a teacher, so he could stay close too?”
“The idea of teaching the kids here, being involved with the school and district here, part of making it better and giving these kids the best education they can get, is a big deal to him.”
“That’s all really impressive.”
Mitch reached over and pulled her bottom lip from between her teeth with the pad of his thumb. He stroked over her lip, causing tingles. “Sometimes, you have to figure out what the place where you want to be needs from you. You should do something that makes you happy, of course, but there are a lot of ways to fit.”
She thought about all of that. Was she taking care of cats because that was all anyone would let her do? Because cats kind of didn’t have a choice? Because she wasn’t confident enough in what she wanted to do to push any harder?
She loved her cats. She really did.
But she did go overboard when it came to determining if someone would be a proper adoptive cat parent. Her questionnaire had been called ridiculous, and the fact that she insisted on an in-home visit at the six-month mark to be sure everything was okay was maybe a little over-the-top.
“I’m not giving up my cats.”
“But you’re going to plan these weddings?”
“I guess I could make a few phone calls.”
Mitch’s answering grin made something deep and hot in her belly clench, and she sucked in a little breath. God, making him grin like that made her want to do it over and over and over. And it really wasn’t hard. He was thrilled she was getting involved with his family.
But in spite of the trepidation she’d felt and the yearning for peace and quiet she’d been convinced she needed, she’d had a great day.
“How did Garrett propose to you?”
Mitch’s out-of-the-blue question made Paige sit up a little straighter. “What?”
“We’re on the subject of weddings. I want to know about you and Garrett.”
Oh. That was fair, she supposed. “Okay, but you have to tell me some stories too.”
“I’ve never proposed. Or been proposed to.”
That was good to know.
She frowned at that thought though. She wasn’t supposed to care how Mitch lived his life before her. Or after her. This was temporary. And casual.
But even in her own head, she knew that they’d already blown past casual. The part that still remained to be seen was the temporary part.
The fact that she was already less certain about that only spoke to how dangerous Mitch Landry was to her plans.
And potentially to her heart.
If she and Mitch thought this was something more than it was—or if it was more than they’d intended it to be—and then she left in August as planned, she’d break his heart. And, she knew too well, breaking other people’s hearts didn’t just hurt them.
She still wasn’t over how disappointed and sad her parents and Garrett’s family had been over their canceled wedding plans. She’d never forget the hurt in Garrett’s eyes. She could still feel her own jab of pain now, four and a half years later.
“Have you ever been in love?” she asked. “Had your heart broken?”
“Maybe at the moment,” he said after thinking for a second.
“The in-love part?”
“Yeah. Michelle Dillson.”
“Wow.” Paige was shocked by how much she hated Michelle Dillson.
“It was pretty serious.”
“Huh.” Paige decided she didn’t want to talk about Michelle.
“We had lunch together every day. For like two weeks.”
Paige narrowed her eyes. “Two weeks?”
“Yeah. Well, maybe eight days.”
“Which is just one day over one week.”
“Well, five days a week in a school week, so…”
Paige realized what he was saying. “When did you date her?”
“Fourth grade.”
She shook her head. “Got it. So no, you haven’t really been in love.”
He took a couple of seconds to answer. He was watching her intently. It made her heart turn over in her chest.
Please don’t say anything like “until now” or something.
“I guess not,” he finally answered.
The stab of disappointment she felt was stupid, and she was irritated at herself. She made herself nod. “Me either.”
“But you were engaged.” He didn’t say it as if he was surprised that she was confessing to not being in love with her one-time fiancé.
“Right. Because we’d dated for over a year at that point, and our families really wanted us to be together forever. Our moms were best friends. Even before we were dating, we had holidays and took vacations together once in a while. Once we were together, our moms talked about how amazing it was going to