None Like Ours | Red View Romance #3

📑 Three

"I don't know." Adam shrugged. "Coulda been. But she's not planning to stay here long. A year, tops. Plus..."

Jack arched a dark eyebrow at the sentence as it hung unfinished in the space between them. "Plus...?"

Adam raised his shoulders again, letting them fall with a heavy sigh. "Nothing. Nothing worth talking about. All the same reasons things never work out." His green eyes stared down into his coffee. "I'm beginning to think the one isn't coming."

"God knows you've tried well enough to meet her."

Adam finally smiled a little. "Ha-ha."

"You need a hobby."

"I need a hobby?" Adam repeated in disbelief. "This coming from the man who hasn't taken a day off in the past five years?"

"So? I still have hobbies. I garden. I've gotten back into horseback riding. I don't spend my life waiting for someone else to come into it. There is more to life, you know."

"Yeah, but all that more is a lot better when you have someone else to share it with."

He guessed he could understand that--gardening wasn't necessarily better when Annie came over to join him, but it was different, and gave him time to hang out with his closest friend while doing something he loved. It was the same with horseback riding. Since he'd started again, the days where his family had come along with him to the livery had ended up being some of his favorite rides.

Still, that was family and friends, and Adam had plenty of both of those.

From the way Adam's lips pursed, Jack could tell he'd touched a nerve. He hadn't meant to--it was just his honest advice. "Look, maybe you don't get it, but I want... I want someone. I want to have a wife, kids, a nice house by the river. This thing that Kenzie and Marsh have? I want that. I've always wanted that. Forgive me for trying to find it."

"I get it." And he hadn't meant to imply it wasn't worth wanting. Just that maybe it shouldn't be the number one thing Adam spent his time trying to cultivate.

"And now it isn't just Kenzie and Marshall, you know? Dawson and Layla, Annie and Cliff... we're surrounded by happy couples, in case you haven't noticed. And the irony is that none of them had to try very hard to find each other, meanwhile I've been on dates with just about every woman who's come through this town."

"And I'm sure the rest of the male population would have so much sympathy for you." Jack couldn't help the sarcasm--it was one of the things he and Dawson still had in common.

Adam laughed, thankfully already over the annoyance. "I'm not saying I'm having a bad time with dating, but..." He shrugged. "I don't want to be one of those guys who's a bachelor for his whole life. Never did. You know, how you can grow up with your parents and not want that kind of life is beyond me."

It was Jack's turn to shrug. "Never said I wouldn't want it. Just don't think it's very realistic. I mean, when you think of the odds--"

"Again," Adam held up a hand to interrupt, "surrounded by happy couples. Don't give me that bull about odds. In a few hours this kitchen will be filled with proof that the odds don't mean shit."

"Well if that's true, you've got nothing to worry about." And Jack didn't have much more extra time on his hands to mull over the non-issue. He stood from the nook, taking his empty plate over to the sink. "Anyway, I've got to get to work. Want to look over all the project details before Mr. Carter gets here. Make sure everything looks good."

"For the zillionth time, I'm sure."

"Zillionth and one, actually." Jack strolled back over to grab his coffee mug, still half full. Just like every morning, he'd finish the rest in his office.