At that, she danced in place.
“Excellent. The red ones can form a star pattern over the stove to pull out the red in your cabinets. Damn, Miles, your kitchen will be amazing.”
If he had hired Avery to decorate his penthouse, he wouldn’t have bought that ridiculous sofa, and he would have had more fun.
“Perfection!” Avery snapped him back to the present. “Remember, you gave me right of first refusal when you sell.”
“Well, I haven’t said yes to this zany bottle-cap backsplash idea.” He winked.
“But you will.” She put a hand on her hip. “Right?”
He smiled at her and said nothing. She held on to both his wrists and shook them. He resisted for the fun of the flirt.
“Okay, okay. I will.” He watched her face bloom with excitement. “And I think you learned how to play Chopin on the piano today. Mimi would be so proud.”
The next thing he knew, she was in his arms, his hands resting at the small of her back. He wanted to kiss her again, confess he bought this house because that summer, her dream became his. The two of them in this kitchen, flirting and laughing, was the future he envisioned.Letting her pick whatever she wanted, because his favorite thing was making her happy.
He licked his lips. She moved closer. His arm tightened around her, their shared heat at odds with the need to honor her cautiousness.
“Miles,” she breathed.
“Avery.” He didn’t let go. He kept his gaze steady. “The other night… You took me by surprise, and I think I gave you reason to doubt my interest. I want to kiss you again. This time, I’ll get it right.”
Her lips quivered, signaling she wanted it too. Miles held his breath, waiting for her consent. Just as it seemed she was about to say yes, Avery lurched in his arms and studied his face. Her mouth pressed into a tight line.
“It’s a bad idea.”
“Sometimes our worst ideas are our best.” He said it firmly, so she knew he meant it. “Like me quitting my job to develop an app that helped people get out of debt. Or you opening a stationery company in a world reliant on email. We’re learning to play piano, and we need another chance to get it right. Every time we touch, I feel … I don’t know. Something. Something so wonderful I want to keep feeling it.”
“Something? Miles, be practical. Opening day is this weekend and before we know it, we’ll be in different cities. You have your camp and an incredible life. But that’s not our biggest hurdle.”
That hint of her southern accent coupled with the trill in her voice told him Avery was on the verge of saying something hard to verbalize. He loosened his arms around her to give her space. She took a step back.
“Miles, all that time.” Her voice cracked with the hint of a tear. “Why didn’t you call me? I hurt for so long.”
Out the window, a breeze had picked up. Whitecaps rippled across the lake. They had to get past this, which called for honesty on both their parts.
“You know, I suffered a trauma that day. Only a year after witnessingmy mother lose her life, I saw a child almost lose his. And afterward, I treated you terribly. No argument there. But no matter how I behaved, I assumed deep down, you knew I never meant to hurt you, and you’d check on me. Instead, you left all my clothes in a bag in my car while I was at work. By the time I found it, you’d left Maine. A day early.” His mouth went dry. “That seemed pretty final.”
Shock filled her eyes. He didn’t want to upset her, but to move past that bad day, they needed to own their regrets and their pain.
“That’s unfair.” She dropped her head and picked at a cuticle. “The burden shouldn’t have been on me. I cried the whole way home and for months after.”
“I know. But you know what else isn’t fair? You spent a whole magical summer with me and decided after a few terrible minutes that I’m a demon you can’t trust. You defined me by my worst moment and didn’t give me the chance to apologize or defend myself.”
She sighed, took another step back, and leaned against the opposite counter.
“And in those ten years, I wanted so badly to call you, Avery.” He heard the desperation in his own voice. “But you’d cut me off too. I waited for a sign you wanted me to reach out. I asked Nate and Lily if you ever mentioned me. They said you never did. Not once. Nate said you barely reacted when they brought me up. It was like you didn’t know me. Like you never had.”
Sadness, or maybe regret, filled her eyes. “So all that time, you missed me?”
“Of course I missed you. Why do you think I never date someone more than once?”
“Come on, Miles.” She rolled her eyes. “You expect me to believe I ruined commitment for you?”
Miles flexed his fist at his side and let it go.
“No, I expect you to believe there isn’t anotheryouforme.”
