AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Exactly.”
I don’t register what she’s referring to right away. I hear nothing. Then it hits me as strong and as forceful as the music was. I hear nothing…
Slowly Rory’s mouth hooks up Cheshire-like.
Both our chins shoot down in the direction of the court, but unless my eyes are deceiving me, it’s empty other than a few misplaced basketballs.
Where did Finn go?
The answer finds me sooner than I anticipate. Finn pops up and over, reaching the top of the small incline of the hill. His foot stomps past the grass and onto the solid part of the concrete that outlines their pool.
His posture is as rigid as last night when I’d gone against my better judgment and visited him. A mess of dark floppy hair sits in a sloppy, mismatched array like he’s run his fingers through it many times. The sides he’s kept trimmed short, the same as they were before. Same as I remember.
Finn’s focus is on his phone, but mine is drawn back to his too-tight muscles and how they ripple, every fiber of his sweat-coated T-shirt clinging to them.
A swarm of something deep in my belly reacts automatically. A hiss is on the verge of pushing past my mouth until I swallow that bitch with everything I can muster.
The muscles bunch, flexing the more he shifts his weight as he comes closer. I have the urge to sneak a hand out and remind myself of the smooth hardness I know makes up a set of washboard abs. He’s almost to us, practically here—
“Gross, Finn, I haven’t had breakfast yet and I already want to upchuck it.” The lines between Rory’s brows crease in disgust. “You smell like ass.”
Her eyes roll past her lids as she spins her body back around, facing forward.
The warmth I feel in my cheeks intensifies the moment, no, the second his eyes find mine. Don’t ask me how, but in this moment, I know it wasn’t his sister’s comment that got him to raise his head. It was me.
My face is on fire, while his is as hard as stone. It’s like looking into an abyss, a black hole of empty nothingness.
Time slows and then speeds back up as soon as he steps back through the sliding door, never saying a word.
Not long after, I’m also excusing myself. I’ve stayed too long as is, and besides, I miss my baby.
Pulling down the familiar street and then onto our driveway, a wave of nausea hits me. My father has never left, clinging to the property he and my mother once shared the same way I have to their divorce.
Goose bumps break out along my neck. The joy I once had inside these walls a reminder that happiness is only temporary. Reality will always be more accurate.
nine
Finn
Mythumbmoves,flexingas it scrolls through Hailey’s social media. I refresh the screen, updating it again, hoping something will change, the same as twenty flicks ago.
It doesn’t.
Her last post from years ago, right before she left…
The untouched glass beside me rattles, bouncing when my phone slams down on the table. I rub my tired eyes with a groan.
Driving the few hours it takes back up to campus is probably not my brightest idea since I haven’t gotten more than thirty minutes of sleep, but hey…I made it, right?
The familiar purr of my engine sparked to life on my Aston Martin Vanquish as soon as I’d climbed in, flooring the gas.
My intent was to head back to the house I share with Eli and Cole and sleep off this nightmare. My steering wheel had other ideas.
I’m back at the bar. Sitting at the same table, the exact spot I was in when Cole mentioned he thought Rory was the one who was pregnant.
My mouth tugs to one side, mirthless. Karma has a twisted sense of humor.
I needed some distance between me and the news. Aside from that bombshell, just being around Hailey stirred things in me I trained myself to forget.
