He caught her small smile before she shook her head in disbelief.
“You think we’re still the same,” she said. “We aren’t. You need to let us go.”
“I don’t want to let us go. You’re back in my life and I’m feeling things I haven’t felt in a long time forthisyou.” He stepped across the alley kitchen and leaned close to her again. “Can you honestly tell me you’re not feeling them too?”
“Miles,” she said in a resigned voice. “We’ve lived this story. We know the ending, and it’s too painful. Save us from repeating the same mistake. Let us go.”
The only thing that mattered to him was her heart, and he didn’t want to break it again. No amount of preparation could guarantee their happiness. Maybe her fierce protection of herself doomed her other relationships. As the man who’d done that to her, he was the last person on earth who deserved her. Keeping her heart safe from harm would splinter his into a million tiny fragments.
“Understood.” He sighed.
Avery started for the door.
“I need to get back to the front desk. Thanks for the tour. This house is really, um, lovely.” It all came out in one hasty burst, as if she needed to get it out as quickly as possible. “Come on, Casper.”
Casper rose slowly and side-eyed Miles for ruining his sun nap.
After she shut the door, he watched her through the back window. Everything happened in real time, but he saw it in slow motion. She walked toward her canoe, turned, and took two steps toward the house. Almost instantly, she reversed course and headed back to the boat. She stood there, her gaze alternating between the canoe and his back door. Finally, she pivoted away from the house. Within seconds, she and Casper floated away.
Miles swiped his hand over the counter, bottlecaps skimming in every direction. Some bounced off her Vanderbilt baseball cap, onto thefloor. As he picked up the mess, he wondered if he’d pushed her too far. At least she knew how he felt. His assumption that she had moved on easily without him was wrong. Avery had more to say. And if she needed closure, he wanted her to have it, regardless of its impact on him.
Chapter Fifteen
Avery
June 15 – One Day Until Opening Day
Montressa shone bright, ready for another summer. White linens adorned the dining room tables, lounge chairs sat in a neat row along the beach, and every garden bloomed. The lake showed off with little whitecaps rippling across the cove. Avery had worked late last night, creating fresh flower arrangements for each cabin. This afternoon, she and Nate had delivered the flowers and inspected every cabin except one.
“Can you take the last flower arrangement to the Boathouse?” Nate asked. “It’s already four, and I need to get over to Karaoke Bowl.”
Every year, the night before the resort opened, the Coopers threw a pre-season staff meeting followed by dinner and a fun activity. This year, Nate chose the bowling alley/karaoke bar in a neighboring town. A good plan, since the forecast called for rainstorms.
“Oh, and put this bottle of Prosecco in the fridge while you’rethere.” He placed a chilled bottle in her free hand. “A welcome gift for Maine’s biggest social media star, our first guest in the new Boathouse.”
“Sure.” Avery took the bottle and glanced at the label. The best Prosecco Montressa carried.
“Thank you, Avery. We wouldn’t be ready to open without you,” Nate said. “If you don’t feel like coming tonight, you’ll have this whole place to yourself. Last quiet night until October.”
“I can’t think of any reason I’d miss singing while bowling.” Avery smiled. “Is Lily coming?”
Lily had been busy with end-of-the-year school picnics and award assemblies, and Avery hoped to drag her to a corner of the bowling alley and catch her up on everything, from the kiss to Miles’s kitchen.
“Ayuh.” Nate winked. “She needs a night out.”
Avery headed down the path to the Boathouse, thinking about the pre-season kickoff party ten years earlier, when she and Miles had shared glances across the Maine-themed mini-golf course in another nearby town. There was no bigger thrill than realizing your crush might also have a crush on you.
A day ago, as she contemplated getting back in her canoe outside Miles’s house, she’d come close to running back inside. Her heart wanted him, but her head couldn’t get past their fractured past and a future living apart. For a relationship to work, they needed to be more mature this time. Miles’s self-awareness had grown in the last decade, but dating women only once hardly proved he was ready for commitment.
A gust of wind fractured the gentle breeze, blowing her hair back. Across the water, a swath of heavy rain darkened the horizon. Every so often, a bolt of lightning lit the billowing clouds above the storm. Beautiful from a distance, but that angry sky was headed her way. She shivered. Best to check this last thing off her list and get to the party.
It took two tries to open the Boathouse door. She made a mental note to make sure Wes fixed that doorknob first thing in the morning.As she walked inside, Avery let out a sigh and admired her work. What was dusty and drab was now woodsy and dreamy—a room Maine’s top influencer would immediately post, bringing more attention to Montressa.
Avery placed the Prosecco in the fridge and double-checked the cabin. She pulled the duvet taut on the bed, fluffed the pillows, and opened each dresser drawer to ensure they were clean and empty. She walked to the desk by the door and straightened a lampshade.
Despite the room’s metamorphosis, it still brought back thoughts of Miles. Even though she’d stopped a second kiss from happening in his kitchen twenty-four hours ago, she wanted to feel his firm lips on hers again. Like that summer, his arms wrapped around her transformed her into a spinning top, kept in motion by the delicious thrum of his touch. Hearing Miles admit he felt a spark only made her own feelings burn brighter. But these days they led opposite lives; his exciting and bold, hers boring and uncertain. Miles resumed classes at NYU in the fall. And her MBA started in two months. Both programs were huge time commitments. The distance alone would be challenging.
Avery fluffed a couch pillow and shook it more vigorously than necessary. Never asking about Miles or reacting to news of him had manifested her worst fear. He’d spent the last decade longing for breadcrumbs she never dropped, which had convinced him to stay away. What could have been if she had texted him or casually brought him up to their friends?
