Deep down, I know it too.
“What’s the point? She’s probably going to fuck off again in a month. It was just a shock.”
“She’s here for more than a month, Hen. Her contract runs to the end of the school year.”
My eyes widen to the point they sting. I shouldn’t be surprised he knows this because Miles can usually get whatever information he’s after. But I’m surprised he hasn’t already told me, because the guy cannot keep a secret.
“How do you know?”
“There’s a girl I’ve slept with in the admin office. She told me.” He shrugs. “And that takes us up to July. You can’t avoid Story for six months.”
“Wanna bet?” I grumble even though I know I can’t. Not in Valentine Nook, where everyone’s in everyone else’s business.
Not to mention, as the village vet, I spend my time treating animals, including the cows on Story’s dad’s farm. Everyone knows Story, and everyone knows how close we were as children, then as teenagers. I’m amazed no one spotted me at the Christmas tree stand. Even more so, no one’s asked how I feel about her returning.
They probably would if I hadn’t been avoiding the village.
I’d heard she’d returned and barely lasted a week before I stormed over there. I shouldn’t have done it, but I had to see her.
I wanted to know if the girl who’d left me without another word could return just as silently. I didn’t want to believe it, but she’d been there all the same, in the dimming December daylight.
Same but so different.
Her freckles were still there, scattered across the nose she always complained was too big, no matter how many times I assured her it was the perfect size. Her full mouth, even pursed, was exactly as I remembered it—soft, with its thin silvery scar from the time she split her top lip open.
But it was her eyes—that distinctive shade of pale brown—I can’t get out of my mind, as they found mine. Weary, defensive, a little sad. Enough that I had to clench my fists to stop myself from wrapping my arms around her. And her hair . . . it might have been mostly hidden under a beanie, but I could see it was now too short to braid like she used to. Or fasten in a ponytail that swung with each of her strides.
Instead, dark strands curled against her collar, brushing her hardened jaw.
Did it still smell like the shampoo she always used? The one I used to love burying my nose in. Like summer and autumn all at the same time.
I didn’t dare get close enough to find out.
“Hen, we’ll get it over with together.”
My eyes close in defeat, only for the sound of rapid footsteps to stop me from descending into complete panic, because ten seconds later, my son sprints into the kitchen. He’s mostly dressed and whipping his tie in the air like a lasso, followed by Dolly, Hamish, and Maud.
It’s the reality check I need.
“DADDY! DADDY?—”
Dark brown curls bounce on his head with every step, his stocky little legs powering him across the wide Cotswold stone tiles on the kitchen floor. He’s my mini-me in every way, except for his nose. The rounded,button end comes straight from his mother.
And his volume comes more from Miles than me.
Regardless of his energy and noise levels, there’s also an inherent sweetness to him that makes me so proud to be his father. He’s kind to everything and everyone, with an unmatched curiosity that makes me want to learn more just so I have more to teach.
“Daddy, can you tie my tie please?” he asks, chucking it at me. He climbs into my lap before I get a chance to reply and peers over my shoulder. “What’s Uncle Miles doing here?”
Miles raises an eyebrow. “A good question, Maxy. The answer is, I’m taking you to school.”
Max’s eyes slice to mine, constantly inquisitive yet bordering on suspicious. Nothing gets past this child. “Are you not coming to school with me?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I’m always so firm in my convictions until Max looks at me with his Burlington blue eyes and the pout Miles taught him. Rockets have launched slower than the time it took him to learn that particular expression can get him almost anything.
“Of course he is,” Miles answers before I can. “We’re both going.”
