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Milo looked around. “This stop is definitely one for our memory book. You think I can bum one of the dead animals off him for a souvenir?”
“Please don’t. I’ll have nightmares about it attacking me in the car.”
Milo pointed to me. “You should’ve seen your face down there when he was showing us the animals.”
“You were looking at my face in the midst of all that?”
“Yeah. I look at your face a lot,” he muttered. “Habit, I guess.”
My cheeks heated. Milo looked so handsome right now. It had definitely been a few days since he touched a razor. The more rugged and dirty he looked, the more I loved it. My attraction to him was at an all-time high. Too bad we were getting closer and closer to parting ways. That meant with each passing day, it was more dangerous to do anything about these feelings right now.
Still, as he lingered before me, I got the sudden urge to kiss him. I’d had many urges like this, but never as strong as this one. Maybe it was because the bedroom was cozy and welcoming. It made me want to let loose all of my inhibitions, push Milo down onto the bed, and curl into him while I tasted his luscious lips.
That wouldn’t be happening, but it was a nice thought.
Milo reached out and cupped my cheek. Had he been reading my mind? Crazier things had happened on this trip. The feel of his warm, calloused hand against my face felt amazing. I closed my eyes to relish it.
And then…
“Yoohoo!” the old man’s voice startled us. He peeked in. “Dinner’s ready.”
My heart pounded, and Milo’s hand returned safely to his side. I was both pissed and relieved that Wyatt had interrupted our moment. I would never know where it could have led.
We followed Wyatt downstairs and sat at the dining room table. He served us bowls of piping hot beef stew and poured us some root beer. That was an odd combination, but the root beer brought back nostalgia from my childhood. I used to make floats with vanilla ice cream.
I took a spoonful of the stew into my mouth. “This is delicious.”
“It was Bernadine’s recipe. Never cooked for myself when she was alive. But I’ve been working my way through her recipe cards.”
As weird as he may have been in some ways—okay, in many ways—Wyatt was quite sentimental and sweet.
“I can only hope whomever I choose to spend the rest of my life with remembers me as fondly when I’m gone as you remember your love, Wyatt.”
He looked between Milo and me. “So, you’re already writing off this guy you’re with?”
I looked at Milo. I was just about to tell Wyatt the usual lie, that Milo and I were brother and sister, but Milo interrupted me.
“Unfortunately, I’m not the lucky guy who gets to have her heart. We’re just friends. But even if my intentions were different, she’s mending a broken heart right now. Only a fool would mess with that.”
Wyatt seemed to ponder that. “Well, sometimes there’s no way to mend a broken heart by yourself. But you can give it to someone else. Then it heals slowly, because that person helps you forget about the damage.” He winked.
Milo and I exchanged a quick look.
Wyatt waved his hand. “Well, I suppose I should’ve guessed you two weren’t romantic, given that you asked for two rooms. But I wasn’t gonna pry. Bernadine used to like to sleep in her own room after we did the deed. Said my fartin’ kept her up all night. I thought maybe y’all had your reasons, too.”
We had a good laugh at that.
I smiled at Milo. “We may not be together romantically. But I feel really lucky to have his friendship and to be here with him right now.”
Before Milo had a chance to respond, Wyatt got up from his seat. Our attention turned to him as he walked over to a set of apothecary drawers.
He opened one before taking out something encased in glass. “See this lock of hair?”
I tilted my head. “Yeah?”
“It belonged to Shirley Temple. She was before your time. Ever hear of her, though?”
I remembered my grandmother talking about her. It came up once when I asked why non-alcoholic drinks were called Shirley Temples.
“Oh. Yeah. Cute little actress, right?” I said. “But why do you have her hair?”
“I had a crush on her when I was a boy. My father took me to a meet and greet two states away. And well, when she leaned in, I snipped off a piece of her hair.”
What? I knew this man was crazy—in a good way. But this news might have taken the cake.
I wasn’t sure what to say. “Wow. That’s…cool?”
“Or creepy,” Milo whispered.
Genuinely curious, I asked, “How did Shirley react?”
Wyatt flashed a wicked grin. “She didn’t know.”
