Page 38 of Raised On It (Between the Pines #1)

Miles smiles. “Hell yes, we are.” He kisses me quickly before addressing my friends.

“Ladies, I’m Miles, and it’s nice to meet you. What do you say we head back in and get to know each other?”

I can’t help but look over my shoulder as Miles walks us all back into the restaurant for one last look at my past, and I’m so glad I do.

Grant is standing on the edge of the sidewalk hailing a cab, and when the yellow car pulls up, it drives right through a disgusting sewer water puddle that drenches his expensive suit and leaves me with one last perfect memory of him.

“Let me get this straight.” Jackie leans over her third vodka cranberry, her eyes going back and forth between Miles and me, not believing what she’s hearing. “Your opening line was, I’m. Going. To. Marry. You. One. Day.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When she catches my ear-to-ear grin, her face that was screaming what the hell when she was looking at Miles metamorphosizes into I’m so happy for you .

“And you had only seen her from across the room? Hadn’t spoken a word yet?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Whoa.” Billie sighs in awe.

Arianna continues to question him, and it doesn’t faze him in the least.

“Ballsy. You use that one often?” Arianna asks, impressed.

“Never. But when you know, you know.”

And because I’ve had a few cocktails myself, I share something I wonder if I should have the moment the words come out of my mouth.

“He calls it the crackle .”

My knee is bumped by his under the table, and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t have shared.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I was just…” I start to take it back and tell them I was just joking, but as I have learned about Miles, he doesn’t shy away from his feelings, and he has no problem sharing.

“You know that feeling you get when the atmosphere in the room changes the moment your person enters? You feel them before you see them. Like there’s some sort of crackle in the air.

” All three of them stare at him like he’s speaking a different language.

“You’re telling me none of you have ever felt it before? ”

Crickets.

My friends are taken aback, and these feisty New Yorkers, who are never short on words, are having trouble coming up with any.

“I think you’ve bewitched them with your too good to be true farm boy charm.”

He kisses the corner of my mouth. “All that matters is that I’ve done the same to you.”

“You sure have.”

“And I’ll do whatever it takes to make you stay under my spell until the end of my days. ”

“Okay, yep. I get it. Just felt it. The crackle is real, and you two have it.” Jackie holds her phone up and takes a picture of us. “Sorry, just need a picture of what the crackle looks like.”

“Babe, make sure you give her my number so she can send that to me.”

“You have got to be kidding. You have more selfies of us and pictures of me to fill your phone to max capacity. The last thing you need is another picture.”

“No worries. Jackie, make sure I give you my number before we go.”

“You are ridiculous. I mean, really, what are you going to do with all of those pictures? You don’t do social media. I seriously doubt you’re going to have them printed and put in a photo album.”

“You don’t know everything, City Mouse. I may just surprise you,” he says, lifting my hand and kissing the back of it.

“Speaking of knowing everything or each other really. I mean, how much time could you really have spent together in the past couple of months when you’re running your company?” Arianna asks, always the pragmatic one.

And again, before I can speak, he does.

“Well, luckily for me, I have an assistant who kicks ass and takes names. I have a great team working for me, and for a couple of weeks during the harvest and my wooing my little City Mouse here, they were really picking up the slack. Things have gotten back to normal, and I’m doing the old nine to five while this one writes all day long.

Also, it helps to be the boss. Means I can work when and where I want.

It also means I work all day and night. There have been many nights I’ve been on my phone or my laptop while we’re watching a movie or… ”

Interrupting, I make sure the girls know that no matter what when we are eating dinner, or any meal for that matter, no electronics. No interruptions. I also clarify that his after hours working isn’t that bad, and that I am always writing anyway, so it all works out.

“So, really it’s like any couple. We work and see each other every night and on the weekends. Thank God, I can bust out of the office when I get the urge to see her. I mean, who’s gonna fire me?”

“True, but how well do you really know her?” Billie leans in conspiratorially, whispering like I can’t hear her. “I mean, your little city mouse has some serious issues.”

“Is that so? Do tell, Billie. I’d love to hear this.” I kid, knowing she would never sell me out for real but also knowing I have nothing to hide from Miles, and I’m fine with whatever she tells him.

“Well, for starters, she lives in a penthouse while being deathly afraid of heights. I mean, what’s that about? Why live on the top of a high-rise if you’re too scared to stand next to your windows and enjoy the view you spent all your hard-earned money on?”

“I did know that, but I do believe she’s overcoming her fear. At least from the safety of her own home.” We look at each other, the crackle between us loud enough for the whole place to hear. “You’re rather fond of the view from your windows lately, aren’t you, Mase?”

“No, you didn’t!” Jackie yells. “You did her up against the windows of her apartment! Mason, I’m so proud of you!”

“Eww…stop it. I don’t need to imagine that. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

“Arianna, don’t pretend to be a prude just because there’s a boy at girls’ night,” Jackie says, calling her out since she is usually the biggest perv of the group.

“But they’re sitting right there. It’s bad enough that I’m going to picture them naked up against those windows every time I’m there. You guys suck.”

“If you ask me, this is the best girls’ night ever!” Billie squeals .

“Okay, well, let’s take your mind off it then. How else can I earn your faith in our relationship because I’m not going anywhere?” Miles asks the girls.

“Are you going to take her away from us?” Arianna cuts to the chase.

This is where I step in.

“Hey, that’s a pretty serious question, and I don’t think it’s one we need to talk about tonight.

Let’s just say Miles and I are living in the moment and have decided we aren’t talking about what happens when my house swap is over until the time is here.

We’re happy in the here and now, and that’s all that matters. ”

The girls grow quiet, and I see the creeping doubt wash over them as they think about what I’ve just said.

It sounds like we don’t think this is going anywhere after my time in Eastlyn is over, but the truth of the matter is, we haven’t talked about it since we got serious, and I am not about to have that conversation here with my friends in a crowded bar.

Even if it is on my mind twenty-four seven.

“I will tell you this, Arianna. No matter where things go…” Miles rolls his eyes as he says the words because in his mind, he knows where this goes.

With me walking down an aisle in a white dress with him waiting at the other end for me.

“I could never take you girls away from Mason. She loves you, you’re her family, and you make her happy.

From what I’ve gathered, this is sort of a package deal, and you guys are a little bonus to the big prize in the package. ”

God, I love this man.

“Mason, is he always this perfect?”

“Annoyingly, yes,” I answer Jackie.

“Please tell me you have a single brother?”

“Sorry, just one happily married sister.”

“Damn.”

“You are sweet, kind, hot as hell, and let's not forget loaded since you essentially are EBC beer. So, except for the fact that you live in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the country, you’re the complete package. It’s too bad the only negative thing about you is so damn big because you’re kind of perfect. ”

“Nah, I’m far from it.”

The mood at the table grows a little somber at Arianna’s comment. It’s grounded in truth, and that’s what makes it so hard to take.

Miles does what he does and lightens the mood and has everyone laughing until they cry, including me. Although under the surface, the 2700 miles between Eastlyn and New York City never leave my thoughts.

By the end of the evening, he has decided which of my girls are the Rachel, Emmett, and Amelia of my group.

He tells them all about The Crew back home, and by the time the night is over, a trip to Eastlyn is in the works.

Especially since we just told them that Emmett and I have been talking about opening a little new and used bookstore on Main Street.

It’s kind of shocking it doesn’t already exist. I’ve been treating it like an investment, but I know it’s really because I don’t want to leave, and it’s a reason to stay.

All this talk of Eastlyn has me missing it already, and we’ve only been gone two days.

What the hell am I going to do?