I blinked again at the figure. “It’s too much.”
Helen gave me a glare that matched her father’s. “It’s not. You’ll take it, and you’ll put it in your bank account.”
So I took it. “Thank you. I’ll split it with the guys.”
Helen opened her mouth, possibly to argue, but just then a familiar pair of arms circled my waist and Miller rested his head on my shoulder. “I think we’re done, babe.”
“Oh, Miller. Here’s yours.” And Helen held out another folded check.
Miller took it and didn’t even open it to look. He just tucked it into his pocket. “It’s not necessary, but I appreciate it. Thank you, Helen.”
The fuck? Did they teach classes in law school on how not to be awkward and make things weird, or did Miller just figure it out for himself? It wouldn’t surprise me—my boyfriend was all kinds of smooth.
“I need to go find Wilder and the twins and give them their checks,” Helen said and headed toward the front door.
I turned around in Miller’s arms. “Mine’s two hundred dollars! Is yours?”
He took the check out to look at it. “Yeah.”
“That’s athousanddollars all up!” The twins were going to lose their minds.
“Which is cheaper than hiring a cleaning crew for three weekends straight,” Miller said.
I couldn’t remember ever having two hundred dollars in my pocket that wasn’t immediately earmarked for stuff like bills, groceries, or whatever needing immediate fixing on my piece-of-shit truck.
“Oh man,” I said. “I kind of want to blow it all on pizza and beer except I should put it in my savings, right? For community college?”
“Yep,” Miller said and wiped a smudge of grime off my nose. “You save yours, and I’ll blow mine on pizza and beer, and that way everyone wins.”
“I like the way you think.” I hooked my fingers through the belt loops in his jeans. “So this means you’re staying for dinner, right?”
“Of course.” He grinned at me. “Wilder wants free legal advice.”
“Oh, you’re gonna give free legal advice to my friend? How romantic!”
“Babe,” Miller said in a low voice, “if you wanted romance, you wouldn’t have suggested pizza and beer. All due respect to pizza and beer, but they’re not romantic.”
I loved how Miller said shit like “all due respect” instead of “no shade” like a regular person. And I loved that he was willing to blow his money on pizza and beer for us.
“Damn,” I said. “Okay, so romance is off the table. I guess you’ll just have to fuck me like an animal instead, huh?”
He pretended to think about it seriously. “I guess so.”
For a second both of us held off laughing, but only just for a second. Even though Miller was super smart, we laughed at dumb shit together, and I loved that about us. Dating Miller was incredible, not because we were doing anything different as boyfriends than when we’d just been hooking up, but becausewe were doing everything exactly the same as we always had, except now we got to look forward instead of just existing in the present. Like, I’d already invited him to Thanksgiving with Grandma and Emma-Lee and the guys, and he’d asked me if I wanted to spend Christmas with his family. And it felt nice, whenever we parted, not to have to wonder when we’d meet up next, because we already knew. On the nights Miller didn’t spend in Goose Run, I stayed at his place in Hopewell. Once, I’d stopped by his office to meet him for lunch because I had a day off, and I’d met his boss.
Miller was definitely winning in the boss stakes. His boss had adjusted Miller’s hours so he finished at noon on Fridays so he could come see me, for starters. Plus he had a dog, not a goose, so that was another point in his favor.
Miller was still laughing when I leaned forward and kissed him softly. “You’re awesome,” I said. “I love you.”
There were a couple ways that could have gone.
I mean, the main takeaway was that I probably shouldn’t have said it when we were both sweaty and grimy and standing in Harlan’s house. It was kind of a big thing to say, right? But it didn’t feel like a big thing. It felt about as natural as breathing. But that didn’t mean he felt the same, and I found myself holding my breath waiting for his response.
And Miller smiled and said, “Love you too.”
As easy as breathing.
Back in highschool when I’d asked Grandma if Wilder could come live with us, I’d never thought the house would one day be full of friends who’d become family. But now, as I argued withChase over the last piece of pepperoni pizza, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
