Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
FINN
I couldn’t say I hadn’t participated in some ground-shaking kisses in my time, but I could say, unequivocally, I’d never experienced one like I’d just had with Willow. At least, not in the time since I’d left her.
As I headed back to my temporary apartment, my lips still tingled from touching hers, her taste still lingering on my tongue. Jesus , the things I’d wanted to do to her. So much more than just kiss that tempting mouth of hers. I’d wanted to spin her around to the empty bed in the room, press her into the mattress and lay myself on top of her. Grind my cock into all that welcoming heat between her legs. Trail my mouth down every inch of her and find out if she tasted as good as I remembered.
But instead, I’d left. I’d had to. Kissing her had been about showing her there was something to us. That her removing the tattoo on her hip, removing a part of our history, would be a mistake.
And, shit, hearing her saying she’d wanted that part of herself changed? Erased? As if it’d never happened? It’d nearly wrecked me, especially considering the tattoo I bore of hers was as much a part of me as my fucking heart.
The willow tree she’d drawn for me—the one she’d sat by me for hours as it’d been inked on my skin—was the only thing I’d had tethering me to her for all those years I’d been away. And I’d made sure it’d done its job, not allowing myself to forget about her, even when she’d probably thought I hadn’t given her a second thought after I’d left.
Truth was, I’d thought about her every damn day.
And every year on her birthday—the same day we’d gotten tattoos in the first place—I went and got another root added at the bottom of the tree. I might’ve spent years being thousands of miles away from her, but she’d been stamped on my heart—and my body—forever, her very essence permeating down to my bones.
After that kiss in Ty’s house, after how she’d responded to it, melting into me, her tongue meeting mine stroke for stroke, there was no doubt left in my mind that Willow knew what still crackled between us. And didn’t just know it, but felt it, same as I did.
I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to push her to explore it with me.
I walked up the stairs to Drew’s and my apartment, unlocking the door and walking into our temporary home. Nola had been right—it was in okay shape, all things considered. It was smaller than our place in California, but it worked for now. It had the same hardwood floors that ran through the main floor, though these weren’t nearly as worn as the ones downstairs. We’d needed to give it a good scrubbing and vacuum a few thousand dust bunnies, but it was in working order now.
And thanks to our handful of friends who still lived in the area, we’d been able to fill it with castoffs. Someone’s cousin/momma/friend had had what we’d needed sitting in unused guest rooms. Southern hospitality at its finest.
I tossed my keys on the counter in the small kitchen as I strolled into the living area and found Drew on the phone.
He tipped his chin in my direction before speaking to whoever was on the other line. “Yeah, we got the box. We’re doin’ all right otherwise. Ty’s momma spotted us a few things, and we got most of the rest from Nola’s cousins.”
If I had to guess, I’d place bets it was our momma, calling to check in on us, same as she’d done every day since we’d been gone. The separation was getting to her, that much was clear. It was the longest the three of us had been apart in…well, ever. If that made Drew and me momma’s boys, so be it. But the three of us were all we had, so we stuck together, through thick and thin. And there’d been a lot of both over the past twenty-nine years.
“He’s fine. Just walked in,” Drew said, glancing my way, his eyes doing a quick sweep over me.
Even though I was certain nothing in my body language said anything about what had happened with Willow, I also knew my brother would know something was up. Same way I had known when he’d lost his virginity to Lexie May sophomore year of high school. Sometimes it was awesome being a twin; sometimes it was a little awkward and damn inconvenient.
I fell into the corner of the couch, throwing an arm across the back as I waited for the phone.
“All right, Momma. I’ll let y’all talk. Love you.” Drew tossed the phone in my direction before getting up and strolling into the kitchen.
I brought the phone to my ear. “Hey, Momma.”
“Hey, sweetheart. Y’all gettin’ on okay there?”
With one hundred percent certainty, I knew she’d asked Drew the same thing. But every time she asked, she did so with such sincerity, I couldn’t fault her for it. I wasn’t sure if the concern was because she wasn’t used to being away from us, or if it was because she was worried about the reception we’d receive in Havenbrook.
When we’d left, Drew and I were only a year or so out of our rebellious teen years where we’d gotten up to everything from petty vandalism to property damage. Add that in with being from the wrong side of the tracks, born to a teenage single momma, and we’d had outcasts and troublemakers branded on us from birth.
“Doin’ fine here. Spent today doin’ demo and working on some repairs on the plaster. Things are movin’ along.”
“So y’all think you’ll be comin’ back soon, then?”
“I’m not sure.” The thought of leaving now, before I’d had a chance to explore whatever this was between Willow and me, left me with a rock in the pit of my stomach. “We haven’t even begun to pick out the finishes for the space yet. And Nola can’t be dealin’ with all that while she’s still workin’ at the auto shop. She didn’t have as much money put away as we did.”
“How’s that sweet girl doin’? Haven’t talked to her in ages. You tell her to give me a call, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now what’s this I hear about you talkin’ to Willow Haven?” she asked.
I blew out a breath and shot a glare at my brother who’d taken a seat on the other end of the couch. Drew’s only response was to shrug as he took a swig from his beer.
“I’ve gotta talk to her, Momma. She’s in charge of things at town hall now.”
“Mhmm,” she said, her displeasure hitting me like a ton of bricks, even through the phone line. “What exactly do you think’s gonna happen between y’all, with your history?”
Honestly? I had no fucking idea, but I sure as hell wasn’t gonna tell my momma that. I knew what I wanted to happen. Could finally admit to myself I didn’t just want to see Willow happy, but I wanted to see her happy with me . A connection like ours was once in a lifetime, and I’d be damned if I let her pretend it wasn’t there. I just had no idea how to go about getting her on board with it.
“I know what I’m doin’,” I said.
She tutted. “From where I’m sittin’, you don’t know much of anything. Honestly, Griffin… Stringin’ that poor girl along. I raised you better than that.” Silence hung from her side of the line for a moment. “Unless…unless you’re thinkin’ about stayin’?” she asked, her voice tinged with something that sounded an awful lot like hope. But that couldn’t be right. Why would me moving back to Havenbrook make her happy ?
She’d wrung her hands when Drew and I had told her of our plans, so worked up over the two of us going back to a place that’d done nothing but try to force the three of us out. A place that’d never, ever welcomed us into its fold, despite years of trying. Despite our momma being an active part of the community. True, she hadn’t been a doctor or a lawyer, hadn’t been on the school board or the PTA. But she’d paid her bills, had tried her damnedest to keep her boys out of trouble—though it’d been hard as a young, single mom, working two or three jobs to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.
Even if she’d been home more, Drew and I would’ve found trouble anyhow. It was in our blood. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. We could’ve followed every ridiculous law in Havenbrook, could’ve played along with the do-gooders of the town, and it still would’ve done fuck-all to change the minds of many of the residents of Havenbrook. The Thomases, along with our friends, had been branded wrong simply because we couldn’t afford a lot of our own or a house with a foundation instead of a single wide trailer.
Which was why opening up this business with our own money, no help at all from the Bank of Havenbrook, felt so damn good.
“I already called Sammy and let him know what was goin’ on. Right now, the plan is to stay for a couple weeks,” I said, hating how the words lit a fire in my gut, burning all the way up to my chest. I couldn’t imagine leaving so soon. Not now…not after having Willow under my hands again. Not since having her taste on my tongue after ten long years without it.
“Mmm…plans change,” she said.
They did. Situations changed…people changed. I could only hope I could get Willow to see that.
After a few more minutes of conversation and a promise to call tomorrow, I hung up and dropped my head back on the couch as I scrubbed a hand down my face.
“You wanna tell me why you came in practically whistling before talkin’ to Momma?” Drew asked.
“Not really.”
“Sounds like I’m shit outta luck, then. I’ll never be able to crack the unbreakable code that is Griffin Thomas,” he said, his voice ringing with sarcasm.
I rolled my eyes, standing to grab myself a beer. “If you already know, why’d you ask?”
He didn’t say anything. Not until I sat back on the couch, beer in my hand. “You start somethin’ with her?”
I thought back to the kiss, to her hips under my fingers, the lush curves of her pressed up against every inch of me. Lord had I wanted to. I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Well, somethin’ happened.”
“You didn’t ask if somethin’ happened. You asked if I started somethin’ with her. And I haven’t.”
“Yet.”
“Yet,” I confirmed with a nod.
He just stared at me before shaking his head. “She’s got you all kinds of fucked up, you know that, right?”
I did, but what the hell was I supposed to do? I’d walked away from her once, and it’d been the single greatest mistake of my entire life. I’d be damned if I made the same one again, if I walked away without giving this thing between us a chance to actually become something. Not now that I was older, wiser… Now that I wouldn’t allow her asshole of a father to stand between us as he had back then.
“Nothin’ I can do about that,” I said.
“So, what’s your plan? We stayin’ here indefinitely, or what?”
Drew had exactly as many ties to California as I did. Namely, zero. As long as we got our momma back to Havenbrook, we’d be fine. And whether or not Drew agreed with what I was doing where Willow was concerned, he’d stand behind me, have my back every step of the way. Where I went, Drew followed, and vice versa.
Knowing that made it easier to move forward, since I didn’t know what the hell was coming. If I’d be in Havenbrook or California…New York or Nashville. Right now, I had one goal, and that was to get in the good graces of one Willow Haven.
“My plan is to find out if I can make her see me as more than just the asshole who left. Everything else will come after.”
He snorted, shaking his head. “Man, you’re a damn idiot. That girl does nothin’ but spit fire when you’re around.”
“She wasn’t spittin’ fire when she let me kiss her tonight.”
Raising an eyebrow, he said, “Maybe not. Doesn’t mean you don’t have a shit-ton of work ahead of you.”
Didn’t I know it. But that was all right. I hadn’t fought hard enough for her in the first place. Hadn’t stuck it out when I was pressed between a rock and a hard place. So if that meant I had to work harder now, so be it. Willow deserved every bit of sweat on my part, and I was trying hard to be worthy of her.