“I thought you’d be long gone by now,” Colleen says to Miles with a smile. “Maybe Taylor will let you stay in your old room once she moves into mine.”
“Wait, what?” Taylor asks.
Miles cracks up. “Hey, I used to be your favorite person. What, you don’t want me here? Afraid your old uncle will cramp your style.”
“No, I mean…” Taylor tries to cover up the truth behind Miles’ words.
Miles laughs, he wouldn’t have wanted his middle-aged uncle living with him when he was Taylor’s age either. “Don’t worry. I’m not moving into my childhood room.” He might not be able to get one summer of his past out of his head, but he wasn’t that pathetic…yet.
“But you’re staying here in Falls Village, then?” Colleen asks. “I mean, for now?”
“Yeah. I’m thinking about it. I could use a break. Maybe they’ll hire me as an extra in the movie. I mean, with this face, come on.”
Teyler laughs at Miles with a roll of his eyes before Colleen interrupts. “Hey, you remember the James kids? Taylor was friendly with Mallory growing up.”
“Yeah, the only famous person to ever come out of Falls Village is the youngest of the boys, right?”
“Matthew, yeah. That’s what I was going to say,” Colleen explains. “They’re all back in town, came to help Mallory with the revitalization and Mason with the kids after he lost his wife. Anyway, rumor has it that Matthew is up for the starring role in the movie.”
“The dude already contracted Black to be his bodyguard in case shit gets crazy here. Supposedly, the producer is some big-time guy that Matthew knows from Hollywood. The dude is also worried about some crazy female fan, according to Callan.”
Miles and Colleen laugh over shit getting crazy in their quiet small town. It’d be a first, but this movie was also going to be a first and Phoenix Doyle was known for bringing the limelight wherever he and his author turned screenplay writer wife, Bailey Connors Doyle went.
Nix Doyle is the it man in the movie production world and has been since he arrived from London years ago and turned Bailey Connors’ hit romance novel into the biggest movie sensation Hollywood had seen in years. Their love affair and drama hadn’t hurt the situation, but even now, with them happily married, they still have the paparazzi on their tails.
“I heard someone that’s related to the family that owns the other castle works in movie production and is working on the set,” Taylor states.
“Who?” Miles asks, thinking it couldn’t possibly be the woman who once dreamed of working as a costume designer. “An Ingram?”
“Yeah, but like a cousin or aunt or somebody.” Taylor shrugs. “I read it in a tabloid. They said she used to live here.”
“One summer,” Miles states. “Claire was here one summer.”
All eyes turn to Miles as he gets lost in a memory from long ago.
It was late spring, when Miles returned home a college graduate with the immense loans to show for it. He had a job lined up in Boston but wasn’t beginning that until September because he’d wanted to check in on the home front first. Unfortunately, the bank wanted their money, and he needed to make first and last month’s rent on his loft in the heart of Boston. And Miles was the man of the house since his father passed away, and he needed to be sure Colleen was faring well as a single mother. He also couldn’t burden Dorothy with his finances, so he took a job as a waiter in Waterland Isle to pay the bills until he started his career.
The first few weeks, Miles spent his days playing with his small niece and doing any home repairs that hadn’t been addressed in the absence of a man. His nights were filled with his job at the seafood place tourists flocked to and tipped well at instead of with the tourist girls like summers past. He tried his best to save as much as he could, but his niece was also in need of a few things and Miles felt obligated as the only man in her life to provide for her so he worked as a waiter during the operating hours then stayed late to help with kitchen clean up and to set up the dining room for the following day. This left him with very little time for a social life or to relax. It left him with no place to entertain a woman and little to no time for sex anyway.
He was fine being busy, and he had nothing to complain about. His younger sister had given up school, her social life, and as far as he could tell, sex, to be a single mother and let the father of her daughter follow his dreams free of guilt because she’d refused to tell the guy he’d gotten her pregnant before he’d left for college. At least Miles knew he had a full life waiting for him in Boston. And sex. He planned to hit the city running on that front after spending four months celibate in Falls Village.
Or so he’d figured. But that was before the Ingram family came into the restaurant one night with their niece, Claire, and sat at one of his tables.
Miles approached the table at Claire’s back, not seeing her until he stepped to her side to take her order. As their eyes locked, Miles could have sworn everything around them slowed down, colors had sound, and sites had smells. Her red shirt crackled like the fire he imagined laying her down in front of while her hair sent the smell of sunflowers into his head, her blond locks reminding him of the flower’s petals.
It was only a second as he waited for her to speak, but he’d remember that second as clearly as if it were yesterday for the rest of his life. Claire was shy and lowered her gaze when she finally quietly placed her order, asking for the fried shrimp with fries.
Miles was rendered speechless and nodded at her order then cleared his throat before stating that he’d be back shortly with their salads.
He went into the kitchen to give the staff the order, then grabbed the pre-made salads from the fridge and put them on a tray. He added a small flower for Mrs. Ingram and another for the girl that had him captivated at first glance for reasons he couldn’t explain yet.
“Miles?” Colleen says louder after her first attempts to gain her brother’s attention had failed. “Miles! Can you hear me? Jesus, is he having a stroke?”
“Nah.” Miles laughs. “I’m in perfect shape. I’m just ignoring you like the good old days. I didn’t know her, to answer your question,” he lies. “She came into the restaurant I worked at that summer and I met her with her family.”
Colleen looks at Teyler and sends the silent message that she thinks their story entails much more than her brother was letting on.
“Yeah, whatever,” Taylor says. “I’m just hoping to get Matthew James to look at me.”
Teyler and Miles groan, then Teyler says, “Do not go near him. He’s got a reputation as long as my arm for sleeping around. A girl just came forward claiming he’s the father of her baby.”
“Oh, stop it. All of you,” Colleen reprimands. “He’s a nice kid and you, of all people, Tey, should know that when you’re in the public eye, there are rumors that are not true published every day. And who knows, maybe he is the father, maybe not. That doesn’t change that he’s a good person.”
Teyler shrugs. “I met him. He seems like a nice enough kid.”
“The family is good people. Well, the kids are, their parents had issues,” Miles states.