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“Yeah, it’s a specialty of mine.” An expression she couldn’t interpret flickered briefly across his face, like wind ruffling the water of a still pond. “I…used to make it for Sheri when she was sick.”
Sympathy wound through her, threaded with a curiosity that pulled suddenly tight.
Sheri, his wife. The wife he didn’t talk about.
“Oh.” She wanted to ask all kinds of questions, but that wasn’t a great idea. He probably wouldn’t welcome them. And this was, after all, hardly the time to be asking questions about the wife he’d lost. “And she…uh…liked it?”
“Yeah, she did.” Finn’s dark gaze was on the bowl on her knees, his expression distant. “I made it for her when she was having chemo and feeling sick.”
Sympathy throbbed in Beth’s chest. Yes, that’s right, he’d lost her to cancer, hadn’t he?
Which means you can hardly spurn the soup he made for his dead wife.
Not that she was going to spurn it, but even if she’d been feeling really sick, she wouldn’t.
“I’m sure it’s delicious.” Beth carefully dipped her spoon into the steaming liquid and brought it to her mouth, taking a sip.
Holy cow, yes, itwasdelicious.
“Oh,” she breathed, suddenly ravenous. “Your wife wasn’t wrong. Thisisreally, really good.”
Finn said nothing, but a faint, pleased smile curved his mouth as he watched her eat, his dark gaze enigmatic.
When she’d eaten half of it, he asked, “Feeling better?”
She nodded. The delicate, salty, savory taste of the soup had been divine and not too heavy, settling her uneasy stomach down nicely.
She took another couple of spoonfuls before she finally let Finn take the bowl away, returning it to the coffee table.
Then he sat down beside her on the sofa, engulfing her in his warmth and the delicious smell of sunshine, horse, and Finn’s intrinsic musky, masculine scent.
It reminded her of things that she shouldn’t be thinking about. Things that had gotten her into this mess to start with, and she wanted to pull away. But she also didn’t want him to know he still had an effect on her, even a month after their little interlude, so she stayed put.
God, why hadn’t she moved on from that already?
“Okay,” he said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, fingers loosely laced together. “So, like I said, we take this one step at a time. And the first step is getting a pregnancy test done.”
We, he’d said. As if this wasn’t only her responsibility. As if he was sharing in it too, which was another thing she hadn’t expected.
Come on, you know he’s a guy who takes his responsibilities seriously.
Okay, so that was undeniable. And maybe, now she thought about it, that was why she hadn’t wanted to tell him. Because hewouldtake responsibility and she wasn’t sure if she wanted him stepping in and being all up in her grill.
He wasn’t as openly take-charge as Chase, usually standing staunchly and quietly in the background, watching people. But it didn’t mean he didn’t have a strong will in him or an intent to use it when the situation called for it. And given his ordering her to eat the soup, the situation was definitely calling for it now.
But this was her responsibility too. He could walk away at any time, but she couldn’t, and she really didn’t want him coming in and calling all the shots.
Unless you decide not to have the baby, of course.
As if he’d read her mind, Finn said, “If you’re pregnant, will you want the baby?”
There was zero judgment in his tone, yet much to Beth’s horror, from out of nowhere came a rush of unexpected grief, tears filling her eyes. She looked away quickly, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
Yet he must have, the asshole, because he asked softly, “What’s up?”
She didn’t want to talk about it, not now, yet she knew lying or even pretending that there was nothing wrong wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Not with him.
He was far too perceptive. He saw through her in a way no one else did and she wasn’t sure why. It was extremely annoying, not to mention painful, since it made her more aware of all the things she was trying to leave behind, the things that kept dogging her no matter how much distance she put between them and her, or how hard she tried to forget them.
