He wasn’t sure their lips were touching until her mouth gave way and her tongue skirted his lower lip. She ran her hand ran up the back of his neck and into his hair, pulling him to her. Her torso pressed into his, her hips writhing against his jeans.
Avery Easton was kissing him. Like she meant it, like she wanted him.
Miles opened his eyes in shock and quickly closed them, hurrying to catch up.
The taste of mint lip balm tempted him with all the things he could do, right here, right now. And good God, he wanted to do them all. He pulled her in, wondering if she felt the rock-solid length of him throughthe layers of fabric between them. He was about to cup the back of her head when Avery pulled away.
His mind filled with questions. It had all happened so fast, and he’d been unprepared. That kiss meantsomething, but what? He stared as Avery rubbed her lips. A pulse jolted through him at the thought of those lips exploring every inch of him. Her kiss had turned him into a lovesick puppy. He’d follow her anywhere and everywhere if she let him.
Avery forced a smile.
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head and fixed his collar. “We are supposed to be friends. I shouldn’t have, um…”
Miles had waited so long for this moment. He froze, knowing whatever he said next could make or break his chances.
“The thing is,” she said with a sigh, “we’ve changed. You have your famous friends, your red-carpet events, and your amazing apartment with the same sofa as Kendall Jenner. It’s beautiful. It also costs a small fortune.”
He reached a new level of regret for that one frivolous purchase.
“Avery,” he started. “It’s not…”
She placed her finger over his lips.
“Let me finish,” she said. “I love that you have a beautiful life. You work hard, give back, and escape here to the best house on the lake. You deserve all of that. Thing is … I’d be expecting the boy I fell in love with ten summers ago. And it’s for the best that he’s gone because him not loving me shattered me. I can’t take that kind of heartbreak again. So thank you for being my friend and making me feel better.”
Her words crashed through him like a freight train filled with cement. He didn’t know where to start. With her perception of his lifestyle, or the couch he hadn’t chosen, or that his goal hadn’t changed in a decade, or thatshekissedhim.
“We need to give our best friends the conflict-free wedding they deserve,” she said. “So they can take a cruise or whatever for their honeymoon, with happy memories.”
Miles had been so quiet, parsing each word and figuring out how to refute every single weak argument when something dawned on him. Something more important than the defeat he felt now.
Take a cruise. Shit. He knew one more place to look for Casper.
“Avery,” he said, pulling her elbow toward the waterfront. “Come on, there’s one more place.”
Miles took off across the lawn to Sam’s private beach. There on the sand was Sam’s dark-green Old Town canoe. The one he paddled around the lake with his best friend in the bow.
Come on, Casper, wanna take a cruise?The thought of Sam saying it made Miles miss Sam.
And there in the canoe lay a ghostly white lump, waiting for his best friend. Casper raised his eyes but not his head when Miles shined the light on him. Avery pulled up a second later.
“Casper, are you okay?” She clamored into the boat.
“I think he misses Sam. They go out on the lake together. Sam calls them cruises. When you said that word, I knew.”
“Poor guy.” She ran her hand over the dog’s head. “I’ll take you out on the lake.”
A few minutes and a hotdog later, Casper followed them up the hill and jumped in the back of the Mail Jeep. When Miles shifted into reverse, he started to loop his hand behind Avery’s headrest to look out the rear window as he backed up. It had taken so long to get her back into his passenger seat. But Casper’s giant head panted between them, dripping drool onto the floorboard. She nuzzled her nose into the dog’s neck.
“Casper, you scared me.” She kissed the top of his head and held his muzzle in her hands. “Don’t you ever leave me again.”
Miles wanted her nuzzlinghisneck, her kissinghisface, her tellinghimnot to leave. So badly his stomach hurt at the realization someone who made you so happy could make you so sad. He’d done that to her once.
Miles let his eyes linger on her profile, all the time wondering at what point a man should give up on his dream. Casper gave her his paw and dropped his eyes as if to say no one had ever loved him. Completely false, but Avery lapped it up.
That dog was a player. Miles admired his skills.
Dammit, Casper, he thought as he backed up. One day he was going to print that on a T-shirt.
