3. Georgia
Chapter 3
Georgia
I get out my phone and start scrolling through contacts, looking for someone who could be a good match for Miles. Now that I’ve got this idea in my head, I’m super excited about it. He’s seriously the best, and although he never mentions it, I’m wondering now if he might be lonely.
He needs more than a couple of guy friends and me in his life. He’s the first one to drop everything for someone else—he deserves to get something back in return. He should be appreciated and adored for exactly who he is. He deserves big, open, all-consuming love.
So yeah, I might be looking to find him more than just a date to a party.
“Red flags and pet peeves?” I prompt.
“I thought you already knew all my likes and dislikes.”
“In normal life, sure. But in romantic life, I don’t know as much.” We don’t talk a lot about dating, but that’s because neither of us really do. I know he had a girlfriend for part of the first year I worked here, but after that, I haven’t seen or heard that he’s been with anyone seriously. And everything I know about Miles tells me he doesn’t see anyone casually .
He drops his chin onto his crossed arms on the front counter, stretching his absurdly long torso. “Are we really doing this?”
“Yes. It will be good for you. And amusing for me.”
“Okay, Gandalf.”
I love it when he catches my movie references.
“Red flags,” I sing.
He sighs. “Inauthenticity. People who rain on everyone else’s parades. Gossip.”
I nod along, not really needing to write that down. I knew as much already. “Green flags? What are you looking for?”
He stares at me so hard my stomach flutters.
In my first year or so working for him, this little stare down actually intimidated me. If you don’t know him, his reserve can come across as aloof or even unfriendly. I was half-convinced he was on the verge of firing me my first couple of months at Dogeared. But I’ve learned he’s just a massive cinnamon roll, and he’s staring because he would rather rip the pages from every book in this store than actually have an argument.
So I just stare back. I can wait.
“What cover are you working on now?” he asks.
“It’s so cute. It’s a couple on a blanket by a lake, but don’t bother trying to distract me. It won’t work.”
“You’re very laser focused.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “I can out-stare you.”
He nods lazily but doesn’t look away.
I don’t break. It’s not like he’s hard to look at. He’s got thick, dark eyebrows that always make him seem extra happy—or in his current state, extra glum. He looks younger than his age, but thirty-two’s not that old to begin with. And he’s got nice, full lips.
Right now, they’re twitching, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure he’s just trying not to smile .
He is, in short, a lovely specimen of a man, and the only reason he doesn’t have a bunch of women lined up out the door to date him is that he doesn’t let many people get past his quiet outer shell. But I’m going to crack that shell like an M&M and usher some lucky woman to the chocolatey goodness inside.
“Where did your mind just go?” he says. “The expression on your face…”
“You’re an M&M. And I’m going to crack you.”
His mouth twitches again. “Sounds about right.”
“You could just tell me your dating preferences. It will make everything go so much easier.”
“Or I could tell you that I finished Corsair’s Run .”
I immediately fold in the stare down competition. I round the counter to get in his face, and he sits upright again. Thank goodness there isn’t a rule about being quiet in a bookstore because I would break that rule every day.
“You finished it?” Confirmation is unnecessary, since I’ve never known Miles to lie. Exaggerate a bit maybe, but not about this. He’s more likely to downplay anything to do with his writing—if he says he’s done, he’s done. “Why would you not lead with that ? I’ve been waiting for this book for a literal year.”
He drops hints about what he’s working on sometimes, and once in a rare while, he’ll talk out story ideas with me, but I’m running on scraps here. I need to know how my favorite space pirate’s story ends.
“I could send it to you, but you’ll probably be too busy vetting dates for me to read it.”
I take him by the shoulders and growl like an angry puppy. “Are you really going to withhold Captain Aster from me? That’s cruel and unusual punishment.”
He finally breaks into a smile. “I already sent it to your e-reader.”
I cough dramatically. “I have to go home. I’m ever so sick. ”
He lays a palm across my forehead. “I don’t detect a fever.”
“I’m sick in the head.”
He smiles down at me. “Without a doubt.”
And that’s how we’re standing when half my family walks into the bookstore.
We break apart, but all three Donnellys stare at us open-mouthed. My stepmother’s look of shock quickly turns into a knowing smile—Ava adores gossip. Especially about me.
She can never seem to decide if she wants to be my “bonus mom” or my best friend. Since she’s only ten years older than I am, she usually aims for trusty pal. Now and then, she tries to scold me for something, with uncomfortable results for everyone.
My half-siblings, Finn and Willa, just go on goggling at us. They’re twelve and eight, so in their minds, the innocent way Miles and I were touching each other is probably even more scandalous than whatever Ava has in her head. Finn will let it go, but if I know my baby sister, I’m never going to hear the end of this one.
“Hey, guys.” I throw on a big smile. “What are you doing here?”
She said oh-so innocently.
Ava greets us both with a little too much enthusiasm but then puts on a sad face. “Christopher forgot I had plans with friends this afternoon, and he won’t be home to be with the children for another hour. Could I possibly leave the littles here with you?”
Sam and I gave them that collective nickname years ago, but our younger siblings are quickly becoming bigs .
“Nice of Dad to take the afternoon off,” I say as Willa throws herself at me in a big hug. I squeeze her tight. However irritating I might find my dad and Ava, they made some adorable kids.
“He does a few times a month,” Ava says. “You know how he is—he doesn’t want to miss anything.”
“Yeah, he sure would hate that.” I can’t put much life into my voice. When my older brother, Sam, and I were growing up, Dad missed entire birthdays for work. He’s become rather more dedicated to his new family in his later years.
I’m glad he’s around for them. Honestly, I am. But sometimes the proof of it stings like salt in an old wound I can’t quite bandage over.
“We’re going to have noodles!” Willa grins up at me, her dark hair straggling out of a complicated braid around her head.
“Dad never cooks.” Finn runs his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in spiky bits that look suspiciously like Miles’s unruly hair. “He says that’s not his skillset.”
At least some things haven’t changed.
“I’m working today,” I tell Ava. “Maybe I could have changed my shift around if I’d known about it, but?—”
Her face crumples. “Oh, please. It’s just for an hour. I need to make it to this luncheon.”
Naturally, her luncheon is more important than my work. It’s not the first time she’s brought the littles to the bookstore at the last minute, but I’m terrible at saying no to her. Actually, I can tell her no any day, but it’s more difficult to look into my little sister’s eyes and tell her to get lost.
Because she’s too stinking cute for words.
I turn to Miles, who gives a quick nod. What did I say about the man being the very best?
“Okay.” I manage not to sigh, but I don’t love that Ava uses me as free babysitting when I’m at the bookstore. At least we can all pretend I’m not busy working on book covers when I’m at home, but there’s no excuse here. “They can hang out for a while. ”
Willa screeches her approval, and Finn flops onto one of the plush chairs.
“Thank you so much,” Ava says. “Christopher will be here in an hour. Hour and a half tops.”
By the time I register that tidbit she tacked on, she’s already out the door.
“No school today, huh?” I look down at Willa, who hasn’t stopped hugging me yet.
“Nope. It’s a teacher learning day.”
“I bet they need to stay smart to keep up with you.”
She giggles. “I wish they learned every day.”
“Can you play a game with me, Miles?” Finn’s already opening the backgammon board next to his chair. Every time they drop into the store, it’s the same thing: Finn wants to play a game, and Willa wants a sweet treat from the pastry case.
Now Miles is the one checking in with me, but I wave him on. “Willa and I can handle the front counter.”
Miles takes the seat across from Finn and helps him set up the board, while Willa and I sit down on the stools behind the counter. She tells me about what’s going on at school and all the hot gossip with her little friends. Claire’s been giving out friendship bracelets. Amina has the latest Nike Dunks that cost more than a car. We greet customers who come into the shop, and she sits quietly whenever I need to get up to make an espresso or cash out a purchase.
I actually start to think she’s entirely forgotten what she saw when she walked into the store, but her eight-year-old brain holds onto things longer than I’d hoped.
She leans over to whisper to me during a lull between customers. “I like Miles.”
“So do I,” I whisper back.
“Do you kiss him the way Sam kisses Harper?”
Nerves skate through my stomach. She’s been innocently fascinated by our oldest brother’s relationship ever since it started two years ago. Mostly the parts that involve kissing and hugging. Incidentally, these are the same things that give Finn a case of the gags.
I look over at Miles, but thankfully, he’s too focused on his game with Finn to have heard. I think. With him, it’s hard to know for sure. He can be low-key sneaky.
“We’re best friends,” I tell her. “So we don’t kiss.”
“You could try.”
Her goading remark shouldn’t make my stomach flip, but there it goes anyway, getting distinctly wobbly. It’s probably because I haven’t kissed anybody in a million years, and my boss-slash-best friend is a crazy pick to break that streak. And anyway, having an eight-year-old give me dating tips is a sad statement on my life.
“Friends don’t do that.” I sound absolutely scandalized, as if I really care what the people wandering the stacks and eating cinnamon rolls in the café would think if they overheard.
“Why not? I kissed Jaxon, and he’s my friend.”
Hmm. Maybe I should be getting dating tips from Willa.
“You kissed him on the lips?” Is third grade really so different these days? I had my first kiss in middle school, and it was terrible. Isn’t that still normal?
She makes a face. “On the cheek. Mouth kisses are for your really-real boyfriend.”
“I see.” I need to steer this conversation somewhere other than the best kissing locations, and quickly. “Did you do anything fun this weekend?”
“Daddy took us to breakfast on Saturday.” Her happy smile grows brighter. “Grandpa Glen did magic tricks.”
Our grandpa is still going strong at eighty-seven and is a total character. My only explanation for the one-eighty between him and Dad is that awesomeness must skip a generation. He’s my biggest champion and most trusted advisor. When my parents blew up their marriage—and lied to Sam and me about it in the worst way—Grandpa was the one I turned to. He and Grandma were the reason I came back to Magnolia Ridge after college. He lives over at the retirement center now, but I visit him as often as I can.
I wrap Willa in a side hug. “Did he pull a coin out of your ear?”
She giggles. “Out of my nose.”
That’s our grandpa.
I let her go. “What are you going to do with Dad this afternoon?”
“Daddy said we’ll have a movie date. With popcorn and blanket forts and candy!”
“That. Sounds. Awesome.” I accentuate each word with a gentle poke to her side.
“Did Daddy watch movies with you when you were little?”
I look into her eager brown eyes and can’t possibly tell her the truth. That our father didn’t have quite as much time for Sam and me when we were growing up. That even when he did, he was more likely to use that time lecturing us than bonding over something as simple as a movie or a game. That I barely recognize the doting father he’s become for Finn and Willa.
That I don’t understand why he couldn’t have been that kind of father for me.
“Sometimes,” I tell her. She just beams.
Soon enough, the man himself arrives to pick up the littles. He’s clearly come from work, dressed in a neat suit, his salt-and-pepper hair still perfectly combed away from his face. Willa darts straight into his arms, and he lifts her up into a huge hug.
“How’s my baby girl?” he croons. “Ready for movies?”
“Ready for movies! ”
He kisses her cheek with a big smack. “That’s good. I’d hate to have to watch Jumanji all alone.”
“Not Jumanji. Jungle Cruise.”
Dad makes a silly face. “I knew it was something like that. With that guy with the little muscles?”
“He has big muscles, Daddy!”
He slides her back down to her feet. Then, his adoring expression shifts into something distinctly cooler. He surveys the store in the same detached way he does every time he comes in, like he’s inspecting a sterile room instead of seeing a warm and cozy place where people love to shop and hang out.
Before he can pass judgment on Dogeared yet again, Finn joins him.
“I almost beat Miles at backgammon. He’s good, but he’s not as good as Grandpa Glen.”
Grandpa ropes anybody he can into playing backgammon with him over at his retirement village. He’s been delighted to find a real challenger in Miles, since Sam and I don’t stand a chance against him.
“Nobody is, kiddo.” Dad looks over at me. “If you ever change your mind and decide you want a real job, there’s always room for you at Donnelly and Burke.”
I urge my face not to do anything sarcastic. “I’m good.”
He takes Willa’s hand. “We’ve got movies to watch. Thanks for looking out for them.”
Finn and Willa call out their goodbyes, and in a blink, they’ve disappeared down the sidewalk.
After a minute, Miles joins me behind the counter. He can probably hear me grinding my teeth down to dust.
“You could see it as your dad saying he’ll always be there for you.”
I can’t help the bitter laugh that exhales out of me. Miles likes to see the best in people, but when it comes to my dad, I just don’t feel it. “Redirect your altruism elsewhere, please.”
“In other news, Finn will be able to beat me at backgammon soon. I should probably retire from the game now to avoid the humiliation.”
“You would sacrifice a young boy’s triumph for the sake of your tattered pride?”
“In a heartbeat.”
He wouldn’t, though. I’ve seen him play enough board games with Willa to know he’s not above throwing games to make a little kid happy.
“Where were we? Oh yeah, you were about to tell me what you’re looking for in a woman.”
He sighs. “Speaking of my tattered pride…”
I keep my voice low so people in the store don’t overhear. “Maybe we should focus on physical preferences to narrow it down. Brunette? Short hair? Are you an elbow man?”
His bold eyebrows slash down, his concern morphing into confusion. “Elbows?”
“I’m being polite.”
“I can honestly say I’ve never noticed a woman’s elbows.”
“You should pay more attention,” I tease. “Elbows are sexy.”
He moves to try to see mine, but I swing them awkwardly behind my back. Now I’m pushing out my chest—not that it makes much of a difference for me. But at least he can’t see my un-sexy elbows.
“Someone shorter than you is a given, since you are a giant,” I go on, still standing like a frozen chicken.
He’s six-four and slender, which can make him seem even taller than he is.
He’s also remarkably silent.
“Come on, you have to give me something to work with. ”
He levels me a flat look. “It’d be a shame if you had to give up the cause.”
“Younger? Older?” I gasp. “Are you a gray hair chaser? Should I look for available ladies at Grandpa’s retirement complex?”
That at least earns a laugh. “Might be inappropriate.”
I raise my eyebrows at him, waiting for him to throw me a crumb.
“I don’t really care about all that,” he finally says. “It’s a person’s heart I like.”
Aww. How is this man single?
“You’re seriously the best man there ever was. And I am going to find someone who’s absolutely perfect for you.”
His half-smile makes me think he doesn’t believe me, but I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to see him happily matched up for his awards ceremony, or my name isn’t Georgia Donnelly.