Page 24 of Paint Our Song

“Your social media account’s pretty big, Miles.”

“That was pure luck.”

Matthew rolls his eyes, smiling. “If you say so.”

After Matthew leaves, Miles goes right back to the reception table and snaps his laptop open. He must look so incredibly focused because Gabby leaves him alone, retreating to her own corner and talking to someone in Spanish on her phone. Must be her mom. Miles should say hi to her; he hasn’t seen her since he came to town.

Miles turns his screen away from Gabby, making sure she doesn’t notice, and does a search forRidgeford Lake real estate.There’s a directory of the land and buildings being sold and leased in the area,and he almost faints at the numbers. These werea lotof numbers. If they did sell their inn, Mom could retire early, and they wouldn’t have to worry about much else—but what about the inn? Giving up on the inn would be giving up on his father’s memory. And these numbers… holy shit. No wonder Jeff’s trying to give his business card to anybody who’ll take them.

Speaking of Jeff, he’s on this site, with the wordsTop Ridgeford Agentwritten right under his name. Miles has never said he wasn’t childish, so he sticks his tongue out at the photo.

***

Megan arrives later that day. They take a table outside on the wooden deck overlooking the lake, and Megan whips out her laptop and starts going through various things such as social media marketing, engagement rates, influencers—all things that Miles has zero interest in. He gets distracted by how someone needs to clean dead leaves off the deck and polish the wooden railings, as well as replace the too-old lounge chairs and tables.

Megan calls his attention, and he quickly realizes that this would never work if he’s left to his own devices. The inn definitely needs Megan.

Miles says, “Look at you, all grown up.”

“Please, I’vebeengrown up,” she says with a huff.

She goes through the questions with him, and she doesn’t hide her exasperation when she finds out that their social media account was only set up today. They’re all blank pages.

In his defense, the inn was run by his grandmother—Hannah—and then by his father. They didn’t have to bother with social media, and didn’t even have the internet back when the inn first opened. They relied on word-of-mouth and roadside advertisements, and the occasional campaigns in the newspapers. Miles remembers the occasional out-of-town trip to travel conventions too, where they’d set up a booth and offer discounts.

But social media? Nope. An inn as small as theirs didn’t even have its own marketing department.

“And there are my rates,” she says, grinning widely.

Miles peers at the numbers on the screen. It’s definitely something the inn can afford, and he’s pretty sure Megan’s giving him a great deal. No way her rates are actually this low. “Shit, Meg, thank you. You’re a lifesaver. You’re definitely hired.”

“Aw, thanks. Here.” Megan takes a cherry-flavored lollipop from her bag and hands it to him. “Your reward for sitting still long enough and listening to me go through all that.”

“What am I, a pet you’re training?” Nevertheless, he takes it from her too eagerly and thanks her.

Megan’s gaze drifts over his shoulder. “Isn’t that Cloverlily’s guitarist? Matt did tell me he was staying here.”

He looks behind him to see Calvin climbing the steps to the deck. Calvin must have been taking a walk by the lake.

Before Miles can stop her, Megan waves at Calvin. “Hello!”

He stops next to their table, his hands in his pockets. Calvin looks between her and Miles. “Hi,” he says.

“I’m Megan.” She pulls her bag over shoulder and steps towardhim, quickly getting rid of the distance between them. Megan offers her hand. “I’m the inn’s digital marketer.”

“Oh. Uh.” Blinking, Calvin shakes her hand. He looks over at Miles with a puzzled look. “Nice to meet you.”

“How are you finding the inn?” Megan asks.

Calvin looks like he needs to be rescued, but Miles is also at a loss. “It’s very nice here. Quite relaxing.”

“It really is!” Megan says. “I hope your stay only gets better.”

“Thank you.”

Megan spins around and walks right over to Miles, who’s pretending to push the chairs back to the table. She leans into his space and whispers, “Ask him to help with our marketing.”

Smiling broadly at both Miles and Calvin, Megan heads toward the door—but not before spinning around when she’s behind Calvin and out of his view, and giving Miles a full stare-down.