Page 31 of Wait With Me
My voice is serious when I reply. “No, I’m not.”
Her smile fades, and she looks over at me with wide, wondering eyes. The soft pink sky lights up her face, giving her this angelic glow. She’s enchanting.
Her voice is a whisper when she croaks, “I can’t figure you out, Miles.”
I swallow slowly and reach out to cup her cheek, running my thumb from her cheekbone to her lip, lazily tracing the lines of her mouth. “I can’t figure me out either.”
She inhales deeply when I lean in to taste the lips that I’ve been reliving the taste of all week, but suddenly a motorcycle engine growls loudly up behind us. I freeze mere inches away from her mouth, my hand still on her face, my eyes still trained on her lips.
Swallowing hard, I turn around to see another couple dismounting from their bike, probably up here for the same reason we are.
Clearing my throat, I pull back and offer a sheepish smile to Mercedes. “Should we head back before we lose all the light?”
She looks forlorn and replies, “I’m at your mercy.”
I help her up and get her kitted up and back on the bike behind me.
Away we go, back to Boulder and back to the life I’m currently living…with no drama.
When the day comes for me to write my epilogue, it’s almost as if Miles knows because, in the middle of the day, he strides into the CCC dressed in his greasy coveralls that he has knotted down around his waist. The white T-shirt underneath is damp with sweat, and his hands look washed, but dirtier than I’ve ever seen them. Almost like he didn’t bother to give himself a full scrub because he knew he was going back to work.
He grabs three cookies and strides over to me with a giant smile on his face. As if it’s a normal day, and he takes breaks in the CCC all the time, he props himself on the stool across from the high top table I’m perched at and takes a big bite of his triple stack cookie sandwich.
I can’t help but smile at the serendipity of this moment.
“Why are you smiling?” he asks, smiling back at me.
Seriously, so much smiling.
“Because life is funny sometimes.” I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at him, drinking in all his manly glory.
“How so?” Miles leans across the table toward me, his black hair in need of a trim and his blue eyes bright amongst the dirt on his face.
Without a word, I turn my computer to face him and stand so I’m positioned beside him. When I lean down to press my fingers on the keyboard, our arms graze and a tingle of electricity sparks between us.
Steeling myself to be cool, I type outThe End.
“No way,” he exclaims loudly, clearly not giving a shit about the other customers in the waiting area. He turns wide, excited eyes to me. “You just finished?”
“I just finished.” I smile and yelp when he drops his cookies, stands, and lifts me into the air, twirling me in a circle. He freezes when he remembers we’re not alone and quickly sets me back down on my feet.
He leans in and whispers loudly, “Congratulations, Mercedes.”
And I thank him, because right now, IamMercedes Lee Loveletter, and I’ve completed my fifth and final book in the series. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Miles,” I reply with a humorous bounce to my voice.
His chest vibrates with laughter. “We should celebrate. Can I buy you a drink?” he asks, and his brow furrows when he sees the humor leave my face.
He said those same words to me the night I kissed him, and the coincidence isn’t lost on me. “Maybe another time.”
He nods and stuffs his hands into his pockets, a bemused look on his face that’s majorly killing my buzz.
“But hey, we’re having a party Friday night at my house. My two friends at the pub from the other night and some people we still hang out with from college…you…want to come by? You can bring Sam!”
His lopsided smile is genuine, and we quickly exchange numbers so I can text him my address. It surprises me that for as many times as I’ve seen Miles now, we still haven’t swapped numbers. I guess maybe that was his way of keeping me at a distance.
Miles stuffs his phone back into his pocket and asks, “So what are you going to do tonight then?”
My face heats with embarrassment, but I decide to own it anyway. “Well, I have this tradition that I used to do with my ex after every book I finished.”
