Her Unexpected Engagement (Checkerberry Inn)

by Kyra Jacobs

  The thought—or thoughts, rather—drew a smile to her reflection’s face.

  “Steph?”

  “Spontaneity is what vacations are all about,” she whispered as she scurried from her bed.

  “You know, if you make me wait too much longer Ruby may well put me to work.”

  She grinned at how light-hearted he sounded today. Maybe they both needed a day of fun. Stephanie paused at the door, her hand on the knob. “So, I might have overslept a bit.”

  Something thudded against the other side of the door. “Ugh. Women.”

  “Can it, buddy. I’m gonna unlock the door and make a run for the shower. You make yourself comfortable—I’ll hurry, I promise.”

  “How about I grab us some breakfast?”

  “Excellent idea. Here.” She swiped a plastic key from the coffee table and slid it under the door. “Now you can let yourself in when you get back.”

  “Will do.”

  Stephanie hurried for the shower, eager to start their day of goofing off together. And goofing off is all it would be. This was Miles, after all. No commitment, just fun.

  Which was exactly what she needed.

  All she had to do was make sure her heart didn’t do something stupid like try to kick-start itself while they were together. Because that wouldn’t be his fault, not with her knowing what he was all about. No, whatever she felt after today would be all on her. But no threat of heartbreak was going to deter her from a much-needed day of play. Stephanie was a big girl, and she could handle this.

  Totally. No problem. Piece of cake.

  At least that’s what she told herself as she turned the shower on, ignoring the fact that the thought of spending a day with Miles made her feel giddy as a schoolgirl.

  …

  After Miles indulged Ruby and Maddie with a courteous amount of small talk in the dining room, his grumbling stomach served as the perfect excuse to slip away. So he piled up a huge plate of food from Maddie’s always amazing breakfast spread, grabbed a large to-go cup of coffee, and sauntered back toward the Chippewa Suite. Well, tried to saunter.

  Hard to do when you’ve got one Stephanie Johnson Fitzpatrick on your mind.

  Lord, that woman was going to be the end of him. She still wouldn’t let him get serious last night, refused to talk about their upcoming charity event. Instead, they’d lain chest to chest, plotting their day out together. Now he couldn’t help but wish they’d planned to spend it in bed…

  “Miles.”

  He turned to see his cousin step into the lobby behind him, an easy smile on his face. Brent had a thermos in his hands, probably on his way out to play Bob the Builder for the day. All that manual labor wasn’t Miles’s gig, but it fit his cousin to a T.

  “Hey, cuz, what’s up?”

  “Kayla mentioned last night that you had something you’ve been meaning to tell me?”

  Miles worked to keep his face smooth. “She did, did she?”

  “Yeah, something about a phone call?” Brent lowered his voice. “You in some kind of trouble or something?”

  No, but Kayla will be. “No, no, nothing like that.”

  Miles looked around to make sure Ruby and Maddie weren’t within earshot. Both women were on the other side of the room. The only people nearby were a few guests, but even their tables weren’t within eavesdropping distance. A good thing, as there was no way Brent would let this go, which meant it was confession time. Miles scrambled to think of how he could put a positive spin on the story.

  “Look, I got a call from Freddie the other day. You know how he and I go way back and all. And—”

  “Freddie? Boering? Isn’t he a headhunter now?” Brent’s countenance cooled. “You got a job offer, didn’t you?”

  “No, though I did interview for one. And before you start in on me about it, just hear me out. I hadn’t planned on leaving after business picked back up, but this offer.” He shook his head. “Brent, I’ll probably never see another one like it. I’d be a fool not to try.”

  “Or a fool to think of leaving.” Brent frowned. “Does Ruby know?”

  “No, I haven’t told her yet. Didn’t want to upset her for nothing in case this doesn’t pan out.”

  “Wow, man.” Brent rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Things are just starting to turn around at the inn. I sure didn’t see this coming.”

  “Yeah, the timing sucks. But I’m sure we can find someone else to do the books for Ruby. Heck, Kayla can probably help pay the bills. But I’ve got to do this—it might be the best chance I have to get out of town. To see the real world, find my own version of happy.”

  Brent snorted, his gaze shifted to the plate in Miles’s hands. “Whatcha got there?”

  “Huh? Oh, I offered to grab Steph some breakfast.”

  “Steph?”

  Miles responded with a wide grin.

  “Finally.” Brent gave him a fist bump. “Look, it sucks to think you might not be around anymore. And as much as I want to beat some sense into you right now, I won’t. But don’t stand there telling me you’ve got to do this to find happiness, because you’re staring right at it and can’t see the forest for the trees.”

  “What are you—”

  Brent shook his head with a sigh. “Good luck with the job offer. And that search of yours.”

  Miles watched him go, totally confused. Staring right at it? Clearly his cousin was seeing life through rose-tinted glasses now that he was head over heels in love. Mount Pleasant had nothing left to offer Miles. Nothing. And this fling with Stephanie was precisely that. A fling. She’d soon accept her job offer and end their fake engagement. Hopefully by then he’d get the nod from Rozario and be heading off to Columbus to start anew. Two great starts to new careers and better days for them both.

  Because better days were coming—he could feel it. Though, that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy today. And today’s agenda had Stephanie’s name written all over it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Stephanie looked out over the bow of their canoe, savoring the moment. She’d forgotten about this place, about the majestic wandering streams out past the old pond that helped feed its depth and supply it with fish. The last time she’d been on these waters there had been three people in the boat—two Masterson boys and her, just like so many of their outings as kids. Today, though, it was just her and Miles—the combination she’d once dreamed about, though she knew better than to think it would last.

  She set her paddle at her feet and dragged a hand across her damp forehead. “Phew, I forgot how tiring this whole canoeing thing could be.”

  “What’s that I hear? Is someone admitting her stamina has decreased over the years?”

  She turned and threw a dark look at Miles, who sat behind her looking at one with nature. A tank top and cargo shorts fit his lean body well, and a sexy pair of Ray-Bans hid his eyes—a good thing, since the right look from them lately could melt her in about two seconds flat. Funny, though, she’d never pictured him as an outdoors-y kind of guy. Sure, they’d played outside summer after summer as kids. But he’d become content to remain indoors toward the end of high school, his nose in books filled with numbers and equations when it wasn’t sniffing out his next dating target.

  Maybe it was his intelligence that appealed to all the girls. Maybe it still did. But for her, there had always been more to Miles. He’d always let her just be…her.

  “If you breathe a word of this to anyone, I’ll have to kill you,” she said. “And don’t think I wouldn’t.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, that saying about a woman scorned? I’ve no doubt with you it’d be a hundred times worse.”

  “You’d better believe it,” she muttered under her breath.

  “I almost pity Liam.”

  She turned so fast in her seat the canoe wobbled. “What?”

  “I almost pity Liam. You know, for the wrath you must have unleashed on him.”

  “Oh.” She turned back around. “Well, don’t. Because I
didn’t.”

  Instead of revenge, she’d curled into a little ball. Stayed hidden from the world and all those judgmental pairs of eyes. Sure, most of the people she ran into at the store or at the gas pump had been quick to credit her on how well she’d handled the kiss fiasco and how much of a jerk her husband—strike that, ex-husband—had been. Still, it hadn’t made her feel any better. Most times, it made her feel that much worse.

  Because she’d been the fool to marry his stupid ass in the first place.

  “What? He—”

  “I know what he did, Miles. I don’t need to be reminded of it. Trust me, every news channel this side of the world did that for weeks as it was.”

  “Sorry, I never would have brought it up if I knew how sore a subject it still was. You’ve just always been so…”

  “So what, Miles? Bitchy? Nagging? Self-absorbed?” Those were the things Liam had accused her of when defending his actions. It was all her fault he’d cheated, he said. All hers.

  “I was going to say kickass. Like you were always ready to take on the world. And if there’d been betting on the odds, not once would I have bet against you.”

  His voice was low, sincere, and it totally disarmed her. No one outside of her family had ever done that before. She cleared her throat. Time to change the subject before he accidentally drove her to tears.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” Miles said.

  “Why didn’t you ever get married?”

  The smooth rhythm in his paddle strokes faltered. “Guess I’m just not a big fan of the whole institution.”

  There was something unusually off about his tone in that answer, a hint that there was a story behind it all. Stephanie could use a good story to distract her from her own broken fairy tale, so she turned full around in her seat, careful not to tip the canoe. “Why not?”

  His brows dipped lower and he leaned a smidge to the left, feigning interest in the view ahead, as though his concentration was needed to avoid a collision. But the stream was wide here, and the water deep enough that running aground wasn’t an issue. Nothing too dangerous outside the boat. Only, it seemed, the conversation inside.

  “Because.”

  She sensed that Miles wasn’t going to budge. There was something he was holding close to his chest, something that must have hurt him long ago. But it wasn’t fair for her to be the only one shedding light on skeletons in the closet today, so Stephanie slowly rose out of her seat.

  The canoe wobbled.

  “What are you doing?” Miles growled.

  “Trying to get you to talk.”

  She wiggled her butt. The canoe rocked beneath her.

  “I am talking.”

  She wiggled more, nearly lost her balance but grinned all the while. How could she not, with Miles red in the face and on the verge of panic. Or fury. Either way, it was an amusing mix.

  “Damn it, Steph, sit down before you capsize us.”

  “Maybe I want to go for a swim.”

  “Then wait ‘til we get back to shore. I’ll be glad to throw you in then.”

  Oh, she loved it when he threatened her like that. That had always been part of the draw he held over her—their intellectual battles. But there was no humor in this moment, his struggles thinly veiled. Why? Something told her if she got him talking, the answers would eventually come. And his answers had to be far more interesting than hers.

  Stephanie leaned forward and crouched before him. The canoe wobbled precariously beneath them. “Tell me, Miles.”

  He angled his face toward hers and let out a long, frustrated sigh.

  “Fine. You want to know? I’ll tell you. It’s my parents’ fault, okay? I grew up thinking they were happy. In love. Then one night when I was about ten, I got up to use the bathroom long after they’d tucked me into bed.” He set the paddle across his lap and ran a hand through his hair. “They were in the living room facing each other, Dad red-faced with his arms crossed over his chest, Mom’s face tear-stained and hands on her hips. She said she’d stay, for my sake. Would pretend to be happy until then. Dad grudgingly agreed, said he could fake it just as well as she did.”

  He paused, looked out over the stream. A short silence descended upon them, broken only by the occasional bird call or insect buzz. Stephanie longed to hold him, to soothe away the painful memories with her touch. But his mind was at work, she could see that, and so she left him with his thoughts until he was ready to continue.

  “All a lie, Steph,” he finally said. His face turned back to hers. “All those years. The loving husband, the doting wife? All complete and total bull.”

  “Maybe not. Maybe you just caught them on a bad day or something.”

  “Uh, no.” He barked a sour laugh. “No, once I knew the truth the lies were easier to spot. The forced smiles, the distance in their eyes. On their own, they each loved me as best they could, but when we were all together? I hated it. Hated seeing them so miserable in their attempt to keep life ‘normal’ for me. What kid wants that guilt weighing on him every night?”

  “Oh, Miles.” Stephanie couldn’t hold back any longer. She dropped carefully to her knees and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. Rather than push her away as she half-expected him to do, his arms wrapped around her as well. Almost painfully so, as though she were a buoy and his ship was sinking. But she didn’t say a word, just held him close and offered what love she had left in her tattered heart.

  Because she’d always loved him, whether she was strong enough to admit it or not. She just hadn’t understood why he’d never shown her anything beyond friendship. Now she understood, and it pained her to hear how his little, trusting soul had been broken so long ago.

  Miles lowered his cheek onto the top of her head. “I…I couldn’t live with myself if I did that to someone. Tied them down to a marriage they would eventually outgrow, to a life they resented. Or to bring a kid into this world and dump that same guilt on them.”

  “But not every marriage ends in tragedy, Miles.”

  “Do you truly believe that?” He pulled back from her. “You of all people?”

  Heat rose to her cheeks. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Are you kidding? My childhood was a cakewalk compared to what Liam put you through this spring.”

  “You think I’m going to let one stumbling block ruin the rest of my life? That I’m going to roll over and play dead, grow old all alone and let fear rule my life?”

  “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all year?”

  Their voices had risen to shouts, the sound echoing off the woods that bordered their previously quiet stream.

  “Well, sorr-ee if I took a little time off to mourn the death of my happily ever after. But at least I had the courage to go after one.”

  “The courage? More like the stupidity. Liam was just using you. Hell, he always did. He wanted his trophy wife, and he sure as hell got one.”

  Stephanie’s cheeks went from warm to blazing hot. “Oh, yeah? Well, maybe I wouldn’t have married him if someone else had the guts to ask me out!”

  …

  Miles felt like someone had punched him square in the gut. Had Stephanie had feelings for him all those years ago? Feelings that went beyond simple desire and yet she’d waited until now to admit them?

  “Wait, you mean—”

  “Forget it.” Jaw clenched, she slid back onto her own seat and turned to face front once more. “Just…forget I ever said that.”

  “No.”

  He grabbed the side of the canoe and gave it a solid tug to the right. Stephanie’s hands flew to the edges, and she ducked her chin to throw him a dark look.

  “Knock it off, Miles.”

  “Nuh uh. No, you don’t get to go around making all the rules here, missy. And you sure as hell can’t drop a bomb on me like that and then ask me to pretend it never happened.”

  She kept her back to him and, in classic Stephanie style, added insult to
injury by letting go of the edges and crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “I can make any rule I want. Guests always get their way. Ruby said so.”

  “But we’re not at the inn, so we play by my rules now.”

  With that he leaned left and then hard to the right. Stephanie’s shriek ricocheted off the foliage as their canoe capsized and dumped them into the crystal clear stream below. Miles righted himself quickly and discovered the cool water was only waist deep on him. Stephanie came up sputtering a second later, her sunglasses dislodged and halfway down her nose. Her long auburn ponytail was now plastered to her back, and she stared at him through widened hazel eyes backlit with fire. Had he not been so frustrated with her he might have found her drowned rat look irresistible.

  Oh, who was he kidding? He’d find her irresistible if she were green and covered with purple hair. Which only served to piss him off more.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” she asked.

  “You asked for it.”

  “And our phones? Our wallets?”

  He tipped his head in the direction of the canoe. A waterproof bag floated on the surface beside it, loosely tethered to the submerged seats. “Safe and sound.”

  She slammed two fists down into the water. “God, you always think you’re so smart!”

  “Maybe I am.”

  Stephanie launched herself at him, the water slowing her progress and his escape. But momentum was on her side, and she reached him before he could get out of the way. Both legs came up around his waist, anchoring her to him so her hands were free to grab two fists full of his wet shirt and start shaking him.

  “Why? Why do all men have to be such freaking idiots? Why do they need us to spell everything out for them?”

  “Hey, knock if off! Spell what out?”

  “That we’re in love with you, okay?”

  The shaking ceased and after a tense moment Stephanie’s grip on him eased. Without another word she slipped back into the water, shoulders slumped as she turned away. Guilt nearly drowned Miles. He’d never known how she felt, had misread her every step of the way. Kayla, he hated to admit yet again, had been right. Or maybe…

  “Or maybe we were too afraid to see the writing on the wall for fear that, in the end, we’d just end up hurting the ones we care most about,” he said, his voice soft.