Charmer (Havenbrook #1)

Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

FINN

Why couldn’t there be any demo left to do? The one day I could really use it and there was nothing. Not even a fucking nail to pound in. Instead, I grabbed a paint roller and went to town. Wasn’t quite the same as breaking shit with a sledgehammer, but it’d have to do.

I certainly couldn’t do what I wanted, which was go over to town hall and give Willow a piece of my mind before kissing the ever-loving shit out of her. If her phone call was anything to go by, my actually showing up would give her a coronary.

I’d been trying damn hard to prove to her this time was different. Ever since our talk a couple weeks ago, I’d made an effort. Except it hadn’t really felt like an effort at all because what I was doing made her happy. Or so I thought.

This morning shot that theory straight to hell.

I’d woken up and decided to send her flowers on a whim—her favorite and something I’d never been able to afford to get her when we were teenagers. Nola was friends with the owner of Bloom, so I’d asked her to do me a favor. Technically , Willow’s secret admirer everyone was going on about was Nola. She’d brought me the card which I’d drawn on, and I’d given her the money to pay for them, but the order and delivery instructions had come from her.

Which Willow would know if she’d given me a damn second to explain.

“ Dude . What the fuck is wrong with you?” Drew asked. “You’ve been stomping and huffing since you got off the phone.”

I had half a mind to tell my brother to fuck off, ignore him altogether, or blow smoke up his ass, but none of it would be any use. He would bother me until I came clean—might as well get it over with.

“Willow is what’s wrong with me. She’s fucking with my head.” I tossed the roller into the paint tray and linked my hands behind my head. Jaw ticking, I paced back and forth next to the bar top. “She doesn’t want people to know we’re together again, but with the way this town is? Do you know how fucking difficult that is? I get it and I’m tryin’ to respect it, but I’m walkin’ on eggshells around her—around everyone —when all I wanna do is grab her and kiss the hell out of her in front of the whole damn town.”

I blew out a deep breath and dropped my hands. “When it’s just us, it’s amazing. Better than it was back then, even. But whenever other people are thrown in, she’s colder than a walk-in freezer. And forget about doing something nice for her! Bites my damn head off. Jesus, I love the girl—you know that—but it feels a helluva lot like this whole thing is one-sided.”

The sounds of saws and power drills filled the space as he stared at me. Then my shit of a brother let out a booming laugh. “You’re such an ass.”

“What the fuck.”

“Man. Seriously.” He shook his head and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Good job, you did a few nice things for the girl you’re in love with. Someone get this guy a cookie,” he called over his shoulder.

“Why are you being a dick right now?”

“Because I’m the only one who’s gonna give this to you straight. Yeah, you’re doing nice shit for her, and that’s great. But you left her ,” he said, enunciating every word. “I think you forget how much you broke her. You’re lucky she can even be around you without kicking you in the nuts. And she took your ass back!

“Now just imagine for two fucking seconds what it’d feel like if she picked up and left you. Right now. Just packed her shit and bailed without a word. No goodbye, no reason, not even a fucking note to tell you why she’d gone or where she went off to. You with me?”

Drew didn’t wait for me to respond before he continued. “Now imagine being an eighteen-year-old girl who’d just slept with a guy for the first time, and then he bailed shortly after. Man, you should thank your lucky stars she can even look at you. So, yeah, you’ve got some shit to deal with. I don’t care if you give her the whole fucking galaxy every day for the rest of your life—she still doesn’t owe you any favors, and she certainly doesn’t owe you a free pass. You wanted her back, and now you’re bitching about having to earn it? C’mon now. Don’t be a dick.”

He shook his head. “If you ask me, I think you did a shit thing back then—you know how I felt about it.”

I narrowed my eyes, curling my hands into fists. That was a shitty move to play, and I didn’t appreciate it. It wasn’t like I’d run off into the sunset. Between what Dick had forced upon me and our sick momma, I hadn’t had much of a choice. “I did it for Momma.”

He nodded. “I know you did. And even if I could, I wouldn’t want to go back and do it differently, because it allowed her to be with us now. But it also doesn’t change the fact that it was a shitty thing to do. You could’ve handled it a hundred different ways, but you didn’t. And now, comin’ back here? You fucked with her head again. Have you even told her we’re plannin’ on stayin’?”

I crossed my arms over my chest, my jaw ticking. My silence was answer enough for my brother.

“Yeah, thought so. Look, man. I’m glad you two are back at it—you deserve someone who makes you happy, and Lord knows she does. But here’s the thing: you’re gonna have to keep climbing those fucking mountains every day to win her over. To continue to win her over, just to prove you’re not that same nineteen-year-old jackass who left her without a word. Every damn day, for as long as she’ll let you. That’s all I’m sayin’.”

Power tools continued to whir in the background as I stared at my brother, letting his words sink in. Dammit , I hated when he was right.

“Wow.”

Drew and I both turned to find the source of the voice. Nash stood several feet away, drill in hand, his attention locked on us.

“What?” my twin and I said at the same time.

Nash shook his head. “Damn, that was some straight-up Lifetime channel shit. You been spendin’ your time watchin’ talk shows, Drew?”

“Fuck off. You’re supposed to be workin’. Go fix shit.”

Nash’s laugh boomed over the sound of his drill whirring, and he turned his back on us.

Before I could thank my brother for being a dick, for giving me the kick in my pants I needed, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, expecting to see a message from Nola or maybe Momma. Instead, it was from Willow.

Willow:

I’m sorry. Can you get free tonight? Tree house at 9?

My pulse pounded in my ears. I hadn’t been in the tree house since the night I’d slept with Willow for the first time. Walking home from there had been when everything had started on the downhill slide into a pile of shit.

Her daddy’d seen me sneaking back to my car late that night, my shirt on backward and inside out, hair a disheveled mess, leaving very little question as to what I’d been getting up to with the mayor’s baby girl. Dick had taken it about as well as could be expected. He’d promised me my time with Willow was coming up. But, with the untouchable air of a cocky nineteen-year-old, I hadn’t believed him.

I should’ve.

Drew stepped close and glanced down at the screen, his brows lifting once he’d read the text. He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “She’s meetin’ you halfway, man. Don’t fuck this up.”

No way in hell did I plan to. Looked like I had some work to do.