wanted to give his son an extra scoop of ice cream, who was Max to stand in the way of that kind of bonding?

  “Sounds dumb,” Caden said.

  “See? Even Caden thinks it’s dumb.”

  “I think you should go,” Molly said as she finished loading the dishwasher. “You never know who you might run into.”

  “Why are you acting all mysterious? What do you know?”

  “Nothing,” Molly said, laughing. “I just have a feeling that you should go. Besides, when was the last time you had a night out with friends? It’s been ages.”

  “I have a night in with my best friend every night.”

  “Max, that’s lovely,” his mother said, “and you know we think you’re a wonderful father, but you need to take some time for yourself, too.”

  “I like things just the way they are. My buddy and I have everything we need, don’t we, Cade?”

  “Yep. We got stuff to make pizza tomorrow night, and that’s my favorite.”

  “I can’t imagine anything better on a Friday night than making pizza with my best pal,” Max said.

  “Your mother is right,” Linc said, “and you know how it pains me to admit that.”

  Molly snorted with laughter. “That’s because I’m right all the time.”

  “Yes, dear.” Linc gave his wife an indulgent smile. “About the reunion, though, I think you ought to go. Your mother pushed me to go to my fiftieth reunion, and we had the best time. Remember?”

  “I do remember,” Max said.

  “I reconnected with so many old friends, people I used to enjoy who I hadn’t seen in fifty years. To be honest, I’d forgotten about most of them until they were standing right in front of me, reminding me of the good fun we used to have. It was a great night, and I think you’d enjoy yours more than you think.”

  “It’s one night,” Elmer said as he joined them, “and right here in town. If it’s lame, you can leave.”

  Max was smart enough by now to understand when he was outmatched and outnumbered. “Fine, if you guys want me to go so badly, I’ll do it, but I bet I’m home and in bed by nine.”

  “Care to make it interesting?” Molly asked as she began preparing for their annual Thanksgiving pie-making marathon.

  “How so?”

  “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars you’re still out at midnight.” She extended her hand. “What do you say?”

  Max shook her hand. “Be prepared to pay up.”

  “You’re going to be paying me.”

  “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”

  * * *

  How in the hell had he let his parents and grandfather talk him into attending a reunion he didn’t give two shits about? The last thing he felt like doing the day after Thanksgiving and following a ten-hour workday was attend a high school reunion.

  Ten years.

  Max had to admit he found that hard to believe. How in the hell had he been out of high school for ten years? He’d done a lot of living in that decade, completing college at UVM in Burlington, becoming a father at twenty-two and then transitioning to single fatherhood when Chloe, Caden’s mother, bailed out shortly after his birth. Max’s entire life was set up to accommodate his son, and he liked it that way.

  Caden was amazing—a happy, sunny, funny, sweet miracle. Every day, he did or said something new, something that made Max cry laughing or want to weep from the sheer joy he brought to every minute.

  He would so much rather be making pizza with him than trying to figure out what to wear to a reunion he didn’t care about. And it had cost a hundred bucks. For a crappy buffet at the Grange. Ridiculous. He and Caden could do a lot of skiing on Butler Mountain for a hundred bucks.

  In his current mood, Max would probably be better off staying home than inflicting himself on his former classmates, but there was that wager he’d made with his mom. He didn’t need to be out another hundred bucks over this stupid event, so he put on jeans and a sweater and got into the dark green F-150 he’d bought new three years ago to head into town.

  Caden was spending the night at the barn with three grandparents who’d spoil him rotten. Knowing his son was safe and happy, Max decided to at least try to enjoy having a night to himself. That didn’t happen very often, which was fine with him. Was there something wrong with preferring the company of his son over just about anyone else?

  He had to admit his mother might have a point about how one-track Max’s life had become since Caden was born. His days revolved around work at the sugaring facility and Christmas Tree Farm and whatever his son wanted or needed. That was about the extent of it. Having their huge family around kept things interesting. There was always a get-together or a birthday party or something going on in the family between their Sunday dinners that had gotten so big, his parents had added on to their already enormous house to make space for everyone in the dining room.

  Life was good. Did he occasionally experience a pang of jealousy being around so many happily married siblings and cousins? Sure, but it wasn’t like he was lonely or anything. How could anyone be lonely in his family?

  It was only sometimes, after Caden had gone to bed and the rest of the evening stretched before him with nothing much to do, that Max wished for someone to share his life with. Those feelings tended to pass as quickly as they came, however. At some point over the last few years, he’d quit dating or bothering to hook up for the sake of hooking up. He just couldn’t make himself care enough to bother with any of it. Which meant it’d been a long time since he’d gotten laid. So long that he couldn’t remember the last time.

  Caden’s kindergarten teacher had asked him out on the last day of school after a year of subtle flirting. They’d had a nice dinner, great conversation and a few laughs, but at the end of the night, he’d seen her home and declined her offer to spend the night.

  Jessica was a great person, a gorgeous woman who should’ve been everything he wanted in a partner, but again, he just hadn’t felt that special something for her.

  That seemed to be his lot in life, to miss out on the thing that everyone around him had seemed to find so effortlessly. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. It’d taken effort, some starts and stops, some heartbreak here and there, but for the most part, his siblings and cousins had made love look easy compared to what’d transpired—or not transpired—for Max.

  He’d had it once. A very long time ago. So he knew what he was looking for and what it felt like to be truly in love. Thanks to that relationship, he also knew what epic heartbreak felt like, and he wasn’t looking to experience that particular hell again any time soon.

  Max wondered if he’d see her at the reunion. Would she finally show her face in town after going silent on him and everyone else for most of the time they’d been out of school? And after vowing to stay in touch with him—even though they’d decided to see other people in college—that hadn’t happened. When he thought about her, he felt angry and hurt at how she’d checked out of his life and disappeared.

  That was the main reason he hadn’t gone to his fifth reunion and why he’d resisted this one, too. She was the main reason. If she decided to show up, he wasn’t sure what he’d say to her, especially if she came with a husband or boyfriend. He’d be hard-pressed to hide the resentment she’d left him with when she disappeared all those years ago. He didn’t want to see her, but he hadn’t heard any rumblings of her coming to the reunion, and he probably would have if she were planning to be there. News like that traveled fast through a town like Butler.

  In addition to his concern about running into her, he also wondered what he would tell his classmates about his life since they were last together. That he was still working for the family business and still raising the son they all knew about thanks to social media. After that, what would he have left to say to anyone? Did they give out superlatives at the reunions like they did in high school? If so, he would win the award for most boring first decade out of high school.

  He no sooner had that thought than he felt disloyal to Caden. Nothing about being his father was boring or mundane. Fatherhood was the most thrilling experience of Max’s life, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything, even true love. If people thought his life was boring, then it was probably because they didn’t have kids.

  Max had made himself good and angry by the time he pulled into the lot at the Grange, which was already packed with shiny sports cars, fancy SUVs and a couple of pickup trucks like his. After flipping down the visor, he took a quick look at his appearance and decided he looked as good as he ever did—as good as he cared to look.

  “Whatever,” he muttered under his breath before getting out of the truck and heading inside, prepared to cash in on the bet with his mother if it meant he could be home and in bed in two hours.

  * * *

  The buffet wasn’t bad. It even included some of his favorites, including pasta and fried chicken. Maybe he ate like a seven-year-old, but that was easier than making two dinners most nights. He added a salad to feel better about his diet and found a table with an open seat.

  “Max Abbott,” one of the women said. “I heard you weren’t coming!” She was a heavy-set blonde who Max tried desperately to place. She was too far away for him to see her nametag. “It’s me, Mary Jane Connor, or, well, it’s Foster now. I married Gig Foster.”

  “Ah, okay. Nice to see you again.”

  “You look exactly the same,” Mary Jane said. “I’d know you anywhere.”

  “Thanks, you, too.”

  “Now that is just not true.” She cackled with laughter. “Three babies and thirty pounds later, I look nothing like I did in high school.”

  The others at the table joined the discussion about the childbearing and weight gain and how hard it was to lose the pounds with kids underfoot. He heard Mary Jane say she and Gig lived in Concord, New Hampshire, and rarely got back to Butler anymore. That explained why he never saw them around town.

  “You have a son, right, Max?” Mary Jane asked.

  “I do. Caden will be seven this weekend.”

  “You got an early start,” Mary Jane’s husband, Gig, said. He’d lost most of his hair in the last ten years.

  “I did.” Max figured they had the full rundown of how he’d had a son right after he finished college and then had to raise him on his own—with a ton of help from his parents and family— after the baby’s mother decided parenthood wasn’t for her. He wasn’t about to fill in any gaps for them.

  “I’m sure you have pictures,” another woman said.

  Max didn’t recognize her either. If he hadn’t seen a few people he knew at the registration desk, he might’ve worried he was at the wrong event.

  This was every bit as dreadful as he’d expected it to be.

  He glanced at his watch. Seven twenty. No way. He should’ve gone with his initial impulse and skipped this stupid reunion with people he didn’t care about.

  “Max?”

  A jolt of shock zipped down his spine. He’d know that voice anywhere. As he spun around in his seat, he tried to brace himself to see her again. But all the time in the world couldn’t have prepared him for the rush of emotion that overtook him when he took in the sight of his first love.

  Lexi Bradshaw.

  He stood so quickly, he nearly knocked over his chair.

  “Lexi.” God, she looked great. Her light brown hair was curly now, but everything else about her was just as he remembered, from the warm hazel eyes to the stunning smile to the button nose and rosy cheeks.

  “When Dawn said you were here,” she said, “I didn’t believe her since I heard you didn’t come to the last one.”

  “I’m here.”

  She hugged him, and it took his brain five seconds to send the signal to his arms that he should hug her back.

  Lexi.

  “It’s so good to see you,” she said.

  He quickly found that she smelled the same, too, like sweetness and sunshine and everything perfect. “You, too.”

  Max had so many questions, such as where had she been for the last ten years? He’d tried a few times to find her on social media, but she had no presence there or anywhere as far as he could tell. A Google search had come up empty, too. How did a person not exist online in this day and age? According to Max’s mother, her family had moved to Texas and only returned for an occasional visit or ski weekend.

  Just as he was about to ask where she’d been, a woman with a camera came at them. “Our class couple back together again! Smile, you guys!”

  Max leaned into Lexi and smiled for the camera, but he wished everyone else would go away and leave them alone so he could talk to the only person from high school he’d truly missed. And yes, now that she was standing right next to him, he realized just how much he’d missed her, despite the hurt and confusion she’d caused him with her disappearance.

  However, everyone else had missed her, too, so for the next hour, they were surrounded by old friends who’d missed them both.

  He barely remembered some of them and had to laugh at how far removed his life was from who and what he’d been in high school. Becoming a single father at twenty-two had sent him in a whole new direction, and even though he still lived in Butler, he felt like he’d traveled a million miles from the innocence of high school in the last ten years.

  They talked about things he could barely recall—teachers, classes, specific football games, ski outings and the basketball team’s run for the state championship their senior year. As one of the starting forwards on the team, that he remembered. They’d come up one win short, and Max could still taste the bitter regret that had stayed with him and his teammates long after that final loss.

  But that wasn’t something he dwelled on the way it seemed some of his teammates had. He’d had more important things to think about, such as first-grade homework, karate classes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made only on white bread with the crusts removed.

  “You’re quiet,” Lexi said.

  Most of the group moved to the dance floor when the DJ started playing songs from their graduation year.

  “I don’t have much to add,” Max said. “I barely remember what the school looked like, let alone what table we sat at for lunch.”

  She gave him a quizzical look that brought back so many memories of spending every possible minute with her once upon a time. “You really don’t remember what the school looked like?”

  He shook his head. “It’s like a blank spot.”

  “You ought to have that checked.”

  Laughing, he said, “It’s because there’re so many things that’ve happened since then that take up the space in my brain.”

  “Like what?”

  “Did you hear I have a son?”

  Her expression conveyed shock. “What? No! When did that happen?”

  He told her about Chloe getting pregnant their senior year of college. “Caden is the best thing to ever happen to me. He’s… There’s not a word big enough to describe him.”

  “That’s amazing, Max. I’m so happy for you. Let me see some pictures.”

  Did she sound sad after learning he had a son? He pulled out the iPhone that was mostly useless to him in Butler, but it was full of photos of his blond little boy that he shared with Lexi.