Page 32 of Loving You

“What’s the deal with this Danny guy?”

Now it’s my turn to groan.

“One could say he’s my very own Cherry.”

“You hooked up with him?”

I slug Miles’s shoulder.

“Shit, you can hit.” He rubs his shoulder.

“It was two summers ago, and it was supposed to be a fling that was never going to last. I knew it, and I thought he did, too. It wasn’t a secret that I was going to Madrid next to meet up with my parents and he was coming back to the States. I just thought we both knew what we were getting into. Turns out I was wrong. And I never slept with him. He was too … polite.”

“Ah, so you like a good dick,” he says and laughs. “Noted.”

I move to slug him again, but he jumps back with his hands up.

“Okay, okay, not a joking moment, got it. So I’m guessing you didn’t tell him to fuck off.”

I do my best to contain my smile—Miles needs to learn how to joke—before I answer him.

“Nope.”

“How did you end it?”

I take a deep breath at his questions.

“I may have assumed we’d never run into each other again. Heck, at that time, Andy and Sully were fighting, so there was a good chance I’d never see him again.”

“What did you say?”

“I said something like if we were meant to be, then fate would find a way to put us back into the other’s path.”

Miles gags, and I laugh a little.

“That’s awful.”

“I was trying to let him down gently. I fully thought I’d never see him again.”

“And now your friends think we’ve been dating for a year.” He turns to glare at me. “And some guy who thinks you two are soulmates is here for the summer and …”

“A woman who thinks she should wait for you is also here for the summer and …”

“We are fake dating so that no one gets hurt and so your friends won’t hound you to settle down,” Miles finishes our conversation.

We stop outside Miles’s shop, and he squeezes my hand twice. It happens so fast that I almost don’t notice it.

But I do.

It reminds me of when my family, back before Mom, Dad, and I started traveling, would eat dinner together and hold hands, squeezing them three times forI love youbefore we began eating.

But twice?

It must have been some kind of muscle reflex.

“What does this say about our characters?” Miles asks.

“It says we both know what we want in life and what we don’t want, so we’re going to help each other out for the next eight weeks to make those things happen.”

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