Page 11 of Catching Feelings

When she pulls me toward one of the free tables, Miles finagles her hand off my wrist. “We’re just here to grab a bite to eat. We were shopping for a gift for Walker and Riley’s baby. Rowan is one of Riley’s best friends.”

“They had their baby?” She clasps her hands over her chest. “When areyougoing to give me grandbabies?” Lynn glances at me then snaps her attention back at Miles.

“Babies make me itch.”

“Did they have a boy or a girl?” she asks, ignoring his comment.

“Boy. Emmitt after Emmitt Smith, Walker’s football hero.”

“That’s so sweet. Do you want children, Rowan?”

My head is spinning with confusion. Why would Miles bring me here to meet his aunt, who is so obviously ready for her nephew to settle down and start a family, when we’re not even dating? Heck, we’re barely friends. More like acquaintances who have mutual friends.

“I’m just getting my career started, so my focus has been on work.”

“What do you do, sweetheart?”

Lynn is as round as she is tall, her chin-length hair bobs when she talks, and she has more energy than a puppy.

“I’m a pediatric nurse.”

“Oh, what a wonderful profession. I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful mother someday too.”

“Auntie.” Miles scrubs his hands over his face.

“Where are my manners?” She pats my arms. “What can I make you?”

I scan the menu over her head. There are specialty grilled cheese sandwiches, hearty subs, and salads. “I’ll have the chicken, bacon, avocado melt, please.”

“Good choice. It’s one of my favorites.” She pats Miles on the cheek and scoots past him into the kitchen.

“I take it you order the same thing every time?”

“I don’t.” He laughs and pulls out a chair for me.

I take a seat and he fills me in on how his aunt got started. She helped raise him and his sister Julia while working at sandwich shops. When they were school age, she got promoted to a manager, but she hated the lack of personality in the sandwiches, the shops, and the routines.

When Miles got his first contract, he leased a space in Florida and fronted her the money to start her own specialty shop. He doesn’t mention anything about a mother or father, and I don’t pry since I don’t like talking about my family either.

“We didn’t have much growing up.” There’s a layer of pain in his eyes he hides as he looks away. When he looks at me again, the Miles Buckingham grin is back. “Unless Auntie Lynn brought home ham or turkey, we didn’t have a lot of protein. But there was always cheese on hand. She’d try to make Julia and I feel special by fancying up our grilled cheese. Sometimes there’d be tomatoes in it, or a mix of something other than American. Julia is our cheese hound.”

“How much younger is she?”

“Jules is twenty-three.”

“Almost a ten-year age gap. That must have been hard.”

“Yeah. I was in high school when she was in kindergarten and my football schedule made it hard to watch her after school. She’d often sit in the stands with a book and be bored out of her mind until Lynn got out of work or practice ended.”

“Are you guys close?”

“I guess so. Closer now that she moved to Boston. She graduated from Florida State last year and is attending grad school here. I bought this place for Lynn, and she’ll go back to Florida in the winter and manage that location.”

Lynn bustles over with a tray filled with food. “Here you go, sweetheart.” She sets the biggest sandwich I’ve ever seen in front of me.

“Wow. Do you have a kid’s menu? I should have ordered off that.”

“We serve Miles-size portions here.” She runs her fingers through his hair with motherly affection.

---