Her Unexpected Engagement (Checkerberry Inn)

by Kyra Jacobs

  “Miles? W-what are you doing here?”

  “Well, unlike some people, I was unlucky enough to grow roots in this lovely town.” Grimacing, he eased his way back to standing and pressed a hand to the small of his back. “Question is, what are you doing here?”

  That was a good question…and one she planned to take up with her younger sister shortly. First the fib about her being engaged—something she wasn’t dealing with quite yet—then sending Stephanie here, knowing darned well she’d likely cross paths with Miles? What was that girl up to?

  “I came up for a…business meeting…I have on Monday. My family talked me into a week-long visit.” She narrowed her eyes. “Had I known it’d be here, though, I might have passed.”

  He flinched, and she almost felt bad about the jab. Almost.

  “Well, had I known you were coming, I might have hired that exterminator after all.” His gaze shifted to the floorboards, then back to hers. “Don’t worry, though. The cockroaches are only big enough to eat infants and small children.”

  Stephanie felt a smile tugging at her lips and was helpless to resist. That was Miles. Always able to break through her bad moods. But she wasn’t giving in. “Yeah, well, you’re still a jerk.”

  “And you still look ridiculous in a ball cap, but who’s keeping score?”

  She removed her sunglasses to throw him a dark look. He ignored it and pulled her into an impromptu hug. His body was firmer than she remembered, and he’d finally deviated from a daily regimen of Ivory soap, but otherwise he was the same old Miles. Stephanie tried to squirm free, and had as much success with that as she had the other hundred times he’d done it. Which was zero. She conceded with a sigh and leaned into him, hating that it felt as right as it did.

  Like she was home again and never should have left.

  His cheek rested on top of her hat. “It’s great to see you again, Steph. And I’m sorry about Liam. I, uh, saw—”

  “Yeah, you and everyone else.” She pushed away from his chest, meeting no resistance this time and avoided his gaze.

  “He’s a damned fool.”

  Stephanie bent to collect her luggage with a snort. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Okay. How about this—it wasn’t your fault.”

  She tugged a bag onto her shoulder and reached for another, hating that he’d pegged her so easily. “Oh? And why do you think I don’t know that already?”

  “Because I know you and how you think.” He bent to right her suitcase.

  Once upon a time, that line might have worked on her. But as they hadn’t spoken in the better part of ten years, that statement only served to add kindling to the fire.

  “No, you used to know me and how I think.” She yanked the suitcase free from his grasp and waved him off as she began gathering the rest of her baggage. “But people change, Miles. I’ve changed. My guess is, so have you.”

  She snatched the last of her things from the floor and raised her chin high. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to my room and check in with my sisters before they call in the National Guard.”

  Stephanie started toward the lobby, a mountain of luggage balanced precariously in her grip, and refused to look back. She didn’t need a pep talk, didn’t need him to psychoanalyze her feelings or reactions, and she sure as heck didn’t want to send him on an ego trip, thinking his hugs made everything better.

  Because she didn’t need him, or any other man, to make her feel better. That, she’d learned these past few months, was something she’d have to do all on her own.

  …

  Miles followed after Stephanie, unwilling to let things end on a bad note. Not after all these years apart.

  He thought it’d get easier over time, the idea of Stephanie being gone. Being married. Instead, reality had become salt to his wound, more painful each time he thought of her and how much he’d taken their friendship for granted. Taken her for granted.

  By the time he’d realized that he had romantic feelings for Stephanie, and finally worked up the guts to do something about it, she was gone. She’d called after the move to Florida, trying to keep their friendship alive. But what do you say to the best friend you’ve lost forever? I miss you, please come home? No, he’d spared her from joining him in that pity party. Had done the right thing and let her go her own way, wishing her the best and cheering her and her career on from afar.

  Except now she was back, if only for a week. And single.

  She was exactly the kind of temptation he didn’t need.

  “I don’t need your help, Miles.”

  He grinned at the petulance in her voice. Yep, same old Stephanie. She could go on about how people change until she was blue in the face, but her stomping off was nothing new. Him chasing after her, however, was.

  “Sure you do. How else will you find your room?”

  The skin pulled tight at the corners of her eyes. Dark sunglasses or no, she was scowling at him. Resentful. But the set of her lips…her lips said otherwise.

  Oh, those lips. How many times during their college classes together had he found himself wondering what her lips would feel like pressed against his? In middle and high school they’d been best friends—he’d never thought of her as anything else. But then she’d walked onto campus their first semester at Central Michigan, having traded ponytails and sports bras for a stylish cut and tight jeans, and Miles found himself seeing her in a different light.

  She was smart, funny, gorgeous, and had a tongue that could slice anyone who crossed her into ribbons. Heck, if someone had told him that she and a grizzly had had a face-off in the woods, his immediate response would have been, “How long before the grizzly backed down?” Stephanie got his humor, and he got hers. In fact, before Kayla dropped into their lives, Stephanie had been the only girl Miles had ever truly connected with, and he hadn’t wanted to mess up their friendship.

  So when Liam came along, Miles told himself a little space between them might be for the best. Stephanie deserved to have a boyfriend who would make her happy. Heck, he was dating other people, after all. But before he knew it, Liam was slipping a ring on her finger, and the friendship Miles had worked so hard to protect was moving halfway across the country without him.

  Oh, the irony.

  He swiped a bag she was struggling with from her and guided her toward Ruby’s office. “By now, Ruby’ll be in the kitchen helping Maddie with dinner, and Kayla’s out back with Brent. That leaves me as the only other person who can check you in.”

  “Maddie and Kayla?”

  “Our chef and our, well, Brent’s girlfriend. Who is also our marketing expert. Both are transplants to Mount Pleasant.”

  “Oh.”

  She stayed quiet while he pulled up her reservation, flinching once or twice at noises coming from the kitchen and when a noisy family of four passed by on their way to the dining room. When Miles teased her about being a bit jumpy, she’d offered a nod and nothing more. He chalked it up to fatigue until he saw how badly she was shaking as she fumbled with the key to her suite.

  “Here, let me get that for you.”

  “No. I-I’ve got this.”

  “Steph, it’s no big dea—”

  “I said I’ve got this. Please, I…my stomach just flipped is all.”

  Her key finally found the sweet spot and the door clicked open. Stephanie staggered in and promptly dropped her things by the door. Miles gestured toward the bathroom, and she wasted no time angling for it.

  “Thanks for your help. I’ll, uh, see you around.”

  The door closed behind her, leaving Miles in the doorway, torn. A quick glance at his watch showed his date was now less than an hour off. But this was Stephanie, and she’d been there for him in their younger years more times than he could count. He crossed the room and came to stand outside the bathroom door.

  No retching. A good sign. “You okay in there? I can stick around, you know. Make sure you’re all right.”

  “No!”
>
  There was no mistaking the panic in her voice. “Still got that shy bladder, huh?”

  “Oh my gosh, Miles. Please, just go away.”

  He frowned. “Okay, but I’m going to leave my cell number here on the desk. You need anything, you call me. Got it?”

  “Yep.”

  Miles scribbled his number down on the room’s complimentary notepad, then fished a free breakfast coupon from his pocket. “If you’re feeling better, breakfast is on me tomorrow. Coupon’s on the desk.”

  “I’ll be at Becka’s. Maybe another time.”

  He nodded, even though she couldn’t see him, knowing he should go but hating to leave her. Hating even more that she was holding him at arm’s length. He fished car keys from his pocket, looked at each key on the ring as though he’d never found them interesting before. “So, I’m going now.”

  “Bye.”

  “See ya around?”

  “All week.” Her voice sounded more strained now.

  “Right. ‘Night, Steph.”

  “‘Night.”

  Miles hesitated a moment longer, then gave himself a mental smack. What did he expect her to do, come running out and beg him not to go? No, best to let her be and keep his distance this week. Because if Techworks made him an offer, Miles was jumping ship. And not his grandmother, his cousin, or some chance meeting with a ghost from his past, was going to stand in his way. Not this time around.

  Miles palmed his keys and headed out the door.

  Chapter Three

  Stephanie sat in her older sister’s driveway at nine the next morning, scanning the quiet street for anything suspicious over the top of her sunglasses. There were no semi-hidden camera crews parked along the curb, and no one seemed to have followed her from the inn. So why did it feel like a giant claw was trying to squeeze the air right out of her chest?

  She exhaled in a huff and mentally scolded herself for being so paranoid, especially this far from the Florida media scene. Paranoia would only exacerbate her anxiety attacks, and if she wanted any chance at landing this job, those had to go. Like, completely.

  Her gaze shifted to the dozen or so steps that separated the driveway from the front door, and that claw squeezed a wee bit tighter.

  If only I had a little more time…

  No. No more time. She’d already wasted six months sitting inside, hiding from the world and licking her wounds. Enough with the scaredy-cat routine—it was time to go back to her roots, be the woman who’d take on the world from dusk to dawn, public opinion be darned.

  Too bad her frayed nerves weren’t on the same page with that line of thinking just yet.

  Stephanie pushed her sunglasses back into place, tugged her MSU cap lower, and stepped from the car. Her sister’s two-story colonial loomed before her, looking nearly identical to the way it had every other time she’d seen it over the last fifteen years. Sure, the gray on the garage door’s wood trim might be a shade darker now, and there might have been a slightly different arrangement of annuals in the front flowerbeds, but beyond that everything else had stayed the same. A symbol of the consistency Rebecka and Joe had forged in their middle-class family in their middle-class neighborhood.

  Stephanie had had consistency once, too. Or at least, she thought she had. But that’d been before “The PGA Kiss”…

  “Aunt Fannie! Aunt Fannie! You’re home!”

  The first natural smile she’d felt in months tugged at her lips as the curly-haired whirlwind known as Macy appeared at the front door and then tore across the lawn toward her. Stephanie chanced a look left and right but saw no cameras appear as she knelt to receive the little spitfire like a shortstop fielding a low hit.

  “Hi, baby doll.” She swept her four-year-old niece up into a bear hug. “Lord, how you’ve grown since the last time I saw you!”

  “Are you feeling better, Aunt Fannie?” Macy whispered as she squirmed away. Hugs with that child never lasted long.

  “Feeling better?”

  Macy nodded. “Mama said your heart was broken and that uncle Liam was…”

  “Uncle Liam was what?”

  Macy leaned in close to her ear and whispered, “I can’t tell you, or Mama will take away SpongeBob for a whole week.”

  Then without warning, Macy shifted and kissed Stephanie’s chest where her heart was. “There, Aunt Fannie. I kissed you all better.”

  “Um, thanks, Punkin.” Stephanie rose to her feet and patted the tike’s head.

  “Mama says kisses fix everything.”

  Yeah, she used to feed me that line all the time, too.

  “Where is your mama, anyway?”

  “Inside, baking your favorite cooki—” Macy gasped and her eyes grew round as saucers. “Don’t tell, Aunt Fannie. It was supposed to be a ‘sprize.”

  Stephanie laughed. “I promise, I won’t tell.”

  “Yay!”

  Macy grabbed her hand and dragged her forward, away from the rental and what baggage she’d intentionally left in it for a planned overnight mini-trip. Stephanie wished she could leave her mental baggage in the car as well. Too bad it seemed to be permanently engrained in her head these days.

  Though the clutter in her mind had stepped aside to make room for more ever since she’d bumped into Miles yesterday. A nice change, as he had consumed her thoughts instead of Liam for most of the drive over here to East Lansing. Reliving fond memories of a more innocent time, when wading in the shallow end of the pond hunting for crawdads with the Masterson boys took priority over nearly everything else. How she and Miles would do the laughing and splashing while Brent did the dirty work.

  But Miles hadn’t looked like a boy at all last night, not with that five o’clock shadow and cocky grin. Dang it, why hadn’t he been the one to sweep her off her feet instead of Liam? Then again, Miles would have likely dropped her much sooner than her actual ex had. He was the definition of a playboy.

  A chorus of “Hi, Aunt Stephanie” rang out as she followed Macy inside, pushing Miles from her thoughts. Stephanie shook her head at how much her other two nieces had changed since she’d seen them last. Samantha and Emma were dressed in soccer uniforms but still looking rather bleary-eyed for this early on a Saturday. Both were tall for their ages of nine and thirteen, but not too tall for Stephanie to wrap them each in a quick bear hug as well. They placated her then retreated to their rooms with Macy hot on their trails. She watched them go, then turned back to accept a hug from her favorite—and so far, only—brother-in-law, Joe.

  “Hey, Steph. How you holding up?”

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “Y’all worry too much.”

  He threw her a look that said he didn’t believe her, then kissed her forehead. “Want me to beat Liam up for you? Sprain his wrist to knock him out of a few tournaments?”

  She chuckled. “As appealing as that may be, I’m going to pass on your offer. Jail doesn’t sound like a good place for you to spend the rest of the summer—the fam would miss you too much.”

  “Who says I’d get caught?” Joe waggled his brows.

  Stephanie shook her head and laughed. “So, where’s my big, bossy sister?”

  “I heard that!”

  Stephanie looked toward the kitchen then back to Joe. “I thought a person’s hearing was supposed to get worse as they got older?”

  “Pfft,” he said. “This is Becka we’re talking about.”

  “Right. I should know better. She was born with mommy ears.”

  “Yes,” her sister said as she stepped into view, then crossed the room to pull Stephanie into a tight hug. “You should.”

  Stephanie melted into her older sister’s embrace and felt a wave of emotion wash over her. It’d been far too long since she’d come home. Stephanie was the middle child, the “I can do anything you can do but better” one. To break down would have brought an onslaught of questions, ones she wasn’t ready to answer…or even had the answers to. So she’d stayed away. “Hiya, sis.”

  “You feel too skinny. T
ell me you haven’t stopped eating.”

  Stephanie laughed and pulled back. “If anything, I’m eating more than ever. Started exercising again, it’s boosted my metabolism.”

  “Exercise? Like what, mall walking?” Joe took a few quick steps to move beyond her reach.

  “Funny, big guy. No, like jogging and free weights.”

  “Free weights? Oh my God, this is more serious than I thought. Joe, get the cookies. Stat.”

  “Both of you, stop.” Stephanie laughed. “I’m just trying some different things lately. Trying to be my own person, yadda yadda yadda.”

  “Sounds like someone’s spent some time on a psychiatrist’s couch,” muttered Joe as he sank into his favorite recliner and turned his attention back to ESPN.

  “Hush,” his wife chided. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “It is,” Joe said. “Rip off artists, all of ‘em.”

  Rebecka rolled her eyes and took Stephanie by the arm. “Don’t listen to him,” she said as she led Stephanie toward the kitchen. “He goes, he just doesn’t like what they have to say.”

  “He does?”

  “Yeah. Minor case of PTSD.”

  Stephanie slid into her favorite barstool at Rebecka’s kitchen island. “PTSD? When did that start?”

  “I don’t know. Christmas-time, maybe? Apparently twenty years of running into burning buildings instead of away from them can do that to a guy.”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  Rebecka shrugged. “You had enough going on.”

  “I’m not a china doll, Becka. You shouldn’t have to go through this on your own.”

  “Neither should you.”

  Their gazes locked for a moment before Stephanie looked away. “I’m not. Therapy, remember?”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t say it in front of Joe, but I’m going to have to call baloney on that.” Rebecka slid a plate of freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies between them. “That redefining yourself line was straight out of a recent Dr. Phil episode.”

  “He’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a shrink.” Stephanie ignored the dark look Rebecka threw at her. “Besides, I carved out some time in my trip to come up and spend time with you. And if anyone can make it all better, it’s my big sis. Just, uh, don’t try to heal my heart by kissing my chest like your youngest, all right?”