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A sad sort of chuckle leaves his lips. “That’s for sure.”
“My point is that it’s a good thing she has you to look out for her, but she’s a grown woman. You can’t question every decision she makes, and I think that’s why she didn’t want to tell you. She knew you’d interrogate her about what was going on with us.”
“And what exactly is going on with you two?” His voice is a little harder.
I sip my beer to buy myself a few seconds. “We haven’t discussed the details.”
He leans in. “Don’t you think you should? Before someone gets hurt?”
“Believe me, I know I’m not good enough for your sister and I tried to stay away, I really did. But you know what she’s like… she’s like a sunbeam through the clouds after a month of rain. It’s impossible not to be drawn into her.”
Miles laughs, leaning back in his chair, hand on his stomach as though he can barely contain himself.
I scowl across the table. “What the hell is so funny?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve never heard you talk that way.”
“What way?”
“Like a poet or some shit. You really like her, and I’ve never seen you fall for anyone before. It’s weird. I figured you just grunted at your hookups for the most part.”
Irritation bristles through me, but I decide to let it slide, given that I’m in the wrong for keeping all of this from him anyway. “Laugh it up. Like I said, I know she can do a hell of a lot better, but I’ll take what I can get for the moment.”
Miles sighs. “Maybe I was worried about the wrong person getting hurt.” His sympathetic eyes make me want to punch him in the face.
Instead, I fist my hand on the table. “I knew when this started she’d be heading back to Connecticut.”
“Yeah, but knowing it and dealing with it are two different things.”
We sit there silently for a minute, both in our heads.
“At least you guys are using protection. I’d have to kill you if you knocked her up.” He laughs.
“Fucking cat,” I grumble, but we both laugh. When we’re both done, I sober my expression and meet his gaze. “I really am sorry, Miles, but understand that I would never willingly hurt your sister.”
He nods a few times. “Yeah, I know that. I was just shocked with how it all went down and a little hurt that neither of you told me. But I get it… I understand why it would’ve been hard to tell me.”
“We good now?” My eyebrows rise.
“We’re good.” He stands from the table and I do the same, then we do the man-hug thing. When we pull apart, he claps me on the shoulder and says, “You should know though, she could do a hell of a lot worse than you, buddy.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I say nothing. Luckily, Miles’s phone rings on the table and we both take our seats.
He looks at the screen, then at me. “It’s my agent Jagger. Mind if I take this for a second?”
“Not at all.” I motion for him to answer the call.
“Hey, Jagger. How’s it going?” Miles answers.
I can only hear Miles’s side of the call, which consists of a lot of uh-huhs and okays, then his face goes blank and he says, “No shit, huh?” and finally, “All right.” He hangs up, looking a little shell-shocked.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
He’s staring at the table, still processing whatever he was told. “I just got traded to Chicago.”
My first thought isn’t about how I’ll be sorry to see my friend go or how it will affect the team. My first thought is about how Twyla might feel about this and how, without Miles here, she won’t have any real reason to visit San Francisco again.
Twenty-Seven
