Chapter 18 #2
He sets me down gently on the steps in front of the cottage. I curl up sideways in his lap without hesitation. Our fingers find each other and lock together.
I’m tipsy enough to let the truth slip out. “Finn?”
“Yeah, baby?”
I swallow hard and the words taste scary, but either way, I'm feeling courageous. “I’m afraid, Finn.”
“What are you afraid of, baby?” he asks gently, searching my eyes, concerned.
I hiccup. “I don’t think I can be who you want me to be. I’m not a sweet girl and you deserve a sweet girl. I’m… spicy. Like you said. I’m not good.”
He laughs softly, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. “I love you spicy. And you’re more than good. You’re great. You are everything I want you to be. You don’t need to be anything different.”
I look down at our hands, tangled together.
“What if I’m not... forever material? You look like the kind of guy who’d like a wife who drives a minivan.
Someone who bakes cookies and makes dinner every night.
And I'm like…witchy. I am not the sweet girl, and I never will be. And sometimes I eat chips for dinner.”
He looks at me and strokes my cheek like he’s trying not to laugh but his eyes are soft and gazing at mine.
“I can never drive a minivan,” I tell him seriously.
His laugh rumbles through me, warm and easy.
“Baby, I don’t care what you drive. I’d buy you a semi-truck if that’s what you wanted.
You can haul babies, chips, plants, dogs, and a marching band for all I care.
I just want you. You’re enough for me. And we can eat chips for dinner anytime you want. ”
My throat tightens. The world feels soft and a little blurry, but it’s clear to me that he means it. Maybe I can be enough. I can be messy and be me and he’ll still love me. Or maybe not. But either way, I’m a goner for him.
He kisses the top of my hand, then my knuckles, and I melt against him like I always do.
I whisper, “Don’t fall in love with me, Finn.”
He murmurs against my skin, “Too late.”
The light in the cottage is too bright like a personal attack. My skull throbs and my stomach second-guesses my life choices of drinking way too much last night. I groan into the pillow and pull it over my head and consider becoming a nocturnal swamp creature who never sees daylight again.
“Morning, sunshine,” Finn says from somewhere above me. His voice is way too smooth for someone who should also be dying right now.
I peek out from under the pillow, squinting at him. He’s standing there shirtless, hair mussed, holding a bottle of water.
“Why,” I croak, “don’t you look like death too?”
He smirks, crouching down beside the bed with that annoyingly sexy confidence and a glass of water and two aspirin in his hand.
“Because when I saw you having fun last night,” he says, setting them gently on the nightstand, “I cut back so I could take care of you, baby. Someone had to make sure you were all right.”
I drop the pillow dramatically over my face. “Why do you have to be so sweet? It’s rude.”
He laughs, tugging the pillow off me and replacing it with a soft kiss to my forehead. “It’s my curse,” he says, brushing my hair back like he’s been doing it for years. “Being devastatingly charming and unable to stop taking care of you.”
I groan, half-mortified, half-melting. “You’re ridiculous.”
“And you’re dehydrated,” he counters, nudging the water toward me. “Drink up, trouble.”
My phone buzzes on the nightstand. I grab it with one hand, blinking at the screen.
Willa: You alive?
“It’s my sisters,” I say, my throat still scratchy as Finn heads into the bathroom.
Ivy: Give us a wellbeing check or we’re calling in five.
I grin. My sisters are nothing if not aggressively nosy and protective. I type back with shaky thumbs.
Sooo, I think me and Finn are a thing??
The little typing bubbles appear so fast it’s honestly impressive.
Willa: WHAT.
Ivy: FACETIME NOW.
Before I can practically blink, the screen fills with their chaotic faces. Willa’s in her kitchen at her cabin with a mug of coffee, and Ivy’s outside with her red hair piled on top of her head.
“HELLOOOO,” Ivy singsongs. “Are we talking thing thing? Or, like, ‘I accidentally kissed him’ thing?”
“She looks like she did more than kiss him,” Willa says, sipping her coffee like an evil little gremlin.
I groan and flop back onto the pillow. “Why are you both like this? I'm too hungover for your teasing right now.”
“Because we’re your sisters,” Ivy says sweetly. “It’s literally our job.”
Finn comes out of the bathroom, pulling on a T-shirt, glances at the screen, and raises a brow. “Good morning, witches.”
“Hi, Finn,” my sisters say in perfect unison, like the world’s nosiest choir.
He just shakes his head, totally unbothered. “I’m going to grab breakfast from the diner down the street. Hash browns, eggs, pancakes, the hangover miracle kit. You good?”
I nod, cheeks warming. “Yeah.”
He leans down, kisses the tip of my nose, and heads for the door. My sisters immediately explode.
“Oh my God,” Willa squeals. “He just kissed you like that? In front of us?”
I cover my face. “Stop.”
“And he’s going to get you food,” Ivy says. “Willa, this is, like, officially boyfriend behavior.”
“Full cinnamon roll boyfriend energy,” Willa agrees. “We stan.”
I peek out from behind my fingers. “I don’t know what to say, guys. I’m… really happy.”
Last night, I was a disaster. Telling Finn not to fall for me.
Panicking like I always do. Terrified I’d mess everything up before it even fully started.
But this morning… the way he touched me, the way he looked at me like I wasn’t something fragile or complicated or too much and like I’m just his, something in me finally unclenched.
Finn doesn’t look at me like he’s scared we won’t make it.
He just looks at me like he’s so happy. And I want that with him.
Ivy softens immediately. “You look happy.”
“I am,” I admit, feeling that flutter in my chest, not panic, not dread, but something warm and bright and terrifying in a good way.
Willa leans closer to the camera like she’s about to perform a psychic reading. “Can we tell people?”
I should protect this moment and keep it just ours for a little longer like I always do.
But I don’t. Because the truth is that I’m ready.
Finn made me feel this morning that it’s okay to stop hiding, stop running, stop sabotaging.
I’m steady enough to believe that letting people know won’t break us.
Steady enough to believe I won’t break us.
So, I shrug, but the giant, traitorous smile on my face gives me away instantly. “Yeah.” The reaction is immediate and catastrophic. They scream. Like full-volume, glass-shattering, neighborhood-disturbance screaming.
I panic, shriek, and yeet my phone onto the pillow like that’ll somehow stop them.
I can still hear Ivy chanting, “Our girl’s in loooove!”
And Willa yelling, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT FROM THE FIRST TEXT YOU SENT!”
I feel really good. Like I finally stepped into something I’ve been afraid to want for years.
Whatever we have and wherever this is going, it suddenly feels right to let the world see it.
And maybe that’s the scariest part. But it’s also the best part.
They catch me up on everything and then I take the world’s best feeling shower while I wait for Finn.
Telling my sisters about us will make it easier when we get home.
They’ll all know and talk about it and hopefully get it all out of their system and treat us normal by the time we get back. Not likely, but I can dream.
When Finn comes back later, balancing a tray of coffee, and takeout containers with the smell of pancakes and grease heaven, I’m sitting cross-legged on the bed, cheeks pink, hair still wet, and grinning like an idiot.
He pauses in the doorway, taking me in with that look that makes my insides go soft. “What’s got you smiling like that, Row?”
I steal the coffee from the tray. “My sisters,” I say. “They’re… excited for us.”
He sets the food down on the end table, and sits beside me, bumping his shoulder gently against mine and kissing me. “Good. I’m glad you’re happy, Row.”
I take a sip of coffee, trying to look casual, but my heart’s doing back flips. “They also want to tell everyone we’re a thing.”
He grins. “Good. So do I.”
And just like that, even with my pounding head and dry mouth, the world feels warm and light and dangerously easy.
Finn and I are officially a thing.