Page 53 of Hogging the Hunk
The oven timer beeped, and Ellie hurried to put the oven mitts back on. I counted the seconds by my rapid heartbeats, trying with little success to talk myself down. This was a pivotal moment, and an important one.
“Because…” Ellie took the pan out with shaky hands. She shut the oven door, but clumsily knocked the corner of the tray into the island countertop overhang. The pan was knocked onto Ellie’s forearm, and she immediately yelped with shock and pain. Cookies splattered on the floor as the baking sheet clattered, and it was like an alarm clock for Truffle. She squealed and was on her feet, racing to the kitchen with the eager anticipation of food.
Milo intercepted Truffle and hoisted her round body into his sculpted arms, ready to take her outside to prevent her from making herself sick on cookies. Those arms of his. Always in my thoughts. Funny what hit me in moments of distress. Maybe it’s because I wanted to be the one in his arms, comforted and reassured that everything would work out. My plans and goals for life would come to fruition, one way or another.
Milo headed for the back door to put Truffle out for a potty break while I went to inspect the angry red welt forming on Ellie’s arm. She defensively cupped her hand over her wound.
“Why don’t you let me take a look?” I coaxed her.
“No.” She yanked away, even as tears welled in her eyes.
“It looks really painful. We should run it under cool water.” I turned on the faucet, testing the temperature with my fingers. “It’ll feel so much better.”
“No!” Ellie howled. Tears were now freely flowing down her cheeks, and she backed toward the stairs. “I don’t need your help and I don’t need a new mother!”
Spinning on her heels, she raced up the stairs, each footfall hitting like a sledgehammer. I chewed my lower lip, my own tears threatening to break free.
“Ellie!” Milo called. He was answered by the sound of her bedroom door slamming. Finding me near tears, he drew me into a hug. “Hey, don’t cry. She’s not mad at you. She’s more embarrassed than anything.”
“I know,” I mumbled into his chest as my tears escaped and soaked into his t-shirt.
It felt so good to have his fingers stroking my hair, while his other hand pressed me close into him. Hugging Milo was usually one of my favorite things to do, except I couldn’t relax into it. His daughter didn’t want to have anything to do with me. There was only so much waiting and hoping things might change before I started losing hope.
The disappointment was too much. I wanted to scream into my pillow and ugly cry until my nose was swollen and my eyes were so puffy I couldn’t see properly. What was wrong with me? First Greg, and now Ellie? Milo could only stay here comforting me for so long before he’d have to go after his daughter. If choosing between Ellie and a woman who was barely more than a friend, he’d be a fool not to choose his daughter every time.
Where did that leave me?
Or us?
I decided for him.
My arms had been hanging limp at my sides, not truly giving into the siren call of Milo’s embrace. Putting my hands on his waist, I pushed myself far enough away that his arms could no longer link around me.
Wiping my nose with my sleeve, I stared at the wet spot, an embarrassing melange of tears and snot on his shirt as a focal point instead of his face. “You better get up there and take care of Ellie.”
“She’ll be alright for a minute.”
“She dropped the hot cookie sheet on her arm. I saw the burn.” I took a step back, sending a clear message that this evening was more done than the cookies Milo had burned before I arrived. “Get her to run it under some cool water.”
Conflict played on Milo’s face, and his eyes wouldn’t rest. One moment they were on my face, the next they were on the stairs where Ellie was probably crying face down in her pillow, just like I wanted to be.
“Wait right here. I’ll go get her settled and will be back down in a few minutes.” The pleading infused into his words played over my heartstrings more effectively than a sappy love song on late night radio. “Please.”
I underestimated Milo’s loyalty to me. Where I thought he’d be bounding after his daughter, he saw the pain I was in and wanted to soothe my hurt, too. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure things out. Always do.”
With another, larger step to emphasize my intentional exit, I created a gap between us. Physically, it was only a few feet away. Psychologically, I’d made sure to put miles between us.
“Call me if you need any extra care for Ellie’s burn. I know you know how to take care of her, but she told me once you prefer not to work on people.”
“I don’t like it when my patients can talk to me and tell me how bad it hurts.”
To spare Milo hearing about how much pain I was in, I kept my thoughts behind the lock and key of my teeth. I smiled, though I didn’t have to look in a mirror to tell I was far too forlorn for a sad simper to fool anyone. “I’ll see you around, Milo.”
Chapter Sixteen
Milo
The whizz of my fishing line was punctuated by a small splash as the lure hit the placid water of Long Rock Lake. Other than the whispers of wind in the trees and the occasional squabble of red-winged blackbirds as they claimed their nesting territories, the morning was quiet. Five men and a boy didn’t have much to say until their choice of caffeine hit their systems and woke them up.