“Yep. I figured you haven’t eaten, but if you have, I’ll gladly eat both of those,” I said with a grin.
She gave me a doubtful look as she pulled the two monstrous burritos out of the bag. “There is no way you could eat both of these.”
“Oh, I bet I could.”
“That’s gross.”
“I’m a guy. We’re inherently gross,” I said with a shrug.
She laughed, and the sound made me smile. I liked making her laugh. I always had. It had once been my goal to make her laugh at least five times a day. She had the best laugh.
We polished off our burritos. Well, she had eaten half of hers, and I’d eaten the rest. She’d watched in slight horror as I’d downed one-and-a-half burritos without much fuss.
After cleaning up the small mess from dinner, we started in on the floors again. Mia had chosen a hearty oak flooring that went with the historical nature of the home. It was very similar to the original floor, minus the smell and damage.
We began in the living room and put down the underlayment. She watched as I cut and fit the pieces together. She would help when they needed to be taped together.
We did most of this in silence, but we did occasionally strike up a conversation about random things. She asked about my parents and how my sister had met her husband. I asked how she’d ended up in Atlanta, and I got a vague nonanswer that involved something about a job.
“Mia, why won’t you talk about your past?”
“What? I am. I just did.”
I put down the cutting tool I was using and drew my gaze upward until we were eye level. “No, you skirted around the question and gave me a bullshit answer. Did someone hurt you? Are you running from something or someone?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s nothing like that. There’s just not much to tell.”
I let it go, but I knew she wasn’t telling me everything. She couldn’t have been gone for eight years without some sort of story. Someone doesn’t leave for that long without having a little baggage following behind.
We worked for several more hours, well past midnight, and we managed to get the floor put down in the living room. When the last board was locked into place, she jumped up and clapped.
“Oh my God! It’s freaking gorgeous! It actually looks like a living room!”
“It does,” I said. “We just need to put the trim down, and it will be done. But I’ll wait to do that at the end.”
“Thank you so much, Garrett. I don’t know how I would have done all this without you.”
“You would have ended up hiring someone,” I said with a grin.
“Probably,” she agreed.
We picked up the tools and cleaned up a bit. Both of us needed to get to bed. I was looking at getting only a few hours of sleep. I needed to get home, but that didn’t stop me from dragging my feet as I headed in the direction of the door.
“How many days do you think we have left to finish it all?” she asked.
I picked up my duffel bag and rocked back on my heels, not wanting to leave. “Probably another week to finish the downstairs completely. That reminds me…I have a business trip in two days. I have to fly up to New York for a couple of days to meet with a few clients. I’ll be back after that. I just didn’t want you to wonder why I wasn’t showing up,” I added quickly, not wanting her to think I was expecting her to worry about me.
Would she?
Loser. I am a loser.
“Oh, okay. Have fun, I guess,” she said awkwardly. “Are you going to be in the city for the weekend, too?”
“I hadn’t planned on it. It’s not really fun when you’re alone. I’ve been there tons of times anyway with my family.”
“Right.”
“You’ve been to New York City, haven’t you?” I asked.
“Yes.” She nodded, looking down at her shoes. “When I was younger. My parents always had functions there, so we would stay at these beautiful, fancy hotels. My mom would hire a babysitter to stay with me while they went out to parties and formal events.”
I gave her a hard stare. “You haven’t really been to New York then. You’ve just been on the inside of fancy hotels. It doesn’t count. You missed out on all the fun things.”
She shrugged and gave me a small smile. “Maybe next time.”
“Come with me,” I said without thinking.
“What?” she asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
“Come with me. I won’t be much good during the day when I’m working, but at night, we can hang out. We’ll spend the weekend there, and I’ll take you to all the places you missed out on as a kid.”
She looked uneasy as her gaze appraised me.
“Just as friends, I promise. We’ll even get separate rooms.”
“Can we go to the Statue of Liberty?” she asked shyly, her eyes taking on a rounder appearance.
It reminded me of the girl I’d met in homeroom so long ago.
“Whatever you want, Mia.”
Her smile spread into a megawatt grin, and my knees almost buckled. I’d spent years dreaming of that smile and the way it made my heart falter and kick-start into a gallop. Now, she was looking up at me with the same wide-eyed smile.
“Deal,” she said.
I was done for.
Chapter Nine
~Mia~
“Don’t pack those! Ugh, why do you even own underwear like that?” Liv asked in outright disgust as she threw my cute hot-pink-and-lime-green boy shorts on the floor. Then, she started rummaging through my top drawer.
Sam raised his head from his place on the bed and lifted an ear, but he quickly lost interest and relaxed back into the comforter.
“What is wrong with boy shorts?”
“Nothing—if they are covered in lace or crotchless. But these are neon and have words on the butt. Seriously, Mia? Did you shop in the juniors section for these?”
Yes, yes, I did. I chose to ignore that question to save myself the humiliation that would follow.
She continued to ransack my drawer in search of God-only-knows-what until I heard an excited, high-pitched noise escape her throat.
“Yes! These! Pack these!” she said, throwing several lacy thongs in my suitcase.
“Liv! This is not a sexy weekend away with my boyfriend. I will not need thongs.”
“No, it’s a weekend with your ex-boyfriend, who you secretly still have a thing for. Pack the thongs.”
My mouth gaped open as I stared at her blankly. She grinned back and did that annoying thing with her hip that made her look like a teenager from the Valley.