Chasing Charli - Kat Mizera Page 0,46
about neither of them wanting children many, many times, so his abrupt change of heart had broken hers. She’d never lied about that and he’d been on board. Until he wasn’t.
She’d given up on men at that point, convincing herself she was a terrible person, and opting to focus on her career and moving back to Alaska. She’d lived here with her grandfather for approximately nine months during her pregnancy and just after, and then moved to Seattle to go to college. Her grandfather hadn’t wanted her to stay here during college and she wouldn’t have come back if he hadn’t died and left her the house. At that point, it had seemed fortuitous since there were several job openings for teachers in Anchorage.
She dug into the box a little further and found the pictures of herself and Roy at his senior prom. What a fun night that had been. It had fallen on his eighteenth birthday and her gift to him had been her virginity. What a dumbass she’d been. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty but how had she been supposed to know he would walk out on her the minute things got complicated? It wasn’t like she’d gotten pregnant on purpose. He’d been equally responsible, and in retrospect, it pissed her off that he’d abandoned her like that. Even if he didn’t love her anymore, they’d made their baby together. Their son.
Ugh. This wasn’t a good road to go down mentally, and she put everything back in the box, stuffing it into the back of her closet again. She had to get up in four hours and tomorrow was going to be another long-ass day. More than anything, she needed to stop thinking about the past and using it as an excuse to not enjoy the future. Miikka wasn’t Roy or Sean, and she had to stop subconsciously expecting him to behave like they had. She had to have a little faith, no matter how hard it was. Of course, they hadn’t actually discussed not having children, which might be a problem going forward, but Miikka had said once that he was in no hurry to start a family and that had been fine at the time.
Things were changing rapidly between them, but she was determined to believe in him, and herself, because Miikka was the kind of man she could see herself with forever.
Miikka slept in the following day but found himself out of sorts when he woke up because he’d gotten so used to sleeping at Charli’s. Waking up without her was odd and though he was excited to spend time with his sister today while Charli was working, he wanted to see her as soon as she got home.
“Hey.” Logan gave him a grin as he padded down the stairs. “Tara’s already up. She’s cooking.”
“Yeah?” Miikka grinned back. “I’m a great roommate, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Logan laughed.
Miikka walked into the kitchen and found Tara putting something in the oven.
“Good morning,” he said. “What are you making?”
“I found a recipe for a quiche with shallots, tomatoes and Swiss cheese. It sounded good and Logan seemed excited, so we went to the grocery store and picked up some things.”
“We’re going to be spending a lot of time at Charli’s,” he said, putting a pod in the Keurig machine and brewing himself a hot cup of coffee.
“That’s okay. I can bring groceries over there if we do.”
“Okay.” He leaned against the counter. “So tell me what’s up with you. You didn’t just come to the U.S. because you quit your job. What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” She washed her hands and started putting things in the dishwasher. “I wish I could live here. With you.”
“You want to move to the U.S.?” He was confused. “Why? I’d love to have you, but I don’t know if you can get a visa, and you’d need one to work.”
“Maybe I could be a nanny for a few years,” she said, turning to meet his gaze. “Mr. Caldwell… He said he could use me if I wanted to come back.”
“You spoke to him?” Miikka asked, mystified. “You spoke to the team’s owner? Behind my back?”
“Not behind your back,” she said quickly. “When I was here last time. I wasn’t excited about going back to Savonlinna and he said if my new job didn’t work out, to let him know. So I thought I’d come test out the waters, see if I could find a way to stay.”
“Without a visa or green card, you can’t legally