By the time he’d dried himself and thrown on a pair of sweats and a Snow Pirates hoodie, she still hadn’t messaged. Flailing tendrils in his chest curled around his heart and squeezed. Was this what women felt like when guys didn’t text after a date?
He was being ridiculous. She’d asked for space and she’d get it. He left his phone on charge in his room – so he couldn’t be tempted to message her, and made his way back downstairs.
In the kitchen, he chugged milk straight from the gallon container in the fridge, maybe it would drown the guilt clawing at his insides.
“Hey, man. You okay?”
Finn jumped, spraying milk over the front of the fridge. “Shit. You scared me.”
Will narrowed his eyes. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
Will handed Finn the roll of paper towels from the counter and pulled out a chair at the dining table. Dropping onto the chair, he gestured at Finn. “Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, whatever’s got your panties in a knot?”
“I’m fine Will, I was just—”
Will held his hand up as Finn put the milk on the counter and cleaned his spit off the fridge. Perhaps if he didn’t make eye contact, Will’s shrewd stare would simply bounce off Finn’s back.
“You know I know you better than that, Finn. What gives?”
His stomach twisted as he schooled his face and turned around to lie right to the face of his best friend. “I just miss Liam, that’s all. I needed to clear my head after the game.”
Will’s stern face softened and Finn’s heart sank. Could he have been any more of an asshole? Using his grief over his dead brother to sate his friend’s suspicion was the lowest of the low. But what was the alternative?Don’t sweat it man, I just got home from playing tonsil tennis with your sister. No biggie… I had her pinned to her car by my rock hard cock?
Yeah, no. Something about that suggested it might not sit right with Molly’s over-protective big brother sitting in front of him with sad eyes.
“And clearing your head didn’t involve the comfort of a beautiful woman?”
Yes. “No. I’m not in the mood.”
His dick twitched, as though calling him on his bullshit. “What was the team meeting about? Did I miss anything important?”
Will wagged a finger, shaking his head with a smile. “Okay, fine. I see how you want to play it. Deflect all you want.” He brushed his index finger along the edge of one nostril. “Don’t want anyone to know. I get it.”
Heat flashed up the back of Finn’s neck and he shook his head. “It’s not like that, Will. There is no one.”
Will narrowed his eyes for a long moment before nodding and slapping the table with an open hand. “I better get going. Busy day tomorrow.”
“What do you have?” Finn scrubbed a palm over his jaw before tugging at the neck of his hoodie.
“Just studying, practice… you know, the usual.”
Finn walked Will to the front door and closed it behind him. He dropped his head onto the cool wooden surface and groaned. Clearly if anything further were to happen between Finn and Molly, he’d need to do a better job at covering his tracks – and his traitorous face.
He made his way back upstairs and checked his phone. Still nothing from the woman whose breath he could feel tickling his skin. “Fuck it.” He picked it up and typed out a text.
Finn: I know you said you need space and I really am happy to give it to you. But I just need to know that you’re okay.
After a couple minutes, the message status changed to ‘read’ but the dots didn’t appear to tell him she was typing back.
Finn: I can’t breathe around this lump in my chest thinking I’ve upset you, or that things will somehow shift between us. If you want to go back to being just friends, I can try. It’s not what I want, but I’d rather that than lose you forever.
The dots appeared almost the moment he hit the send button and every muscle in his body clenched while waiting for her to reply.
Molly: I don’t want to go back to being just friends.
Finn threw the mother of all fist pumps as he jumped onto his bed, sinking into the soft mattress as he bounced. She didn’t want to go backwards. He wasn’t going to lose her. In fact, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure she’d be his forever.
