SWNOVELS Finn Rhodes Forever: Chapter 15
FINN RHODES HELPS local car thief escape.
In my pajamas, I stood in the kitchen of my apartment, brushing my teeth and reading the article Sadie had sent me.
My mind wandered to a few days ago when Finn showed up looking like he’d come from a bar fight, and then got slaughtered by those kids. On my way home, I’d seen him on the side of the highway, changing someone’s tire.
There was a knock at the door.
“It’s open,” I called.
Finn opened the door and leaned on the frame, roguish grin rising on his mouth. His black eye was starting to heal, going green at the edges as it faded, and a temporary crown filled the gap in his front teeth seamlessly.
His eyes snagged on my hair.
“You changed your hair again.” His grin hitched higher. “It looked so nice before.”
I rolled my eyes. Liar.
His hair was damp like he just got out of the shower, tousled and messy, and I pictured him rubbing a towel over it to dry it. Water dripping down his hard chest.
Low in my stomach, there was a funny tug, and I blinked. Stop that, I told myself.
I held my phone up. “Heard you helped a criminal out the other day.”
His face fell. “That was an accident.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “I didn’t know the car was stolen. Honest, Liv. I didn’t. I was trying to help someone out.”
I believed him, but on top of the the kids rooting up his past the other day, the black eye, and the chipped tooth? Warning rose in my stomach.
Did Finn think he was proving anything to me?
He glanced around my apartment, hands braced on the doorframe and hanging forward a little. His gaze came up to mine expectantly.
I gestured for him to enter. “Don’t touch anything.”
“You’re cute when you’re grumpy.” He took a seat at the kitchen table and leaned back, arms behind his head, muscles rippling.
I headed back to the bathroom to rinse my mouth out. When I emerged from my room, dressed and ready to go, Finn stood in my living room, studying my bookshelf with his head tilted to the side.
“Thanks for waiting,” I said, tone brisk and all business while I pulled on my hiking boots.
Finn did a double take at my pants. I busied myself with adjusting the straps of my bag, turning to hide my grin.
“Those are…” he trailed off, gaze snagging on the zippers on the pant hems.
I bit my lip. These pants were hideous.
Normally, I wore yoga leggings in the forest because even though summer was approaching and the weather was warming up, it got cold in the mountains. Someone in town gifted me these pants a few years ago. They were hand-me-downs from someone’s brother’s daughter and I couldn’t donate them because then they’d find out, so I had stashed them in my closet.
They made my ass look flat and super long, like it stretched from my lower back to the bottom of my knees. They made an annoying swishing noise when I walked and had a hundred pockets. Also, they zipped off at both the thighs and the calves.
When I had my face under control, I straightened up to look at him. “Do you like them?”
His eyebrows lifted before his gaze rose to mine. A smile curled up on his mouth. “I do. You have the ankles of a porn star.”
Do. Not. Laugh.
I stared at him and he stared right back, daring me. “You like these pants,” I repeated.
“Yep.” His chin dipped in a nod and his eyes danced with amusement.
My stomach swooped and the side of my mouth twitched but I didn’t dare laugh. No fucking way.
“Great,” I chirped in a voice completely unlike my own. “I’m ready to go.”
I picked my bag up and frowned at how light it was before I opened it. “My water is gone.”
“It’s in mine,” he said. “I’ll carry it.”
I frowned at him. “No.”
He huffed a laugh, and his hair fell across his forehead. “Yes, Liv.”
“I can carry my own.”
“I know you can carry your own. You can do everything on your own. No question about that.” He looked up at me, standing with my hands on my hips. “But maybe I want to carry your water. Ever think of that?” His eyebrow arched and that amused look passed through his eyes again.
There was something about him looking at me like that, like I was cute and funny and like he liked me that made me feel shaky, silly, and excited.
I hadn’t felt like this in a long time.
Ugh. Get a fucking grip, Liv.
“You okay, Morgan?” His eyes danced, bright and amused.
I threw my hands up, mind whirring and totally scrambled. “Fine, you can carry my water.” I hauled my backpack on. “Let’s go.”
HALF AN HOUR LATER, we parked my car off the side of the logging road and began the hike. We made our way through the forest in silence as the sun rose higher. Sunbeams cut through the tree canopy and steam rose from where they hit the ground. Birds chirped, our boots sank into the soft earth, and somewhere above us, a woodpecker clacked against a tree.
God, I loved being out here in the woods. It was like all my problems faded away into nothing.
“Happy?” Finn asked with a chuckle, and I blinked.
“Hmm?”
“You sighed.” His eyes crinkled as he glanced between me and the fallen tree he was stepping over. “Your shoulders fell a couple inches and you looked relaxed. I almost forgot you wanted to kill me.”
I snorted and made a strange face. “I don’t want you dead.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.”
“I don’t,” I insisted, laughing a little.
He shot me a grin that told me he didn’t believe me.
“For a long time, I wished I’d never met you, though,” I admitted.
The grin on his face faded, and his eyebrows pulled together. I looked to the ground, watching where I stepped. I’d already searched this area a couple months ago but I scanned back and forth, desperate for a task to keep me anchored and focused.
Maybe that was too harsh to say, about wishing I’d never met him.
“And that,” he said quietly, stopping and turning abruptly, “is why I’m not giving up. Because with the wrong guy, you would have been relieved. You would have been over me by now, but you’re not, are you? You can barely look at me. You’re terrified to let yourself relax around me.”
“That’s not true,” I whispered, my eyes flicking up to meet his before I glanced back down to the ground.
His hand came up and his fingers brushed below my chin, tilting my face up to look at him. He stared down into my eyes and my heart skipped a beat.
“I know what you’re doing,” he murmured in a low voice that made my heart beat harder, “with these ugly pants and the haircut and the doily museum.”
“So you admit they’re ugly,” I whispered.
His mouth twitched into a grin but heat flashed through his eyes. “I’m going to do everything I can to show you I’m different.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ll never make the same mistake again.”
My heart twisted and I wanted to believe him so, so badly. A part of me did believe him. He was here, wasn’t he? Hoofing it around the mountains when he could be doing anything else. He’d endured a three-hour mind-numbingly boring doily museum tour.
Maybe he wasn’t the same Finn who’d stepped all over my heart.
But what if he was, and he was just fooling everyone, himself included? What if I let go of all this anger and heartbreak that I had grown around and let him fill in the gaps and make me whole again? When he left, I’d have nothing holding me together. I’d fall apart for real this time, and harder. Smaller pieces were harder to put back together.
Fast as lightning, Finn’s hands framed my jaw and he stole a kiss from my mouth. His lips were warm and his stubble brushed me, sending sparks across my skin. I gasped and he pulled away, flashing me a grin and a wink.
“Come on, Morgan,” he called over his shoulder, continuing on through the forest while I gawked at him. “I’ve got all your water and you’re still struggling to keep up.”
A shocked laugh scraped out of my throat while I stared after him.
Warmth bloomed in my chest and I bit my lip to hide my grin. What a fucking asshole.