Miles leaned in. “Please don’t apologize. It is natural for people to assume that I would have a hard time resisting the beautiful nanny. And they would be right.”
I was suddenly feeling lightheaded and flushed. “They are? I mean, you think I’m beautiful?” I closed my eyes and cringed. “I mean I’m not beautiful. Seriously, I need to go.”
“Aspen, please look at me.”
I peeked one eye open like a child to see a bemused smile on Miles’s face.
“I wish you wouldn’t be embarrassed around me.”
Both my eyes popped open. “I don’t see that happening.”
“Well, in that case,” he leaned down and whispered in my ear, “you are beautiful, but for your own good, I will resist you.” He walked away to wish Chloe luck and take Henry from her before I could respond.
My body was in shock from the massive shivers Miles just sent down my spine. When my body and mind came to, all they could think about was what did he mean by for my own good?
Emma was to me in no time, shaking her head, stunned. “What was that all about? A good luck kiss?”
“Will you keep your voice down? He didn’t kiss me. Is that what it looked like?” I looked up into the bleachers to find all my friends and my parents gawking at me with expressions varying from disbelief to downright awe. Shelby even had her hands to her mouth like she was keeping herself from bursting into a song. Crap! That’s exactly what that probably looked like. I didn’t have time to dispel any misconceptions before Miles got to them. All I could do was turn back and face Emma.
“Looks like you’ll be amending that contract after all.” She wagged her brows.
“You’re wrong. He was just telling me that’s exactly what won’t be happening.”
Emma’s forehead scrunched. “You’re lying. Both of your bodies were screaming, ‘Forget the contract!’”
“I’m not lying.” I jogged over to our bench to grab my clipboard. It was almost time for the game to start. Time for me to focus on anything but my boss.
Emma was going to make that difficult. She followed me, slowly. Growing twins was no easy task. She took the clipboard from me and tilted her head to study me. “What is going on between you two? And don’t say nothing, because the heat between you is palpable.”
“I know,” I whispered.
Emma’s eyes popped at my admission. “If you know, then what’s the issue?”
“Em, we have kids and we work together. That makes any situation complicated. Besides, I don’t even know my own heart right now. It’s experiencing some difficult growing pains. And I’m pretty sure he left a girlfriend in London.”
“Well, I would hate to be his girlfriend. No man should look at another woman the way he looks at you if he’s taken.”
“I don’t know if they are still together, but I get the feeling that they’re not done, if that makes sense.”
Emma’s lips pursed. “I suppose it does, but that doesn’t mean something won’t happen between the two of you.”
I rested my hand on Emma’s arm. “Em, he’s promised me it won’t, and so far, he’s been a man of his word.” I’d finally gotten what I’d always hoped for, a man of his word. Why then, did I hope he would go against it?Chapter Twenty-Three“He fits in well,” Mom whispered in my ear during lunch at Sage’s Café in Edenvale.
I thought the same thing all through the game as I caught glimpses of him talking to my friends and parents when he wasn’t cheering loudly for Chloe. I can’t say how attractive that was. He and Henry were also the first ones to congratulate her on the team’s win. It brought a tear to my eye when Chloe hugged him and thanked him for helping her. She credited her final spectacular save to his advice. He’d come down at halftime to tell Chloe to watch number seven on the opposing team. She always looked the opposite way of where she kicked the ball. He was right, and had he not mentioned it to Chloe, they might have tied the game up in the last thirty seconds. Instead, it was a sweet victory.
I smiled across the table at Miles and my dad talking about all the geological wonders in the UK. Dad was particularly fascinated with the Seven Sisters in Sussex.
“Did you know those majestic chalk cliffs began forming around 87 million years ago,” my dad informed an attentive Miles. “Back then, Great Britain was entirely under water.” Dad was a geological encyclopedia.
“I’ve been there. I have a friend who owns a holiday home in one of the hamlets nearby. It is quite the sight to see,” Miles graciously replied.
Henry caught my attention next. He had been passed around the table. More like the three tables the restaurant staff had pulled together to accommodate our large group. He was now sitting on Shelby’s lap. Henry had just said, “Mylanta,” forever securing the love of our dearest Southern Belle.