Chapter 16
Millie
This dating app is pointless. Why are all these men either holding fish or posing shirtless on a motorcycle?
I tilt my head, considering one. He’s not so bad, and his tattoos are sexy, but he’s more Tessa’s type. I take a screenshot
and send it to her.
With a sigh, I pull my feet onto my desk chair and continue swiping mindlessly through profiles. I have no idea if anyone
believed me about my date tomorrow, but I need to find one for myself, to prove these thoughts of Finn can be extinguished.
He can’t be the only person who makes my heart pound and my cheeks hurt from smiling.
Micah strides into the office from his lunch break. “Hey. Emil and I just went to that sandwich shop that opened down the
road. Bubs and Subs?” He groans as he drops into his chair. “That sandwich changed my life.”
“Oh yeah?” I reply, eyes still on my phone.
“I got their Knuckle Sandwich, which is a twist on a Reuben, where they add pickled red onions and cream cheese.”
“Mmm.” I’m still focused on my screen when Tessa responds with eight panting and drooling emoji.
“And Henry Cavill was there.” That breaks my focus, and I flit my gaze up to find Micah with a questioning look. “What’s wrong with you?”
Groaning, I set my phone on my desk. “I did a bad thing yesterday, and I don’t know how to undo it.”
His brows pinch. “I’m your most sensible friend, right?”
I tilt my head back and forth. “You tie with Emil.”
“Fair, but he’s not here. You’ve got me.” He rolls his chair up beside mine. “Tell me what happened, and I’ll try my best
to help you fix it.”
I take a deep breath before admitting, “I lied. I don’t have a date tomorrow.”
Micah’s roaring laugh practically shakes the building. He throws his head back and cackles at the ceiling, way longer than
is appropriate in this dire situation.
Crossing my arms, I glare at him. “Are you done?”
“We all knew you were lying.” He pats my leg with a sympathetic smile. “You’re the worst liar on this continent.”
I glare harder, giving my best impersonation of Finn’s grumpy scowl. Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse. Everyone believing
me or no one believing me?
Micah shakes his head and grins. “But let me tell you the best part. Dr. Finn Ashford did believe you and, honey, he did not like it.”
“How do you know that?”
“He had the look of a man going out of his mind thinking about you on a date with someone else.”
My stomach flips uncomfortably. “I... I don’t know...”
Micah is excellent at reading people, and I would usually take his word for things like this. One time, he was giving a tour through the butterfly vivarium, and by the end, he had played matchmaker with two of the guests and they got married there a year later. So we frequently tease him about being able to see a potential couple before anyone else.
But this is different. This is me. And Finn. There’s no way he cared that much.
The room feels a little like it’s spinning.
“Trust me—he may not exactly understand it yet. But he’ll get there. And you will too.” He gives me a cheeky smile and rolls
his chair back behind his desk. “Want to take me on a date tomorrow? I’m available, and I happen to love Nacho Mama’s.”
This might be a cheat code, but I’ll take it. I nod.
“Perfect. I’ll tell Emil he’s sharing me for the evening.” He picks up his phone to send a text.
My phone vibrates with a message, and I pull it from my bag, thinking it’ll be a group text from Micah.
But it’s not.
Kyle: I’ve been trying to talk to you, and it’s bullshit that you won’t answer me. If you keep ignoring me, I’ll have to find some
other way to get a hold of you.
My hands shake and my heartbeat whooshes through my ears as I read the message again.
His texts have gotten progressively worse over the last few weeks, and I don’t want to know what they might escalate to. But
it feels like he wins when I spend so much time thinking about him, so I shove my phone away.
***
A warm breeze blows my hair in my face as I sling the bag of cookie ingredients over my shoulder and trudge up the steps to
Finn’s house.
He answers the door with a small, conspiratorial grin. “The girls want you to find them,” he says, pulling the door open wide for me to come inside.
“Oh, okay.”
Taking the bag from my shoulder, he leans in and whispers against my ear, “If you listen for a second, you can probably hear
them giggling in anticipation.” Shivers race over my neck and shoulders as his breath tickles my skin.
He pulls back and winks, and I decide it should be illegal for handsome men to wink. It might give an unsuspecting woman a
heart attack.
Finn carries the cookie ingredients into the kitchen, while I tiptoe around the living room. I listen for a second, and sure
enough, snickering echoes from the dining room.
But I don’t want to find them too quickly, so I pick up pillows on the couch and move blankets around, talking to myself.
“I bet they’re here. Oh, no... Here? Darn it, not there either. Where are they?” The more I strike out, the louder their
giggles get.
When I reach the edge of the couch, my gaze lands on Finn. He leans against the wall, watching me search the room. His arms
are crossed over his navy blue shirt, and the muscles in his shoulders and arms bulge against the fabric like they could bust
through if he flexed too hard.
His dark eyes scan me from my white eyelet tank top and down my flowy rust-colored skirt, before stopping on my strappy sandals.
My body pulls toward him like I’m a fish on a hook, and he reels me in with little effort.
I stop a foot from him, and he licks his lips. “Hello, Millie.” His voice is like molten chocolate running over my skin, and
my body hums with how delicious it sounds.
He lifts a finger, and my breath stops as he touches my shoulder. “Sometimes I think about those butterflies on your dress the day you spilled coffee on me.” He leisurely glides his fingertip along my collarbone, and the featherlight touch leaves a flushed trail of heat in its wake.
When he reaches the hollow of my throat, he makes a soft circle there. My whole body instantly reacts, my mouth popping open
and warmth pooling low in my belly. A powerful ache swarms through my veins, and I find myself wishing and hoping he would
keep touching me. Keep making me burn like this.
I’m pretty sure my whole body just jumped so far over the friendship line that I’ve lost sight of the boundary.
But I can’t find it in myself to look for it right this second.
His teeth dig into his bottom lip, and a knowing smile blooms on his mouth, like he can see all my thoughts in the air between
us.
“Millie,” El shouts from the dining room, her voice bouncing off the walls to reach me. “Are you still looking for us?”
Finn’s concentration on my throat breaks, and he meets my gaze, his eyes sparkling with something I can’t identify. His focus
drops to my lips for a beat before he steps back and swallows.
I blink a few times, trying to clear whatever just happened. Forcing a deep breath through my tight lungs, I sneak into the
dining room.
Excited whispers sound from under the table, but I want to draw out their suspense, so I start opening drawers in the buffet.
Avery and Eloise snicker like they believe I think they’re hiding in a drawer big enough to hold only a few tablecloths.
When I get to the bottom drawer, I close it slowly and whip around. I meet Avery’s wide eyes under the table—and both girls
shriek at the top of their lungs, so loud and shrill that I’m sure the neighbors are wondering what’s happening.
I nearly fall over laughing as they crawl between the dining chairs and launch themselves at me between fits of giggles.
“Why’d you scream so loud?” I ask when I finally manage to take a breath, the girls sprawled happily across me.
“You surprised us,” El squeals.
Squeezing the girls closer, I whisper, “Want to make some cookies with me?”
“Yes!” they both cheer, jumping up and running to the kitchen.
I brush my skirt down, straighten my shirt, and run my hands over my hair to compose myself. When I make it to the kitchen,
I find Finn standing with his back to the island. Avery and Eloise sit on the counter on each side of him, barely containing
their excited smiles.
“We got you something,” Finn says suspiciously, adjusting his glasses.
“It’s a present,” Avery squeaks, wiggling her little body like she can’t stand to hold this inside much longer.
Finn twirls his finger in the air. “Turn around.”
My body follows his orders before I give it permission. As he steps closer, I sense his presence right behind me, the heat
radiating from him warming my back.
“I’m going to cover your eyes. Is that okay?” he asks gently, and I’m sure it’s not supposed to sound sexual, but that’s where
my mind takes it anyway.
When I nod, he brings his hands over my eyes, and time stops. His scent wraps around me like a woodsy blanket, and I hope
it soaks into my skin and stays on my clothes so I can inhale it later. Because right now, the temptation to lean back into
his hard body is so enticing that I force myself not to take a breath in case it brings me in contact with his chest.
“Okay, turn back around,” he whispers, and I shuffle my feet toward the counter.
“Now open,” Eloise tells me.
Finn’s hands glide over my face as he pulls them away to reveal a hunter-green KitchenAid mixer on the counter between the girls.
I step up to it and glide my hand over the cool top. “This is beautiful, girls,” I whisper.
“We didn’t buy it. Uncle Finn did,” Eloise corrects me.
I chuckle under my breath and turn around to see Finn watching us. “Why?”
He shoves his hands into his pockets and lifts his shoulders in a shrug. “You wanted one,” he states simply. “And I wanted
to do something nice after everything you’ve done for us.”
“I haven’t done anything for you.” The backs of my eyes burn as I try to convince him I don’t deserve this.
He looks down at me with knitted brows. “You’ve done... everything. So much more than you know.”