9. Milo

NINE

MILO

It was a bit after eight the next morning when she shuffled out of her room the same way as I’d come to expect her to do.

All cute and rumpled and looking like she needed a straight shot of coffee injected into her veins.

Red hair a flaming mess, eyes sleepy, a slight grin on her rosebud lips that always grew when she saw me standing in the kitchen.

“Hey, Little Dove,” I murmured, trying to keep my cool as she crossed the room.

Hard to do when she wore a tight tank that matched these tiny sleep shorts that barely covered her ass and showed off those long-ass legs.

The woman had really set her sights on doing me in.

That in itself was enough to do stupid things to my dick. Pair it with what she’d offered me last night?

Tessa had me totally off-kilter. Pitched in a place where I didn’t know whether to be ashamed or dropping to my knees in gratitude.

“Morning, Milo.” Her voice was cautious, something almost shy about it, her gaze unsure, like she was trying to decipher if what’d gone down last night was real or if it’d been a bad dream.

I poured her a cup of coffee before she even made it to the island, and I slid it her direction as she propped herself onto a stool. I passed her the creamer, too.

She hummed. “My hero.”

I grunted. “Hardly. I think you’re mine.”

She stared at me from behind her coffee cup. “You’re kind of amazing, too, you know that?”

“Not always, Tessa.” Half of me wanted her to understand the truth of it, the other wanted to hide it. Keep her in the dark, where she’d keep looking at me like I was something good and right.

Like I hadn’t chased down sin and started a fallout that had cost everything.

Silence hovered in the air between us, two of us contemplating what we’d gotten ourselves into. She took a sip of her coffee, studying me carefully before she set her mug on the counter, going all business. “So, how are we going to handle this thing?”

From where I stood across from her, I planted my palms on the counter. “The fiancé thing?”

Redness kissed her cheeks. Was she actually blushing?

“Yeah, that thing.” The words were wispy, tugging at that dead spot that once had been my heart.

I inhaled deep before I set the fantasy free.

“We met each other through Trent and Eden. I’ve secretly wanted you since I met you, and when you finally broke up with your boyfriend, I took the chance that you might feel the same. It all happened fast, our love. You came here one night, and you never left because you found the place where you belong.”

Didn’t mean to choke over the last, this lump of something gathering at the base of my throat, making it difficult to breathe.

Tessa made a tiny noise. “That sounds about right.”

My gaze ate her up, the girl sitting at the island like an artifact that had been here all along. Waiting to be discovered.

Her delicate throat tremored. “When are we getting married?”

I continued on with the delusion. “In the spring, out on the dock by the lake because you fell in love with this place, too.”

“Right, yes. I definitely did. And I’ll wear this gorgeous white dress and flowers in my hair and these crystal Manolos that I’ve wanted forever but could never afford.”

She actually squealed at that.

My stupid mind went to conjuring the vision before guilt stabbed into the picture with a violence so fierce I didn’t know how I wasn’t bleeding out on the floor.

“Oh, you’re a lucky man, Milo Hendricks. I’m going to be gorgeous.” There she was with her sweet, sassy tease, shimmying her shoulders.

“No question about that,” I told her. There was a small, twisted part of me that wished this was real.

Her expression softened, the same as her words. “Remy will be our flower girl, and Scout will be the ring bearer.”

My chest tightened, and I forced myself to smile. “The only thing I want is to be fully back in their lives.”

Reaching over the island, she squeezed my hand. “They will be, Milo.”

I slipped my fingers between hers, shifting to twine them together. “Because of you.”

A soft grin slid to her face, and those freckles lit. “I am pretty great.”

Zero arrogance.

Pure Tessa.

“That you are,” I told her.

Hesitating, she dipped her gaze to the far side of the kitchen.

“What is it?” I urged.

She slowly returned her attention to me, her eyes raging with a tumult I hated to see there. “I need to get my things at Karl’s today. Would you be able to go with me? I really don’t want to go alone.”

Possession pulsed through my blood. “That’s good, because I don’t want you going there alone, either.”

That blush was back, and she squeezed my hand again, her head tipped to the side when she whispered, “I think you and I are going to make a pretty good team.”