I send her my most playful grin. “I am. I really am. But I can’t help it. I hate what he did to you. I hate whatallof them did to you.” I think about Harriet, Bo, and the others in the diner. “You know, the people you have around you now—they’re different. They’d be there for you if you ever fell apart.”
“I know. But my goal is to avoid things that might make me fall apart in the first place.”
“Things like me?” I lean in and claim her lips because I don’t want to hear the answer. She purrs in that way she does, that way that I can’t even imagine not being able to hear again.
Her phone rings, and she pulls away from me with a start.
Just like always, I see the color fade slightly from her cheeks as she gets up to retrieve her purse. She moves too quickly for a lazy summer evening after sex, but it reminds me that her brother is never far from her thoughts.
After pulling her phone from her purse, her face falls at what she sees on the display. I feel something pinch in my gut.
Damn. I’m suddenly worrying about her brother too.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“It’s that firm where I interviewed.”
I glance at my watch. “It’s eighteen hundred hours on a Friday. Shouldn’t they be home by now?”
“Welcome to the world of corporate consulting.” She touches the display. “Hello?... Oh, hi, Courtney. It’s good to hear from you… I enjoyed meeting everyone too…”
I don’t recognize Millie’s tone. She sounds fake somehow. And polished. And justdifferent. Not like she sounds when she’s talking to me or when she’s in the diner or even when we’re ordering our coffees at Frankie’s.
Is this whatMilssounds like?
And as I listen to her side of the conversation, I hate the idea of it—her… in a job where she has to pretend to be someone else.
Mils? What the hell?
“That’s wonderful,” she continues. “Um, I—wasn’t quite prepared for that… No, the offer is generous, and Kathleen went through the benefits package with me briefly when we met. I do have some other options I’m looking at right now.” She pauses, and her eyes widen. “That’s—yes, that would definitely help me make the shift into Savannah from Tybee.” She looks at me and our eyes lock.
I give her a little shrug that I’m hoping she’ll interpret as, “What are they saying?”
She seems to understand and gives me the thumbs-up. “Thank you for that offer. Is it all right if I take a little time to consider it?… Yes, a week is fine. Thank you again… You have a good weekend too.”
She touches her phone to end the call.
“They made you an offer?”
“Yeah.” Her voice sounds shocked. “They don’t even need a second interview. I don’t think I’ve ever had a job offer over the phone before. They must be desperate.”
“Was the offer… good?”
“Well, it’s less than I made in Atlanta. But that’s Atlanta. And it’s more than twice what I make at the restaurant.”
“Holy crap,” I can’t resist commenting. “That’s the kind of jump in pay that you just don’t get in the military. So, you think you’ll take it?” Selfishly, my mind can’t help drifting again to the idea of her working close to where I live. Savannah may be a city, but in many ways it’s more like a small town. We’d be bound to run into each other one day, maybe at some point when my battalion is sticking around for a while again—a time like I’ve enjoyed this summer.
Maybe even at the point in her life that Harriet was telling me about, when Millie will realize that worry is a guarantee, and the trick is to make sure you’re worrying about the right things.
The rightpeople.
I love the idea of it, bumping into her one day and picking up where we left off. But then another image comes into my head—of that smile she always has when she’s in the diner.
“I should,” she answers me. “I mean, what are my options?”
“Outside of turning the diner intoMillie’sBreeze-In Diner?” I can’t help asking with a wry grin. “You’d finally have your name on the door.”
“I—” She hesitates, looking wistful. “I have a lot to think about, I guess.”
“You do,” I agree. And I can’t help feeling a little empty as I say it. Because I know that for all the things she’s contemplating right now, a future with me isn’t one of them.