Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,24
with that boy. Oh, you denied it, but I’m not stupid.”
“Are you still in love with him?” her father asked tightly.
“Of course not,” Mia answered in a calmer voice.
Raleigh should have been relieved to hear that. God knew there was no point in either of them going there again. Look how it had ended last time. He rubbed the leathery surface of a nearby leaf, as big as a fan. He was tempted to break it off and use it as a fan, as he’d seen people do from time to time.
“Remember that closure I was talking about?” Mia said. “Staying and working with Raleigh is going to achieve that. For me and probably for him, too. I’m not a teenage girl starved for life, for the thrill of falling in love. I’m a grown woman.”
“Mia, you’re only twenty-four,” her mother said, as though Mia might have forgotten.
“I’m forty. Fifty. A hundred. At least, that’s what I feel like sometimes.” And he could hear the weariness in Mia’s voice. “I have been for a long time.”
Raleigh hadn’t understood the world-weariness or the wisdom he’d seen in her eyes back then. He’d just known that she went deeper, higher, than any girl he’d ever known.
Her words came back to him. I did think about dying, had been thinking about it every day for years. For the first time, with you, I was living. That’s what you gave me.
He closed his eyes at the memory, of how the words had hit him when she said them. He’d taken so much away from her, but he’d given her something in return.
“I need to do this,” Mia said, her voice fading as they obviously moved farther into the house. “I need to…”
Get closure. Yeah, that was something he could understand. They’d gone from the thrill of summer heat to shattered in a heartbeat. That’s what this would be about for both of them. Closure. Moving on. He nodded, sealing it in his mind.
He heard doors slam shut, a car engine start. He could have gone back to his car and then pulled up to the house, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing. But that felt deceptive, and he wouldn’t be that way with Mia. So he walked up the steps to the back deck and knocked on the edge of the open door.
She materialized from the front room, her expression going from curious to a smile to a frown. “Were you out there the whole time?”
“Nope. Walked in from the beach a few minutes ago.”
He waited for her to open the door and admit him. She didn’t, crossing her arms and looking out beyond him. “How much did you hear?”
“From the part about you being stupid on.”
“Which one? I think they said it about a hundred times.”
“The last one, then.”
She seemed to calculate everything he might have heard, then grimaced. “Did you eavesdrop on purpose? Maybe to get me back for what I heard at the bank?”
“God, no. Not to get you back anyway.” Confirming that he’d done it on purpose, though.
She reluctantly opened the screened door. “That was very—”
“Rude, I know.” He came inside, forcing her to take a step back. “Maybe I just wanted to see how much grief they were giving you. I’m proud of you for standing up to them.” And grateful to you for standing up for me. But he couldn’t push out those words.
A smile flickered across her face, but she gallantly held on to the annoyed—and probably embarrassed—expression.
He leaned close to her. “You’re not being stupid. This is business. No hanky-panky in my car, your car, or here.” He held out his hand toward her. “Business and closure. Shake on it.”
She rolled her eyes as she clasped his hand. “You did hear a lot. I guess you also heard about me not—”
“Being in love with me? Now, that would be stupid, us still being madly crazy in love like we were when we were kids. A lot’s changed since then. We’ve changed.”
She met his gaze, and something old and familiar thumped him in the chest. The way it had back when they were madly crazy in love. Damn. It didn’t help that they were still holding hands.
He wasn’t sure how long they stood there looking at each other, but she finally cleared her throat and pulled her hand back. “Business,” she confirmed. “We should probably…” She gestured vaguely toward the house.
“Yeah. Do you have a notepad? We’ll take notes, prioritize.”