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Another slurp of my milkshake, cold replacing the dread in my belly. “Since I don’t plan to date anytime soon, I won’t hold my breath, but I appreciate you saying that.”
He kissed my knuckle once more before giving me my hand back. “Feel any better?” He positioned his head like mine, sweeping his gaze over me.
“Yeah.” I smiled at him, and when he smiled back, my stomach did a strange sort of dance. “Now you know the sordid truth. Do with it what you will. I’m going to eat some chicken tenders.”
He held up a little container. “You need to dip them in ranch. It’s illegal not to.”
I snatched the dip from him. “I would never break the law, officer.”
His gaze stayed on me a minute longer, warm and wary. I found it comforting, so I allowed it, happily eating my chicken and drinking my milkshake, until he finally dug back into his food.
We ate and listened to music until our stomachs couldn’t fit anything else. Miles drove me home with a bag of leftovers for Reed in my lap and a lightness in my chest.
I’d seen Andy again and hadn’t fallen apart.
It had been strange, a little bit sad, but it’d also reaffirmed my decision to go. Two months hadn’t been long enough to fully heal from almost a decade of loving that man, but I was moving on.
I knew for sure I was going to be fine.
And having Miles with me tonight to sort it all out hadn’t hurt at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Miles
From a very young age, my father had drilled into me my last name would open any door I wanted it to.
He’d had no idea what he was talking about.
When I was a kid, the one place I wanted to go was where my brother was—and more often than not, that had been Levy's house. Elliot Levy had been his best friend for as long as I could remember. Their friendship had been a twosome. On the rare occasions I’d been allowed to third-wheel it, both had made it known I was unwanted. And it hadn’t been because I was younger since they’d let Elliot’s sister Elise tag along whenever she asked.
It took me a while to recognize the reason: they didn’t like me.
Looking back, I had been annoying as fuck. My doctor hadn’t found the right meds for me, and I’d had a bad habit of skipping them anyway. I had the zoomies on speed. Talking a mile a minute, loud and obnoxious. Making impulsive decisions, stealing, destroying, saying awful, hurtful things.
Once it sunk in that I wasn’t wanted, I stopped trying to be around West and Elliot and got into trouble on my own.
Back then, I never would have pictured myself being invited to their bi-weekly Sunday brunches, yet here I was, sitting in my favorite spot between Elise and Saoirse.
Saoirse was married to Luca, Elliot and Weston’s college bestie. I wasn’t even salty anymore they’d added a third to their group when I’d been right there for years. Luca was slick as hell, rode a motorcycle in his off time, and ran a Fortune-500 company without letting them see him sweat.
I bounced my knees, giving my favorite toddler a pony ride. “Say ‘Miles is the best.’”
Joey furrowed her brow and scrunched her button nose at me. “Bah!” she yelped.
I tapped her little wrinkly nose. “Yep, that’s right. I’m the bah.”
Her mother, Kit, beamed at the two of us from the other side of the table. “Did Saoirse tell you Joey said ‘cat’ when I took her to see Clementine last week?”
I frowned at Saoirse, who I worked with every single day. “No, she didn’t. Did you not think Uncle Miles would have wanted that update?”
Elliot, Kit’s husband, sighed, but he didn’t deny my title. I’d been working on getting his kid to call me Uncle for the last year. At some point, he’d accepted it was going to happen. Maybe it was one of the times I’d volunteered to babysit when he’d wanted to take his wife out.
Saoirse folded her arms in her lap. “I apologize. I did get her on video, though. If I send it to you, would that make up for it?”
Joey slapped my leg to tell me to move before I could get too pissed about this video existing and being withheld from me. So, I got the pony going, keeping my niece happy. It didn’t take a lot. She was a cool kid. Took after her mom.
Elliot eyeballed me like he could hear my thoughts. We both knew he had a stick up his ass ninety percent of the time, so he shouldn’t have been surprised I was thinking it.
