He laughed. “You gotta watch her. She’ll drop one on you before you even know it’s coming. Did you have fun?”
I smiled. “They’re really nice. They seemed pretty happy we were there.”
“They’re just excited I brought a girl home.”
That phrase felt so out of place with what I had always imagined about Miles. While he didn’t seem like a Casanova, per se, he was…to nearly quotePride and Prejudice…one of the most handsome men of my acquaintance. And that wasn’t me having any sort of crush on him. That was me stating pure, platonic fact. He had perfect hair that repeatedly fell into his eyes. The man could wear a five o’clock shadow like a cowboy could wear a tight pair of jeans. And his jeans…well…I won’t go into the way they fit him like a glove. Thank goodness I was so completely disinterested or else I could have been in trouble. Plenty of women in my position would probably fall for a man just like him.
“Huh. That surprises me, actually.”
“Why?” The look he gave me seemed genuinely curious. And now I wondered if I should have kept my mouth shut.
“I just always imagined you bringing home beautiful blonde women who probably eat kale regularly and hike Mount Everest on the weekends.”
His face fell into a wide smile. “I don’t think that’s how Mount Everest works.”
I shrugged, pulling my hand out from my pocket to scratch my cheek.
“So, you’ve been imagining me with other women, huh?” he said. I could feel him smiling, though I kept my eyes averted.
“No.”
“You said it.”
“Why would your parents be surprised that you brought somebody home?”
He gave me a crooked grin. “Until now, I hadn’t found a woman I wanted to bring home.”
I glared at him, hoping my flushed cheeks could be blamed on the wind. “Miles.”
He shrugged. “I haven’t dated much lately.”
The cold breeze picked up, ruffling my hair. “Why?”
There was a long moment before he responded. And it was then that I realized he seemed to know a lot more about me than I did him.
“I was dating a girl a few years back, but…” He trailed off for a bit, the hitch in his voice causing me to look over at him. “It’s just taken me a while to get back on that horse, I guess.” He gave me a boyish grin, trying to play down the emotions he had obviously felt at the start of the sentence, but he didn’t fool me. Before I could ask further, he changed the subject. He settled back into his teasing self, dropping me off at my cabin and making me laugh even as I closed the door in his face.
SEVENTEEN
“Dear old world,’’ she murmured, “You are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”
L.M. Montgomery -Anne of Green Gables
We had crossedplenty of small items off our list yesterday. Miles had a few errands and chores to do for his dad this morning. Suddenly missing Chloe and the girls, I surprised them at their cabin that morning for breakfast. The lodge had complimentary muffins, juice, and fruit every morning, but Chloe had brought her own food for the cabin that she knew her girls would eat. With her morning sickness, she rarely made it out of the cabin before 10 or 11.
The girls were very excited to see me, and I spent the first ten minutes playing with them on the floor, which evolved to me letting them paint my nails a fashionable rainbow of orange, yellow, and brown.
When I got them settled with a few puzzles, I meandered into the kitchen, where Chloe sat at the table, sipping ginger tea. The sink had dishes waiting to go into the dishwasher, and cereal and bowls were scattered around the table as though she had mustered just enough energy to feed her charges with nothing left over for cleanup.
“How are you feeling?”
She smiled wanly. “I’m doing okay. Hopefully, it will just be another week or two of feeling like this.”
“You make pregnancy sound so fun.” I made my way to the sink and began putting the dishes into the dishwasher.
“It can be hard, but it comes with the best payoff. You don’t have to do those. I can get them.”
“So can I,” I said. “Where’s Ben?”