“Avery, I, um.” He swallowed and closed his eyes.
Avery didn’t want remorse; she needed him to understand she had struggled. Her transcript proved there was no forgetting what happened. So did the firefly tattoo on his hip.
“I worked my way out of the hole,” she said before he could respond. “Dartmouth has a prestigious program. Someone there thinks I have potential, and it seems foolish to waste that.”
Truth was, a business degree had never been one of her goals. She’d always envisioned herself in the arts. She might not trust Miles with everything, but he was listening, and he might share how he had navigated life after selling CashCache.
“This feels good.” She held up her brush. “But I don’t know if lightning can strike twice. An MBA could mean never designing something again. And designing things is my thing.”
Her voice cracked at the realization getting an MBA was playing it safe. Pursuing another artistic endeavor risked defeat. The little voice in her head telling her she’d crash and burn was so much louder than the one telling her she’d succeed. This was a lot to admit to a man whose ideas never failed.
Miles’s stare intensified into something which could easily have been mistaken for seduction in another context. He gave her ankle a gentle squeeze. A long, lonely cry echoed through the quiet. Over his shoulder, two small black shadows glided out from the cove between Montressa and the Red House.
The loons were back.
Miles nudged her leg and lifted a finger to his lips. She widened her eyes in excitement. His foot stayed touching her thigh. They waited quietly as the black and white birds swam closer and glided by.
Loons were dramatic, with their black-and-white striped collars, spotted backs and lingering, eerie calls. She loved how the babies rode on the mother loon’s back and hoped to see that again this summer.
After the loons left, Miles let out a deep sigh.
Avery studied him. He shouldn’t look this enticing. It could’ve been the light or the way he encouraged her to find her own way.
“Hey,” he whispered, lightly kicking his foot against her thigh, his gaze seeping into her like a solemn promise. “The only opportunitythat’s foolish to waste is the one you want. You don’t need someone else to validate your potential. Your success speaks for itself. The trick is to believe in yourself. I’m guessing you have two lists. You show everyone the first one. It has the MBA on it. The other, you keep hidden because you’re afraid if you write it down, it won’t come true. That’s the one that matters. You know you’re amazing, right?”
His words echoed through her, and for the first time in a long time, Avery felt understood. He still knew her better than she knew herself. With his warm thigh resting against her foot and his smile lit by the pink haze, it became easy to forget how long it had taken to heal after Miles broke her heart.
He fixed his hair and picked up his book, fanning the pages.
A rogue paintbrush rhythmically rolling down the plank beside her broke the silence. Miles reached across her and picked it up before it fell into the gap between the planks. His hand whisked over her jeans, sending a gush through her middle.
“You’ve got a runaway,” he said, handing her the brush.
“Don’t want that,” she said, reaching out. Her fingers landed on his and stayed there. Touching Miles’s warm hand after he’d called her amazing lit up all the right places. That overwhelming urge to place her thumb in the dent in his chin bubbled to the surface.
Avery glanced away, thinking about how much she’d revealed. At how close they were tosomething. It felt nice to lean into Miles, but she knew better. This was nostalgia, not reality. It made no sense to cross a line she couldn’t come back from. If her career confusion proved anything, she needed his friendship.
She felt the urge to process this somewhere else, by herself. She stood, stretched, slipped on her shoes, and tried to sound casual.
“I should go. The blackflies are out, and I don’t want to get eaten. Plus, I need to let Casper out.” She collected her things and headed up the dock. “Thanks for the dinner.”
“You’re welcome, and thank you for letting me join you,” he called after her.
Avery didn’t exhale until she unlocked the door to the loft. She shook her head, attempting to clear her confusion. Miles had cooked her dinner. There had been touching, understanding, listening. She’d revealed so much, ignoring the truth she’d learned the hard way ten years ago. Basking in Miles’s warmth led to shivering in his shade.
Chapter Ten
Miles
Monday, June 5
It was a good thing Avery had a list going because Miles would never remember all of her changes for the website he’d constructed in the evenings while visiting the bereavement camp in Georgia the previous week. She’d spent the week helping Nate train the summer staff, and Nate said this was the first summer he could remember everyone completing their paperwork before opening day, much less with ten days to spare.
This evening’s weekly staff bonding activity was a showing ofWet Hot American Summerat the drive-in theater in the next town. With the whole staff gone for a couple hours, Miles suggested they discuss the website before things got busy preparing for Montressa’s opening weekend.
Avery bubbled with ideas for the website’s fonts, text layouts, menus, headers, widgets, and sidebars. Because dealing with money called forclarity, Miles had designed CashCache’s site to be simple and easy to navigate. Vacations were different. People needed to imagine themselves at Montressa, so visuals mattered. He listened because Avery had studied a lot of resort websites in the last week.
He’d have to start over in some areas, but Montressa’s would be the most beautiful website he had ever designed, thanks to her visual acuity. He’d never enjoyed a project more. Whenever she leaned closer to the screen for a better look, his head filled with her floral scent and his heart filled with hope.
