Page 31 of My Summer Fling

“This house was your grandparents?” Roman asks me as we walk inside.

“It was. I spent a lot of time here as a kid and when they passed and left it in mine and Teddy’s name, it just made more sense for me to move out this way.”

“I can’t see Teddy living on the East Coast.” Roman laughs.

“Exactly.” I smile. “Would you like anything to drink? I have some lemonade and fruit infused water in the fridge, and I think Noah has some of his beer here.”

When I turn back around, he’s giving Noah a look I can’t really decipher. But when he catches me looking he just smiles.

“Water would be great, thank you.” I pour us all a glass of the fruit infused water that’s been steeping all day.

“I’m going to go freshen up, and then we can take a look at your portfolio.”

“Perfect,” he says, taking the water.

I hand a glass to Noah as well, and when his fingers glance across my hand I get little butterflies floating around in my chest. It’s been like this a lot in the past week, worse than it was before. I don’t just get excited during the big moments. Now my heart flutters when he touches me—like he’s doing now—or when he glances in my direction. Every little thing he does makes me feel a little more infatuated with him than I’d like.

After I change into clothes that aren’t soaked in sweat and touch up my make up, I start to walk back out to the living room. But when I hear them talking in hushed tones, I can’t help myself. Is it respectful to eavesdrop? Definitely not. But I’m going to do it anyway. Especially when I hear my name get dropped into the conversation.

“I’ve never seen you like this over someone, Noah. Millie has you wrapped around her little finger.”

Noah sighs. “Her and I have been through a lot, Rome. Our history is complicated and …” he pauses and I try to stop breathing. I worry they’ve heard me. “I fucked it up. We could’ve been so good … we had something and I just fucked it up.”

“It doesn’t look like you fucked it up to me, man. She looks at you with stars in her eyes.”

I roll my eyes. Great. Good to know my feelings are written all over my face.

“No, she remembers. She’s still hurt. She got pretty wasted last week and when I picked her up and brought her home, she asked me about it.”Fuck. “I don’t think she remembers asking me.” Oh, I fucking remember. Shit.

“What did you do? Must’ve been bad if y’all are both holding onto it for this long.”

“I don’t want to get into the details. It’s personal for her. But I basically just pulled a typical Noah stunt. Fucked her and left. Dipped the fuck out right after.” He groans and I can imagine him doing that thing where he runs his fingers through his hair, making the soft brown strands stick up in every direction.

“Nice, man,” Roman says with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“I was scared, dude. She was my best friend’s baby sister. What the fuck was I going to do when he found out? And I was still a kid. I wasnotemotionally mature enough to handle whatever the fuck it was we were both feeling in that moment.”

“That is not an excuse, Noah, and you know it. You’re trying to form an excuse that will make you not look like the bad guy here. And you know I love you, but you did fuck up. If she looked at you back then the way she looks at you now … you fucked up.”

“I’m trying to fix it, man. I swear I’m trying to fix it. I’m trying to figure out how to talk to her, how to let her know just how fucking sorry I am.” He groans again.

“And you’re doing that by basically living here and fucking her every night?”

Okay, enough of that.

I clear my throat and try to make a lot of noise as I walk the rest of the way down the hall and into the living room. I smile at both of them, apparently trying to prove that I hadn’t just listened to that whole conversation.

“Ready to show off those pictures?” I ask Roman as I take a seat next to him. His warm smile lights up the entire damn room. Any girl would be lucky to have a man like him. I can tell in just the short amount of time I’ve known him and how Teddy and Noah have talked about him.

Maybe I should introduce him to Tiff…

“Born ready,” he says, pulling out his iPad.

His portfolio is filled with breathtaking photographs of all different styles. All of the weddings he’s photographed turned out perfectly, and we spend the next half hour going over the projects he has on hand to show off. He’s not better than Noah, but he’s definitely as good as.

“Do I get the famous Mille stamp of approval?” he asks once we’ve gone through everything.

“Infamous you mean?” Noah jokes. I reach over and shove his arm.

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