Page 29 of Kiss and Tell

She gestured for him to come in, and she was happy when he did so, following her to the kitchen.

“Levi insists I’ve wasted half my day not bothering to rise until eight.”

“The man is a lunatic,” Miles joked.

“If that’s true, then I’m the only sane person on the farm. All three of my sisters are already up and out, their days starting much earlier than mine. I like to keep banker’s hours, heading to the brewhouse around nine. Sam takes the early shift. Coffee?”

Miles nodded. “I’d love some. Joey made a pot this morning before he left at the ass crack of dawn, but then the bastard filled a thermos with it. Didn’t leave me more than half a cup.”

Lucy poured them both a cup, gesturing to the cream and sugar. Miles added a dollop of milk, crinkling his nose when he saw how much sugar she added to hers.

“He’ll need the coffee if he hopes to keep up with Remi. She could ride those trails for hours and never get tired. She was excited to show him the views from even higher up on the mountain,” she said.

“Joey will be fine. He’s tireless himself. Besides, he’ll have to cry uncle soon. We have a meeting with the director in a couple hours to discuss what we still need to film.”

While Joey and Miles were staying in a cabin on the farm, the rest of their crew had gotten rooms in a hotel about twenty miles away, just off the highway that stretched between Gracemont and Henley Falls. According to Joey, their producer’s idea of “roughing it” was a hotel without room service, so she wasn’t interested in sleeping in a cabin, no matter how nice.

“You didn’t want to join them on their morning ride?” Lucy asked.

Miles feigned a shudder. “Nope. This city boy’s feet are perfectly happy to remain firmly on the ground.”

“Want some breakfast?” she offered. “I was just about to whip up some pancakes.”

Miles rubbed his stomach. “I’ll never say no to pancakes.”

She grinned. “Then grab a seat.”

He plopped down comfortably.

Lucy loved the look of Miles sitting there, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles. She grabbed a bowl and the ingredients, and it occurred to her that while she’d heard a little bit about Joey’s upbringing in Philadelphia and Baltimore, she knew a hell of a lot less about Miles. “City boy, huh? What city?”

“New York.”

“Wow. I’ve always wanted to go there. It’s in the top five on my list of places to travel.”

Miles tilted his head. “Let me guess. Manhattan? Times Square? Broadway?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

“You realize there are a lot of other amazing places in the city, right?”

Lucy pretended to look shocked. “What? Seriously? There’s more?”

Miles snorted, then tapped on his chest. “I’m from Queens.”

“I don’t detect an accent.”

Miles never missed a beat, responding to that observation in the strongest Queens accent she’d ever heard, the corners of his lips pushed into a pucker. “Took some dead-ass work, but I managed to learn ’ow to talk basic like the rest of ya.”

Lucy laughed. “Oh my God. That sounds horrible.”

Miles waved her off with a smirk. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

This was the most she and Miles had said to each other since he’d arrived, and she didn’t intend to waste a second of this opportunity to get to know him. He was more at ease this morning, and that distance he’d been hell-bent on maintaining had vanished completely.

“So how did you end up hostingManPower?” Lucy placed a dollop of butter on the hot griddle, letting it melt.

“By a series of lucky breaks.”

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