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I glance around the room and say, “So what you’re saying is I should probably go down all the ice cream and cookies we have on hand before this. Challenge accepted.”

He lets out a groan and I can picture him rolling his eyes. “No, I’m just saying Sonia is used to retaking measurements. I’ve had to do it at least every year since all my growth spurts.”

An image of a younger Miles parades through my mind. Was he the gangly kind? No, he probably turned heads even when he was younger.

“Okay, don’t worry. I won’t eat myself into a coma. See you then.”

We hang up and my little laugh turns into a small cry. The guy is nearly perfect and I am far from it. I doubt I’ll be able to come out of this situation with my heart intact.

CHAPTER13

Miles

It’s been a couple years since I’ve been out to my alma mater, and here I am for the second time in a week. I smile as I remember telling my mother I was turning down a chance at Harvard to go to Boston University.

The Ivy League school had been my mother’s goal for me since I was in diapers. And as I’d grown up in the shadow of her company and her presence in the society of Boston, I’d wanted to do something to get her attention. Going to a public school had done it. But she spent the next several weeks giving me the silent treatment because of it.

And now that I piece that together, Tanya did the same thing. If she was angry, it was up to me to “care enough” and ask all sorts of questions to mend our relationship. Not that Dani and I’ve had anything to argue about, but I wonder how she reacts when she disagrees.

Despite my mother’s anger, I’d graduated Summa Cum Laude. But even that accomplishment was overshadowed by the fact I “could do that at a better school.”

Me: I’m here.

My text is short, but I have a strange excitement pooling in my stomach at the idea of seeing Dani again. There aren’t many places to park along this area, but with the directions I’d given to her to meet near the back of the university, she should be able to find me.

“Hey! I had no idea this was still part of the campus.” Dani’s smile is wide. She adjusts a large backpack over her shoulders.

“And you look like you’re ready to head to a study group,” I say, reaching out for the backpack. I open the door for her and then secure her backpack in the back seat.

“Well, I did just get out of college a few weeks ago. Old habits and all that.” She turns to me and her eyes narrow. “How long ago did you graduate?”

“Undergrad or grad degree?”

Dani makes a face. “Of course you went back to get a masters. Either.”

I chuckle and secure my seatbelt before we head out. “My undergrad was five years ago, and my business masters was three years ago.”

Dani leans her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes. “Going back to school sounds like torture.”

I nod. “It was. But that’s over now. What are you? Twenty-two?”

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to ask a woman her age?” Dani says, placing her hand over her chest in dismay. It takes a second for me to realize she’s kidding.

With a shake of my head, I say, “That was all in my father’s jurisdiction. And I might as well know, just in case someone happens to ask.”

She smiles and says, “I’m two months away from twenty-three. My mom worried about me being a summer birthday and held me back a year in kindergarten.”

I pull into the garage of Copley Place, a large mall near the Back Bay. “Throwing it all the way back to kindergarten, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m a summer birthday and had a lovely speech impediment at the time. She figured I could use another year to grow out of it.”

I park and turn to her. “I never would’ve guessed.”

“That’s the beauty of bribes. I cashed in on every one my parents set out so I’d practice. I got the pink bike with the streamers out of the handlebars, a trip to the circus, and several new toys.” She nods, her expression serious like she was one of the cool kids.

It’s hard for me to keep my smile under control, as I’m trying to get the words out in a somber manner. “Pink streamers? I would’ve taken you for a neon green kind of girl.”

She shakes her head. “Neon green is from my later, rebel days.”