“My good boy would never.” He has in fact. Twice.
“Cherry.”
“Please stop.”
He stops moving mid-step.
“Stop what?”
“Stop acting like…this.”
His head tilts. “Acting like…?”
“Like you…care.” The words just slip out before I can wrangle them back into my heart, quiet but meaningful. I don’t like feeling as if someone is watching me; analyzing me and my feelings when even I don’t fully understand them.
A warm hand latches onto my waist and hauls me closer. Loose strands of my hair are pushed back and tucked behind my ear. A soft brush of Finn’s fingers has a shiver running down my spine. Two fingers under my chin bring my head up.
The honesty in his eyes makes me swallow hard.
“Just because we haven’t ever gotten on, doesn’t mean I don’t care about you, Oakleigh. I’ve always cared. More than you think.”
He uses my name and it stirs something within me. He uses my name and it shows me how serious he is. He notices; he pays attention, and that scares me. I don’t want anyone paying close attention to me; it brings to light the cracks in the confident façade.
We stay like that for a while, him brushing my cheek, me staring at him and wondering how the hell we wound up here when all I did was get up to grab some water.
Finn must notice the complete ludicrousness of this situation, too, as his face turns into a frown, his hand snapping away from my face. Awkwardness kisses my skin and I wrap myself up in my arms.
“I should, um…I should go and get some sleep.”
He nods to himself and taps his leg. “Yeah. Yeah, me too.”
He takes a step back. I mirror the movement. The growing space between us feels bittersweet and I can’t for the life of me explain why. I feel his gaze on my back as I head toward my bedroom with no water to quench my dry throat and feverish skin. I close the door behind me and double-check that it’s properly closed, not to keep him out but to keep me in.
I manage to fall asleep about an hour later, but my sleep is fitful and broken, all thoughts on the buzzing beneath my skin that seems to have formed a brand left behind by a certain guy’s hand on my waist.
ChapterNine
OAKLEIGH
My mind is stretched between here and my house during the entirety of my shift. My house that currently has an empty plate in my sink. A plate that I had found full of pancakes, eggs, and bacon this afternoon when I felt brave enough to walk out of my bedroom to an empty house. I didn’t even have bacon in my fridge.
It left me dazed and confused and something unknown twisted in my chest knowing that I was a thought in his mind the entire time. The knowledge that someone, anyone, even Finn, felt I was worth going the extra mile makes the air feel less cluttered. Out of everyone in my life, Finn is the last person I expect to think about my best interest. And yet here he is, going out of his way to make sure I eat breakfast. He left his sheets folded neatly in my laundry room, and my scrubs were in the rinsing stage in the washing machine. It had all felt so…mundane, so normal, knowing he was in my home working away and maintaining the house in the simplest ways. That lead to fear; fear of the relationship that I have with Finn changing into?—
Oh, that sneaky bastard.
I see the game he’s playing…
This is how he plans to win. He’s playing it sweet and thoughtful, be the golden-retriever boyfriend of every woman’s dreams, until I fall. And he was so smooth with it that I didn’t even realize.
While I’m able to keep my attention on the job at hand, flashes of breakfast, folded sheets, and fresh scrubs still play through my mind and spur on my competitive nature. When I walk to the exit and once again see a sleeping Finn by the entrance, I do the only logical thing in my mind and keep walking.
I speedwalk to my car, hoping that by the time I hop in and drive away, he will be?—
“You really thought you could leave without me?”
Damn it.
“You were asleep,” I mumble as I turn to see Finn standing behind me, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
