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“So, this really isn’t about coffee is it?”
She laughs, then gets busy on her phone, hands it to me. “Take a look.”
“Now I get it,” I tell her.
“I should have shown you their profile first. Sorry about that. They don’t exactly match your brand, but Rena would like to see an uptick in female followers and this is one place to do that.”
“You girls are the bosses.” I push up from the table, give Chloe her phone back.
“You don’t sound happy about that.”
The strap on my sling cuts into the back of my neck. Frustration—with my injury, with being put on display, with feeling out of control—gets the better of me and I pull the damn thing off.
“What are you doing?” Worry lines crease Chloe’s forehead.
“I can’t very well take off my shirt with it on. Come on.” I start toward the stairs.
“Finn.” Chloe stays me with a hand to my arm. “We’re partners, remember? If there’s something you’re not comfortable with, all you have to do is tell me. I got some great shots of you here that I’m happy to choose from.”
I’m mad at myself for being short with her. She’s doing her job and she’s right, I’ve got the option to decline. (I think.) Either way, I don’t have to be a jerk about it.
“Although…” She strings out the word, letting it dangle like a fish on a hook so I’ll take the bait. “I thought a guy like you would love showing off his muscles.”
That’s where she’s wrong. I show off on the baseball field, period. Off the field, I’m far more reserved. I’ve had enough eyes on me, judging me, to last a lifetime. Rena and the team think in the here and now, though. They don’t know what my teenage years were like.
“Especially since Hayden Clemons took his shirt off for Men and Tattoos.”
Okay, now she’s got my attention. “Did he now?”
“Yep, and he got over fifty thousand likes. Let’s beat him.”
This is language I understand and am happy to comply with. “When you put it that way…” Sling in hand, I lead us out of the kitchen and to the stairs.
“I forgot the best way to communicate with someone like you is to make it a competition.”
“I can think of other good ways.” That don’t involve speech at all. I push open my bedroom door.
And one day I’ll show them to her right here.
Chapter Six
#CoffeeInBed
Chloe
I’m in Finn’sbedroom.
I’d like to say I thought this through, but I didn’t. Sometimes the synapses in my brain misfire when I’m around him and the intellectual properties in my head space out. Do I really need to take this shot in here? No. We could have done this on the couch or leaning against the kitchen counter, but my subconscious obviously decided I should see a shirtless Finnin bed, just to be sure we put our best photo forward.
To my credit, a lot of the Men and Coffee pics are between the sheets.
That doesn’t mean we have to, though.Gah.I’m second-guessing myself. Something I don’t normally do.
“You know what?” I say. “We can do this anywhere. It doesn’t have to be in your bedroom.” Do I sound nervous? God, I hope I don’t sound nervous because I’m in his bedroom. Where he does things. Probably super well. Whatever those things are. Not that I’m thinking about those things because that would be weird with him standing right here.Oh my God, Chloe, stop.
“Where did Clemons do his?”
I scrunch up my nose. “In bed.”
