His teeth gleamed white as he smiled. “It’ll be fun.”
“Said like a total masochist.”
“Are you worried you’ll have to date someone who will actually treat you right?”
A sharp ache formed in the general vicinity of my heart at those words. In an effort to dislodge the pain, I stood. “I should get to bed. We have an early day tomorrow.”
“Wait.” Miller joined me at the door, hand on my arm. “I’m sorry.”
“We can’t all have these fairytale relationships. Some of us have to put more into it than our fair share.”
“Hattie—”
“Guys don’t stick around for me, Miller.”
“The right one will.” His declaration was emphatic and filled with a heartbreaking amount of certainty. “The right one will love you so hard he won’t be able to walk away.”
Miller’s fierce words made it hard to breathe. My lungs and heart quit working in tandem, and oxygen ceased rising through my chest.
“I mean it, Hattie. You settle for these losers who don’t know a good thing when they have it. You’re not worthy of them. There’s nothing wrong with you—it’s them.”
I wished I could believe that. My head said it was true. But my heart whispered the name of every man who’d ever left.
Without saying another word, Miller held out his arm in invitation…and I walked right into his hug. His embrace wrapped around me and tightened. I nuzzled in like a besotted fool, wishing my pulse hadn’t suddenly turned erratic. Could he feel that wild rhythm against his skin? My arms circled Miller’s waist, and I rested my cheek against the cotton softness of his shirt.
His words replayed in my head. “The right one will love you so hard he won’t be able to walk away.”
If only that were true. It hurt too much to even dream. And if history were any indicator, Miller couldn’t be right.
I lifted my head, only to find Miller watching me. His gaze locked with mine, and the world stopped. The air thinned and I held my breath. Because if I exhaled, would the spell be broken?
One strong hand eased toward my face and cupped my cheek. Miller’s thumb slid across my skin once, then again. “Hattie?”
I tried to pull myself back to my body, but I was in orbit, floating somewhere above us, rising like a helium balloon. “Yes?”
“You have ketchup on your face.”
The balloon popped and I fell through the stratosphere, hitting my every insecurity on my way down. “I…I do?”
One more swipe of a finger across my skin, but this time Miller took a step back and put on that brotherly smile. “Got it.”
“Right.” I was practically panting with confusion, curiosity. And good old lust. “Thank you.”
Miller seemed hesitant to leave. “Maybe I’ll see you around the farm tomorrow.”
I followed him onto the porch. “Miller?”
“Yeah?”
A bolt of heat lightning lit up the northern sky in the distance, and I wondered if the atmosphere was as charged as I’d felt with Miller back in the house. “I, um…I guess you could help me screen some of these profiles.”
He paused on the first step, but an easy smile returned. “I knew you’d see I was right.”
“I don’t know that I’d go that far.”
“You recognize a genius mind when you see one.”
“Or a conceited one. Whichever.”
