Page 48 of Here With You

“Did you say you loved me?” How long had it been since she’d heard those words? She hadn’t realized how love-starved she was until that moment.

“I did say it, and I always will. I also said I’m sorry.”

“I love you too.” She tugged him into the entryway and shut the door. “And I’m also sorry. I shouldn’t have expected you to know, and when you thought it was a good idea, I could have explained rather than let you experience the lesson. I feel awful. You left, and I felt so lonely.”

“What now?” he asked.

“Do you forgive me?”

“I’ll always forgive you. But what about me? Will you forgive me?”

She lifted on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. “There’s nothing to forgive.” Ollie whined, and she shook her head at him. “I don’t know how you got my sandal, but I forgive you too.” She looked down at the bag. “What did you bring?”

“Dinner.”

“What happened to my pie and ice cream?”

“Baby, you don’t need that. Whatever you need, I’m here to give it to you.”

“But what if I wanted dessert?”

He grinned. “They say life’s uncertain. Eat dessert first. I have lots of sweet kisses to offer among other things” He placed the bag on the entry table. “Would you care to show me your room?”

CHAPTERTWENTY

Miles was in the kitchen an hour later, looking at his meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. “How long should I heat this?” he called to Emmaline upstairs.

“Try three minutes,” she answered back. “Have you seen my shoe?”

Since she said shoe, as in singular, he didn’t need to see it to know where it was. “Ollie?” His dog slinked around the corner carrying a leather loafer. “You’re a naughty boy,” he said and took the shoe from the dog’s mouth. “It’s down here.”

“How in the world?” Emmaline trotted down the stairs wearing one shoe and bounced into the kitchen. He’d never seen her so happy. “Are you going to share?” She removed the food from the to-go container and put it on a plate.

“I’ll share everything with you.” He dried off her shoe and set it on the floor so she could slip her foot inside. It wasn’t a glass slipper, but he felt like this was the stuff fairytales were made of. He’d left his kingdom years ago, and life led him back to the only woman he’d ever loved—his Cinderella. Today’s relationship mishap made him realize that he never wanted anything like a misunderstanding to come between them again. “Can we make a pact?”

“Yes, unless you want to seal it with blood. I did that with the girls in junior high and got an infection. My index finger swelled twice its size, and I had to get an IV antibiotic drip to get rid of it.” Ollie nudged at her foot. She looked down at him. “Thanks for taking care of my shoe.” She put the dish in the microwave and set the timer for three minutes. “Do you think he needs therapy?”

“He’s the canine version of Imelda Marcos, the Philippine dictator’s wife who had over a thousand pairs of shoes. All he wants is shoes.”

“What he probably needs is a leash. How did he sneak up there and steal my shoe without us knowing?”

Miles smiled and kissed her lips. “We were busy.”

“Yes, we were.” The microwave dinged, and she pulled the meal from it and set it on the table. “What now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, where do we go from here?” She grabbed two forks and sat at the table. Cricket’s meals were over-the-top big and could feed both of them easily.

“I like here just fine. Why do we have to decide about tomorrow when we should thoroughly enjoy today?”

She nodded. “You’re right.”

Someone knocked at her door, and Ollie woofed and ran for it. It wasn’t that he wanted to see who was there. He was more interested in the shoes they were wearing. Nirvana, for him, was anytime they visited a house where people had to remove their shoes before entering. He’d be sadly disappointed at Emmaline’s liberal shoe policy.

“It’s probably Tilly checking on me. I wasn’t in a good place earlier.” She rose from her chair and walked toward the door.

“I know,” he called after her. “You wanted a whole pie and a tub of ice cream.”

---