A / N
I've decided to jump the gun a little and post the one-shot ahead of the cast/playlist/epigraph! So here you have it: Miles to Go—in his perspective.
The first part of this one-shot follows very closely to the events of Knight in Distress, so you might be able to pick up some similarities here and there. New reader? Not to worry—everything will be explained when the main book begins.
Happy reading!
x Noelle
(Credits to stereohearted for the gorgeous banner above, thank you love!)
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A B O U T
Loving Darcy Evers is a journey. And for Miles Callaghan, it begins with that first step. Little does he know that there are many more miles to go.
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0
M I L E S T O G O
(part one)
THE FIRST TIME he meets her is under the most unfortunate of situations.
He'd been ambushed, blindfolded, stripped, mocked, and then dumped on the beaches of Caverly. He stumbles his way through a blur of faces, laughter and jeers until he reaches a dusty shack. All he wants is a moment of peace from this hell.
Instead he finds a girl with sandy blond hair and warm brown eyes.
Her eyebrows hitch up as she looks him up and down, and his cheeks begin to warm. Is she...? Surely not. No one's ever given him the once-over. Most of the time they don't even look at him. Her gaze lands somewhere on his yellow polka-dotted shorts, and he winces in sheer mortification.
There goes his dignity.
When he asks—begs—to hide out here for awhile, she drags out a chair for him. "Stay here," she says.
He stares at her—all wild curls, bright eyes, sun-kissed skin, bare feet and just bursting with life—and he lets out a long, slow breath.
I'm not going anywhere.
*
THE FIRST TIME he says her name is a Saturday.
They don't know each other's names yet, so when he comes to return the clothes and money she'd lent him, she calls him 'Dots'. It's a throwback to his yellow polka-dotted shorts, and he's both amused and embarrassed by that nickname.
"I'm Miles, by the way," he tells her. "Miles Callaghan."
A huge smile leaps across her face and she tips the brim of her cap. "Darcy Evers."
He's stunned when she offers to help him get into Corvus, and even more so when she insists on exchanging phone numbers. No girl has ever given him their number before, unless it were school or work-related.
Later that night, he lies in bed and stares at her contact information. On a whim, he whispers her name into the dark, and finds that he quite likes how the syllables fall so smoothly off his tongue.
Darcy Evers.
*
THE FIRST TIME he teaches her is difficult because she's not like most students.
The symptoms are obvious from the get-go. She can't sit still, clicks her pen obsessively, and shifts the sand around with her flip-flops. Every so often, she looks up from her test and studies him. He fights the urge to blush and soldiers on with that ever-lasting patience he's built up over the years.
"I hate studying," she confesses at last.
His lips twitch at that, because no shit, like that isn't obvious at all. Instead, he impulsively reaches for her hand. Her eyes widen, she drops the pen, and the shack is finally silent again. They remain that way for a while, until he realizes that he's still holding her hand.
Flushing, he pulls away with a mumbled apology. But he can't shake the realization that, with his touch, she'd gone completely quiet and still.
Fascinating.
*
THE FIRST TIME he hugs her is to stop her from crying.
She is understandably upset when she learns the kind of initiation (hazing, bullying, torture) Corvus has in store for him. He's almost tempted to quit, especially when he hears the desperation in her voice. But he's a stubborn little shit who won't give up, so he does the next best thing.
He catches her by the wrists and pulls her to a halt. "Darcy."
She looks up at him, eyes brimming with tears. His hands settle around her elbows as he pulls her to him, her cheek to his chest and her head tucked under his chin.
"I–I'll be fine," he says. "Don't worry about me."
Slowly, she lets her hand come up to rest over his heart. He knows that she can sense how terrified he is, but the truth is that it's not Corvus that scares him. It's not Corvus that sends his heart racing.
It's you.
*
THE FIRST TIME he knows he's in love with her is when she shows him her hiding place.
It's a little hut some distance away from the shack, several feet from where the tide runs high. She practically drags him to it, gestures around with a flourish, and proceeds to tell him all about it.
As he stands in the shadows watching her—dressed in a faded shirt and cutoffs, her features illuminated by the light above, and her eyes shining with eagerness—he finds his breath catching in his throat. He's felt this many times before but, this time, it's different.
This time, he can finally give meaning to this feeling.
She sidles up and wraps her hand around his arm. "I don't have many things that are solely mine," she admits, "but this place is one of them."
It takes everything in him not to blurt out what he now knows:
Now you have my heart too.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ to be continued ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
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2.8 | Miles Away
ChickLitDarcy Evers didn't know the consequence of breaking Miles Callaghan's heart. Then he returns - cold, ruthless and seeking revenge on the girl who turned his life upside down. All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2018 by Noelle N.
