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“Just get to the point. I’ve got shit to do.”
Like a hot, sexy, Halloween goddess who told me she’s mine last night.
Finch huffs out a laugh. “You never were one for small talk. Heard you’re seeing someone. Every person we asked about where you were told us to find a woman named Sidney.”
“So you thought you’d come here and fuck her too? You’re not her type.”
Finch just rolls his eyes at me, but I can see my words got to him. He looks away from me to stare out at the yard. Which just has me thinkingwhat in the actual fuckfor the hundredth time since I got here.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Finch finally mutters. “I was the most selfish asshole ever, and I never should have done what I did. I was pissed off that night Pops’s will was read, drunk out of my mind, andMelissacame ontome. I know that doesn’t make it any better. I know I should have just walked out of that room, but I didn’t. I’m sure it will make you happy to know things with her and me didn’t work out, pretty much immediately.”
Sidney knows I was engaged, but she doesn’t know my brother screwed my fiancée the night he found out he got nothing from our grandfather. Three months later, I was driving to Harvest Grove, wondering how my life turned into such a shit show. I couldn’t make Melissa happy, and my brother fucked me over. I suddenly had two businesses to run, with employees who were counting on me for their next paycheck, and my family was on the verge of bankruptcy, with absolutely zero confidence I could save them.
My brother moved to New York while I was here in Harvest Grove that first year, and Melissa went with him. I refused to let my parents ever bring his name up around me again after that, so I have no clue what’s been going on with him since then. I don’t give one single fuck why things didn’t work out between the two of them, but Finch decides to tell me anyway.
“She left me when it finally hit her I wasn’t getting the company and I was now poor, because my brother cut me off.” Finch smiles at me.
“I didn’t cut you off. And you weren’t poor, asshole.”
I should have cut him off. I should have cut them all off to teach them a lesson, but it just wasn’t in my nature. As screwed up and out-of-touch with reality as my family is, they’re still my family. I still felt some kind of loyalty to them. I couldn’t leave them as screwed as they were when Pops died. Which was laughable, when my own brother didn’t feel that same loyalty back.
“Twenty grand a month?” Finch scoffs. “Who the fuck can live off that?”
“You’re a real prick. You know that?”
“You’re right. I was a prick. But if you think about it, I did you a favor.”
I just stare at him.
“What, too soon?”
Shit.
This motherfucker is actually going to make me forgive him, isn’t he? Sidney would tell me to forgive him. She’d tell me holding onto a grudge will make me turn batshit crazy like her own family.
Goddammit.
“No, it’s not too soon.” I finally sigh, dropping my arms and turning to rest my hands on the railing to look out at the yard as a few tourists walk by to take pictures of it. I smile to myself, knowing that if Sidney were here right now, she’d be waving at them and shouting that she owns the house. Probably invite them in for cider or some shit. “You’re right. You did do me a favor. I never would have set foot in this town if I didn’t want to get the hell away from you. I would have sold the bar from back in Oregon and never met Sidney.”
And that’s not something I want to ever think about.
Jesus, I can’t believe we’re standing here like adults, having an actual conversation. Harvest Grove really does have some magical, voodoo bullshit going on.
“You look happy here. You know, when you’re not pissed about being dragged out of this Sidney person’s bed.” Finch walks across the porch, pulling a folded-up piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and holding it out to me. “This is actually the real reason I came. The apology was just an extra bonus you can thank me for later.”
I forgot what a smartass Finch could be when he’s not being a disloyal piece of shit.
Grabbing the paper out of his hand, I unfold it, immediately recognizing the bold, cursive handwriting.
“I found this in Pops’s house before I went to New York. I saw an envelope with your name on it sitting on his desk, and I took it to be an asshole. I, uh… I met someone recently,” Finch says, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s been teaching me to not be so much of a dickhead. Convinced me I should finally give this to you and apologize.”
I whistle. “Must be some woman.”
Finch drops his head to hide his grin before quickly clearing his throat and rolling his eyes. “Just read the fucking letter, so I can stop feeling guilty about it.”
Shaking my head, I look down at the paper with my grandfather’s handwriting on it.
Ford—
