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His mouth opens and then he shakes his head, biting back a smile.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he states. “Just trying to bake some cookies and you’re distracting me.” He adds the last cookies to the second pan, spacing them two inches apart.
“Oh really?” I tug at my apron and lean against the counter.
“Really.” He opens the preheated oven and pops the cookies inside before closing the door. “What’s next?”
Glancing at the time, I turn back toward the cheesecake filling. “Nothing. I’m almost done with my fourth Dulce De Leche cheesecake and we have thirty cookies in the oven. Should be enough for now. I think we’ve earned ourselves a break.”
He tugs off his apron and tosses it on the counter. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
I chuckle softly and pour the filling onto the homemade graham cracker crust. Shaking it from side to side, I even it out and set it back on the counter.
“It smells delicious in here,” he says, standing too close behind me. Warm breaths of air hit the back of my neck. Soft fingers brush over the skin above the neckline of my shirt and my heart’s beating so fast I think it’s going to jump out of my chest. Warmth spreads along my skin, doing funny things to my insides.It’s only your nephew touching you. Your nephew.
That’s who he is. Except he isn’t really.
H-e-double toothpicks.
“Are you always this messy with food or is it only around me?”
Only around you.Unless I’m constantly wandering around the world with food on me and no one ever tells me I am. “It’s been a long day.”
“I guess it was yesterday too when you got icing all over your face. Now you have filling not only on your chest but your neck too.” He reaches for me again and I quickly move away.
“That’s why napkins were invented. So you don’t have to keep using your fingers or tongue. You probably shouldn’t go around licking people, by the way.”
“Why not?” He purses his lips, looking so damn innocent.
Pulling two sheets from the paper towel roll, I press my lips together before speaking. “Do I really need to tell you why you shouldn’t lick people?”
“But you aren’t people. You’re you and what can I say, you’re pretty damn lickable. I bet you taste sweet even without the frosting and filling.”
Unable to close my mouth or move, I stare at him dumbfounded. Did he call me lickable? How…? Why…? My thoughts are so all over the place my head starts to hurt.
“What?” Finn asks casually, as if telling your stepdad’s brother you like licking and tasting him is normal. Maybe he didn’t mean it that way. But what the hell else way could he have meant it? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was flirting. He’s Finn and I’m me. In what world does this make any damn sense?
“Who could truly want someone like you? You’re so thin and weak.” Old words flood my mind and before Austin’s wicked smirk can appear in my head, I shove them down.
Austin’s words are easier to shake when I’m not alone. Especially when Finn is looking at me like I hang the dang moon. He’s so young and can have anyone he wants. No way could he be taking an interest in someone my age who doesn’t only have a boyfriend, but is practically family.
Shaking away all my thoughts, I swallow down the thickness in my throat. “I’m going to wash up in the bathroom. You go ahead and get started on cleaning up. I’ll come back to help in a bit. Then we can have some ice cream.”
“Okay. Hurry back or I’ll have to eat ice cream without you. If you take too long, I’ll blast our song outside the bathroom door until you come out.”
“Our song?”
“Yeah,” he says nonchalantly.
“We have a song now?”
“We have a lot of things together you don’t realize,” he says, stepping closer.
“Finn, I think you need to reevaluate how friends should talk to each other because sometimes it comes off as flirting.”
“Well then, I don’t think I need to reevaluate anything because I’m coming off exactly how I intend to.” He closes the remaining space between us and his thumb brushes over my lips. “But I promise I’ll always stop if you tell me to.”
