“It’s my favorite house on the lake.” She made a private wish for him to brush her with his foot again.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, me too. You should come see it.”
And for the first time, Avery thought visiting his house sounded nice.
“Maybe,” she said.
“Progress.” He smiled and rubbed her again with his foot. Like a compass finding true north, every hair on Avery’s legs vibrated and leaned toward him. That tingle felt so good, she felt the urge to flirt. It could’ve been the wine, but she’d barely had any. She took another sip.
“Imagine how many likes Montressa’s socials could get for a photo of you reading in the wild.” She summoned her best playful smirk.
“Anything for Montressa.” He looked at the sky, clearly embarrassed. “Just let me know you’re taking it. The subway one took me by surprise.”
Avery had wondered about that photo. People saw an undeniably handsome man reading on the subway, but she knew the boy inside, who took a book everywhere as a portable barrier, useful for avoiding interaction. That photo must’ve felt like an intrusion.
She watched as he placed his bookmark, closed his book, and checked the top edge to assess how far he had read. After all this time, his signature move hadn’t changed.
He cleared his throat. “So, how’s it feel to be painting again?”
“Like I never stopped,” she said. “Thank you for suggesting my work for the website.”
“I hope it’s not a burden. I feel bad I gave you more work.”
Miles acknowledging her work and respecting her time made Avery want his perspective on losing her livelihood.
“The Peppered Page’s buyout required me to submit new designs for a year. I sent them my last watercolors in January.” A blackfly landed on her leg, and she whisked it away. “It’s different when you have to giveit over to a company. It stops being yours. I’m glad that year is over.”
“Is that why you’re getting an MBA?” he asked. “Because word of warning, there’s more handing stuff in where you’re headed. It’s school.”
She had never considered that. Going back to school made sense to everyone else but felt murky to her.
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try me.” He set the book aside, keeping his eyes on her. The fading light softened him into an irresistible mess of dark hair and ever-darkening eyes. Dusk suited Miles. And his foot resting against her thigh suited her. To stop the fluttering inside her chest, Avery dipped her brush in the lemon yellow. Soon it would be too dark to paint, but painting was her security blanket for talks on this dock.
“Getting engaged to the wrong person made me doubt myself.” She puffed her cheeks and blew out a long breath as she swirled the yellow with the crimson, creating a vibrant scarlet. “I was never sure if Trent loved me or loved having me. He encouraged me to sell the Peppered Page, so I could stay home and not ask where he had been when he came home late. I let my life become about him, and the dreamer in me faded away. Thankfully, he left before he could claim half my company as his.”
“I thought you left him.” Miles’s eyes darkened with concern.
She expected the words to sting or to draw up old hurts, especially coming from Miles.
“People say that to make me sound strong, but I wasn’t. I woke up one morning to a friend’s texts and photos of him with another woman. He admitted there’d been others but left me to do the breaking up. One day, everything aligned perfectly. The next, everything was uncertain. After Mimi’s funeral, I moved into her house in Charlottesville, stuck and afraid to be myself again. I like that an MBA will make me hirable and keep me safe.”
Miles brow furrowed, his eyes still focused on her. Having someone listen and not tell her what to do helped.
“Leaving your fiancée takes courage,” he said with a small nod. “Lots of it.”
He leaned forward and laid a hand on her knee. She’d admitted things she had never said aloud, and her revelations and the excitement of his comforting touch swirled together on her internal palette. She had unexpectedly blended a deep shade of vulnerability and entrusted it to him.
“I have great news.” He winked. “I saw the dreamer yesterday. She redecorated a cabin in her head and talked a man into crafting some kind of bizarre tree bed.”
Avery shook her head and smiled. That had been instinct, same as when she’d picked his counters. It had been fun. She set aside her painting and stared out at the darkening lake. There was more to the puzzle, and maybe he needed to hear it all.
“I think I picked the MBA because a top tier program admitted me despite the zero on my transcript,” she said. “I failed my first semester of sophomore year.”
That was the semester after they had broken up. She felt like she should say something else, but it shouldn’t be up to her to make the wrong feel right. She watched her words sink in. Her pain began the day he left. She’d waited two days for him to come around and when he didn’t, she knew he’d abandoned her emotionally. There’d been no choice but to distance herself physically. She’d cried the whole way back to Vanderbilt.
He scrubbed a hand down his face, releasing a sigh that sounded like defeat, or maybe regret.
