Page 13 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
We ran our usual route, and I had to hide a smirk when we turned onto Miles Curbelo’s street. I hadn’t realized I’d moved so close to him at first, but I couldn’t deny I was happy to find his house a couple of years ago.
I tried to pretend that wasn’t why I chose to run down this street every day, but that’d be a big fat lie.
Miles was kind of prickly at times, but he’d always been kind to me, and after seeing the business he’d opened, I knew he had a good heart. But he seemed kind of lonely.
In all my time living only a block away from him, I’d never seen anyone over at his house. Granted, I usually only came this way twice a day—once for my and Goliath’s morning run, then again in the evening for our nightly walk. But still, I’d never seen even one person there.
I had, however, noticed that he watched me run by every morning.
He thought he was sneaky—he wasn’t. Not at all.
I let him think I didn’t see him, I let him pretend he was hiding in the corner of his porch every day, but I’d never pointed it out. Probably because I didn’t want him to stop.
I saw him there today, and just like every time I saw him, I felt drawn to the man. I always had, even in high school. Sometimes I wished I would’ve listened to that pull back then and actually talked to the guy.
Then maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely now.
Maybe I wouldn’t be so lonely living in my house alone.
That pull was always there, but it felt different today, stronger. It almost felt like I didn’t have a choice but to stop and talk to him. I had no idea if that was simply the desire I’d always felt for the man, or if there was some kind of magic at play, but it was there, and it was powerful as hell. I’d never had this strong of a pull before, and after another moment’s hesitation, I decided to listen to my gut.
Maybe if I did that more often, I wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble in the past.
Goliath was confused when I slowed down in front of Miles's house, but when I bent down and pretended to be tying my shoe, he just sniffed at my face, gave me a slobbery kiss, and started sniffing Miles’s grass.
The man in question was sitting in the same spot as always with a giant mug of coffee in his gloved hands, staring at me. Why did the manalwayswear gloves? He’d even worn them in high school—not that I’d noticed or anything. It was so odd, but then there were a lot of oddities about Miles Curbelo.
That was probably why I was drawn to him.
So I decided to put on my big boy pants, stood, and said, “Hey, Miles.”
A choking sound came from the porch before he coughed and said, “Hey, Winter.”Whoops. I’d startled him. He really did think he’d been hiding back there, didn’t he?
I stepped closer, walking up his sidewalk with Goliath trotting happily in the grass. “How are you this morning?”
He was staring at me like he was scared of me. “Um, I’m fine. What about you?”
I sent him a smile. “I’m good. Got any plans this weekend?”
He stared at me for so long I started bouncing back and forth on my toes. Why was he staring at me like that? In what world did that question take that kind of consideration? Did he think I would judge him for whatever plans he had? Was there some glove convention in town or something?
Finally, he cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m working at one of those mansion houses in Bellscar. They’ve got the worst gnome infestation I’ve ever seen.”
“You’re working on the weekend? Isn’t it a holiday weekend? You don’t have a bunch of parties or whatever to go to?” I cringed inside. Hadn’t I just been thinking about how the guyseemed to have no social life? And now I was standing here pointing it out to him? Could I be any ruder?
He shrugged. “Definitely no parties. I usually work on Saturdays for at least half the day, then take Sundays off.”
I wrinkled my nose at that because people needed more downtime than that, but whatever. It was fine. It wasn’t my life, and I couldn’t tell him how to run his business. “Gotcha.”
“What about you? Got any plans?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I’m planning on relaxing and sleeping in, and I’ll probably take Goliath to the dog park on Sunday, but I’m not really planning anything. Oh, my best friend invited me to their family cookout on Monday, so I might go to that, but I might also just stay home and hang out with Goliath.” I shrugged since it was true. My friend Lyric was amazing, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to a cookout with them when it’d probably mostly just remind me how I no longer had a family.
Miles nodded, set his cup on a little table, then walked down his porch steps and sat there instead, his lips twitching like he wanted to smile at me but was holding back for some unknown reason. Goliath rushed him, and I sputtered, trying to warn Miles about the incoming doggie slobber, but he just laughed and started petting my boy.
Mileslaughed. Wow. That totally transformed his face and made him look younger and… and prettier.
He was a pretty guy anyway, not that I’d use that word to his face. He’d probably punch me. But Miles was gorgeous. He was fit, smaller than me in width and height, and his brown hair was blowing gently in the wind. His hair was shaved on the sides, and normally, he had so much gel on top to make messy spikes that his hair didn’t move at all. It was rare to find him so… at ease.
