She might have reached out if she’d been in a better place the year after they broke up. Instead, she had labeled him the villain. All over five bad minutes. Thinking of it now embarrassed her, but none of it convinced her to apologize. After all, she had been the one trying to help him after he’d resuscitated Max Perry. She might have gone about it in a misguided way, but Miles had ended things.
It had required so much willpower to keep her feelings hidden fromeveryone, which hadn’t stopped the hurt. But maybe Avery needed to free herself from this limbo between anger and love. Once the resort was up and running smoothly, she’d sit down with him and let it all out.
The inside of the Boathouse grew dimmer by the second. The dark cloud must be closing in. She crossed to the closet and arranged the bathrobes, lost in the memory of sliding her arms into the sleeves of Miles’s warm jacket the night Casper had run away. The scent of a forest after an August rain had escaped in a cloud of hot air as he wrapped it around her.
The rattling of the Boathouse doorknob startled her. Miles stood in the doorway with windswept hair, a tan face, and a navy Henley. Working on the lakefront gave him a glow-up no studio could. A heat rose in her neck and cheeks.
“Nate asked me to bring these down for the influencer, who’s a charcuterie expert,” he said, maneuvering a large cutting board and two brown bags inside. “There’s a storm coming. What are you doing here?”
He handed Avery the cutting board, shaped like the state of Maine and perfect for social media content. Miles opened the fridge and loaded the shelves with cheese and cured meats.
“Same thing as you,” she said. “Getting the room ready for Maine’s biggest social media star. Are charcuteries still a thing?”
“They were all over New York couple years back, but everything takes its time reaching Maine.” He laughed and closed the refrigerator.
Thunder clapped above, and a gust of wind sucked the door shut with a loudbang. Her thoughts went straight to the broken doorknob.
“Oh no! Are we locked in?” She walked to the door.
Miles strode to the door in what seemed like three steps and rattled the knob.
“Yep,” he said, picking up his phone and typing.He better be texting for help.
She rattled the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.
“I’m afraid we’ve been set up. Maine’s biggest influencer”—Miles let out a laugh and held out his phone—“is a comedian who posts videos of his dog dressed as a woman. There’s not a charcuterie board in sight on his feed.”
It took Avery a second to piece it all together. Nate had sent her here with Prosecco, and then he’d sent Miles here with…
“Miles.” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Nate Parent-Trapped us!”
“He meant well, Pepper.” Miles swept a hair off her face and let out a laugh. “I think he and Lily really want us together.”
She gulped. No one would return to Montressa until well past midnight. And this room had only one perfectly made bed.
“We can climb out a window.” Miles took his phone and placed it on the desk next to hers. “But as I see it, there’s no one on property for a few hours, a storm’s coming, and we need to talk.”
A chain reaction of nerves tensed up her spine. The Boathouse was the last place she wanted to have this conversation with him. In theory, she could say what she needed to say. In reality, she wasn’t so sure.
She leaned back against the locked door as Miles stepped forward, the aroma of summer rain and pine trees floating ahead of him. He placed a hand flat on the door, beside her head. Without him so much as touching her, she felt him everywhere. His heavenly scent, coupled with his unrelenting stare sent the familiar thrum of arousal pulsing through her. Avery froze.
“Here’s the thing, Avery Astor Easton.”
The tiny hairs at the back of her neck prickled at the sound of her middle name rolling off his lips.
He shook his head and locked his gaze with hers. “You’re a fool if you think I’m going to let us go after that kiss.”
Amber flecks twinkled in his chestnut eyes. She remembered Paulson comparing Miles to maple syrup, pure and good, and Avery nearly melted.
Miles closed in, his breath brushing her neck, his voice low and gravely. “I tried to walk away and forget you once. It didn’t work. And I’m done dancing around this fire with you.”
Avery licked her lips. This time, she wouldn’t stop his kiss.
Miles cocked the slightest smile and whispered, “I can’t forget you, Pepper. There’s a case of your lip balm at the CVS checkout. I shop there because reminders of you? They’re a welcome, daily occurrence.”
Miles moved a fraction closer, the dimple in his chin shadowed like a crater in the dim light.
“There’s a better ending to what we had,” he said. “We both know that.”
