AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Does she really know?
She should. He’d been clear about what he was prepared to give her. She hadn’t protested. She hadn’t said a word.
Which was great. Because he didn’t want her to fall in love with him, just like he didn’t want to fall in love with her. And they wouldn’t. They would be…married friends. Who slept together.
It was good.
Everything was going to work out just fine.
Chapter 14
Beth moved into Finn’s place over the course of the next couple of days, the process a surprisingly simple one. Not that it was ever going to be too difficult, considering she didn’t have a lot of stuff.
She felt compelled to check with Indigo more than once to make sure her friend didn’t mind living on her own at Clint’s, but Indigo was very cheerful about it.
“Are you kidding me?” she’d said, blue eyes wide. “Of course I don’t mind being alone. Ilikeit.”
Considering Indigo had lived with only her grandmother since she was a child and then completely alone after her grandmother had died, Beth could see her point. But still, Beth worried for her.
Indigo was unfazed, muttering happily about having more room in the big shed for dye pots and how great it was going to be, and there was no question she was genuine about it.
The issue of transport she shrugged off.
Levi offered to be her taxi service, and when this was refused, he offered to teach her to drive. This was refused also in favor of getting rides from Shirley, who lived just up the road from Clint’s place and who’d also offered to drive her.
Anyway, it wasn’t going to be for too long, since Finn had made no secret of the fact that he needed to get someone to manage the horses permanently for him at some stage, which meant they’d be taking over the farmhouse. It would also mean Indigo would need to find yet another place to live, but she insisted on crossing that particular bridge when she came to it.
Beth had been slightly afraid of it being weird moving into Finn’s house, but it turned out to be not as much of a drama as she’d thought. He made no comment about her taking over Sheri’s little art cabin, and if he didn’t visit her there after she’d set up her jewelry-making stuff, she decided not to make an issue of it.
The first night she’d moved in, after Finn had cooked dinner they’d sat at his big dining table and he’d asked her easy questions about growing up in Deep River. She didn’t talk in-depth about her childhood, but she’d let him know that it hadn’t exactly been a happy one. He’d then offered her bits and pieces about his own childhood in Brightwater. His hadn’t been happy either from the sounds of it, what with his dad’s drinking and his mother’s death, but when he talked about hiking in the bush and fishing on the lake, and building huts and playing at being stranded on a desert island in the wilderness, she could see how growing up here could be idyllic.
It made her even more certain that she’d done the right thing by moving in with Finn and living here.
Then after the talking was done and they’d both cleaned up, Finn had held out his hand and without a word had led her up to his bedroom, that was now their bedroom since he’d cleared space in his drawers for her and in the tiny en suite bathroom too.
That set the pattern. They’d do their own thing during the day, then they’d have dinner together at the dining table, talking about all kinds of things but definitely sticking to subjects that were impersonal. And after that, they’d go upstairs to bed and have sex, and every night it was phenomenal.
In the aftermath, Finn would wrap his arms around her and pull her in close, holding her, and if sometimes she looked up at the skylight and at the brilliant stars shining through it long after he’d fallen asleep, feeling like something was missing and not knowing what it was, that was a minor thing.
On the whole, she had no complaints.
A couple of weeks after she’d moved in, they were sitting out on the deck in the early evening twilight. A couple of bellbirds in a nearby manuka tree were chirping away, along with a tui providing a counterpoint, filling the air with a peaceful, liquid song.
Finn had thrown a ball for Karl—a futile endeavor since Karl never brought it back—and was talking about one of the horse treks he was doing the next day. It was a day trip, and the weather was supposed to be really good, and he liked taking newbies out as a lot of them got starry-eyed about the horses and he enjoyed being their introduction to riding.
Beth enjoyed hearing him talk about it too. He’d become very animated, discussing each of the horses and their personalities as if they were people, before going into long, detailed explanations about all the treks Pure Adventure NZ had on offer and his plans for new trails over previously unexplored parts of the valley.
He was so sexy when he was talking about something he loved. He got all lit up inside and she could completely understand why some of the female tourists got starry-eyed about more than just the horses.
She’d never gone on a trek he’d led. In fact, what with the gallery opening and then all the pregnancy and moving-in drama, the only outdoor activity she’d done was a trip to Glitter Falls over a month ago.
It was clearly something she needed to rectify and soon, since they were moving into fall, and as everything was weather/season dependent, she’d miss her chance to do any of it before the baby was born.
To get out into the wildness of the New Zealand bush and take in all that magnificent scenery. Get some inspiration for a series of necklaces she’d been thinking about, a botanical theme yet again, with emphasis on native flowers maybe.
Nothing to do with wanting to spend time with the beautiful man sitting next to her, watching him in his element doing what he loved.
No, nothing at all.
