I snort. “No.”
“Second oldest?”
“Maybe.”
She grins wider. “Knew it. You probably have at least two younger siblings, don’t you?Andyou were expected to babysit them?”
“Three actually, but no. I wasn’t expected to babysit. I offered.”
Ana laughs. “Oh, you poor sweet thing.”
“What? I like helping people.”
“No one likes their siblings that much.” She narrows her eyes. “How much were they paying you?”
I crack a smile. “Enough.”
“Ha! See. I knew there was an ulterior motive.” She reaches for another box to add to the cart. “But now I’m curious. How much younger is the youngest sibling?”
“Fourteen years. Why?”
“So you were basically a young dad to her.”
I gasp. “Ana!”
“What? I’m just saying, you have good paternal instincts. You’ll be a good father someday. If you want to, of course.”
“I’d need a partner for that to happen,” I say flatly. “And so far, that’s not in my cards.”
“Oh, it’s coming. I know it is.”
“Sure, sure.”
“You have the purest heart, Miles. I promise you, someday soon, some lucky guy is going to see it.”
I look away. I’d have to get a guy’s attention at all for them to see my ‘pure heart,’ and I’ve basically given up dating with this job.
“Do you have plans tonight?” Ana asks when I return with a large plastic mug full of water for Ruth.
“You mean besides working until midnight?”
She frowns. “Right. I still forget you’re working second shifts here. That sucks.”
“Tell me about it.” Second shift, from noon to midnight, four days a week, makes socializing impossible. “Maybe next weekend?”
Her frown deepens. “I’m taking a shift for David next weekend so he can go to his brother’s wedding.”
“Oh. Well, we’ll figure it out. We have time.”
“Hardly. We’ve already been here two months and we haven’t hung out yet. It’s going by so fast.”
Has it only been two months? It feels so much longer. Probably because Sophie isn’t here with me. But at least Ana is. It’s nice working with her again. It’s been too long. We don’t get stationed together very often.
“Do you know where you’re going after this?” she asks.
“Not yet. You?”
“I’m hoping to go to Washington. My cousin is having a baby in August, so I want to see her.”
