“Then what is it?”
“Thea.”
One word, and his entire body tenses. I wish I could see his face. Maybe my idea is all wrong. It was the first thing that popped into my head as a solution.
“What about Thea?”
“Would she be interested in buying out your half of the company? Every time I talk to her, she goes on and on about what’s happening there and the projects she’s working on. She really seems to like it.”
Miles shifts onto his side and props an arm up to lean his head on. “You’re a genius. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because not everyone can be as smart as me,” I reply.
Miles flops back, jarring the air mattress as his head hits the pillow. “Good thing I locked you in while I could.”
I snuggle back under the sleeping bag. “You’re a good man, Miles. Thanks for sharing your secret.”
It’s all quiet except for our breathing. Miles’s breaths are longer and deeper than mine.
“Tell me a secret.” His voice cuts through the silence.
I suck in a quick breath as I think.
He just told me something he hasn’t told anyone else. So, I return the favor. “The student loan that I’m paying back? It’s Willa’s, not mine.”
“What?” His voice is a little sharp.
“When I went to college, I had gotten a full-ride scholarship. When it was time for Willa to go…she didn’t have that. And my parents were nowhere around, so she decided she would just not go because she didn’t know how she could pay for it. So, I lied. I told her she’d been randomly selected for a full-ride scholarship because of her community service hours at the high school.”
“She never looked into it?” he asks.
“I sent her some emails from a fake account. I just copied a lot of the scholarship letters I had received.” It’s the sneakiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I justified it by telling myself it was to help Willa.
“And you took on a student loan for her?” Miles sounds incredulous.
“Turns out, when you know someone’s Social Security number and birth date, you can sign up for all sorts of things.”
“Why would you do that for her?” he asks softly.
“She was young and scared. She’d known since she was fifteen that she wanted to go to business school. I wasn’t going to let my parents ruin that for her.”
Miles rolls to his side and reaches an arm over my middle, tugging me toward him in a hug. “You’re amazing, Lucy. I don’t know anyone else who is as kind and strong as you are.”
“I don’t feel very strong sometimes,” I whisper back.
“That’s okay. I’ve got you.”
And my last thought before I fall asleep in Miles’s arms is that I wish this marriage were real.
THIRTY-FOUR
Lucy
Breakfast is a quieter event than dinner, and turns out, it’s actually fun to cook outside. The smell of bacon and eggs is almost a stronger hit than the coffee.
Luckily, Andrew is a coffee fiend. He hands me a cup the second I walk over to the picnic tables, and then he sits quietly next to us while Miles and I cook breakfast.
Ben and Kelly emerge from the tent. Kelly’s carrying the baby, who looks wide awake, as though she’s been that way for hours.
