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And more than relieved he wasn’t giving me pitying looks and using that soft tone so many people spoke to me in the days and weeks following the breakup.
He finally completed his tour and took a seat in the big squishy armchair—my favorite place to park myself at the end of the day. “Tell me everyone I’m about to meet, then put me to work.”
“Work?”
“Aren’t I your assistant?”
“You’re more of an observer.”
“Daisy…” He shook his head as if he were ashamed of me. “Never turn down free labor. If that’s not rule number one, it should be.”
I perched on the arm of the couch. “Even if that free labor will just get in the way?”
“I’m a quick learner. If I get in your way, you can kick my ass. By the way, grazing-by-Daisy-dot-com is available. You should jump on that if you’re sure about that name.”
I blinked hard at him. “You checked if the domain was available?”
“Of course. I told you I’d be all in with you, Daisy. Are you still all in?”
I was all in a tizzy, flustered beyond words. “I—I’m all in, I just didn’t know we were already starting.”
“What do you think I’m doing here? Hanging out with you for fun?” He scratched his chin. “To be fair, I would have come to your sister’s party for the hell of it, but I don’t think you would have invited me.”
“Considering you don’t even know my sister’s name, no, I wouldn’t have.”
He chuckled. “I should have asked. That made writing her card difficult, but I pulled through in the end.”
“You got her a card?”
“Of course I did. I’m not going to show up empty-handed.”
A breath whooshed out of my lungs. I was beginning to think I had no idea what kind of man Miles was. Everything I came to know about him contradicted my previous knowledge. I was always on my back foot, trying to catch up.
“Her name is Landry, and she’s turning thirty. She’s married to Tom. They have two kids named Edie and Hazel. I have an older brother, Beau, but he’s in Laramie and couldn’t break away from work to be here. We’ll probably FaceTime him at some point. My mom’s name is Whitney Mae, my dad is Seth. My youngest brother is Reed. He probably won’t talk to you because he’s fourteen and pretty much hates the world—us included. It bums me out, but I don’t blame him. Being a teenager is the pits.”
Miles had a line between his eyebrows by the time I finished listing everyone. I hadn’t expected him to remember anyone beyond Landry but had wanted to give him the rundown anyway.
He tapped his temple. “All right, we’ve got Landry, Tom, kids Edie and Hazel, Beau in Laramie, Whitney and Seth are Mom and Dad, and emo teen Reed. Did I get it right?”
“Uh, yeah. You’re good at that.”
“Thank you. It’s a skill I picked up from years of meeting my parents’ friends and business associates. Paying attention to those kinds of details was drilled into me.”
“Smart.” I sucked in a breath, trying to cover how deep and husky my voice had sounded. “Now that we have that covered, let’s put those big arms to use.”
Miles carried almost all my ingredients and supplies next door. My parents were still working, and Landry’s family hadn’t arrived yet, so we had my family’s home to ourselves for the time being. I directed him into the kitchen to set everything down, and he took instruction well. I hoped that continued if he insisted on helping me set up.
“This is nice,” he remarked on my parents’ recently remodeled kitchen. “Can I see your childhood bedroom?”
A laugh burst out of me. “What? No, you can’t. Why would you even want to?”
“Why can’t I?”
“Because it isn’t anything like how I left it. Now, it’s just a room. I took most of my things with me when I moved out and packed the rest away in storage.”
“Your mother didn’t want to keep a shrine to you?”
“No, she doesn’t need a shrine. I’m here all the time. She can worship me whenever she likes.” I put my hands on my hips. “Let’s get started. We have two hours and a lot to do before everyone gets here.”
