Chapter 24 Kate
KATE
REPUTATIONS AND FAIRY TALES.
“You’re supposed to be a stranger, just a name and a face/But the way you see right through me’s got me lost in this place.” Kate Riggs
We board the jet, and I can’t keep my eyes off my husband.
Fake husband. Whatever.
Mamma always said to find a man with big feet—that it meant big, well… you know. I hate to admit it, but she wasn’t wrong. Finn’s very well-endowed. Sure, this marriage is a sham, but the sex? Very real. And after a year-long dry spell, I’m enjoying every second of it.
The only problem? I’m getting used to him, and that’s dangerous.
He always makes sure there’s coffee waiting for me in the morning. He doesn’t get annoyed when I stop mid-sentence to scribble lyrics down, like the words might escape me if I wait too long.
And it’s not just the sex or the coffee or the quiet patience.
It’s him.
I can’t stop thinking about what that woman said in the bathroom back at the gala—her voice haunts me. Will he leave me when the newness of us is over?
Why hasn’t Finn ever married? What did he ever see in her?
He’s rich, famous, and stupidly handsome. He’s on the cover of every magazine with that damn silver cup, and men everywhere act like it’s the Holy Grail. Hell, he even makes me block out time to spend with it, like it’s his mistress or something.
Men are weird. But… I’ll be a sport about it.
We hit cruising altitude, and Finn pours himself a drink. I watch him, not bothering to hide it.
“You always stare like that?” he asks, one brow lifted.
“Maybe.” I grin, propping my chin in my hand. “You gonna tell me why you’ve never been married?” My Tennessee accent comes out. It tends to do that when I’m feeling cocky.
He smirks, but there’s something about the way his jaw twists that warms my heart. “Maybe I’ve just never met the right woman.”
I roll my eyes, but can’t help the little flip in my stomach.
He tips his glass toward me. “Your turn. What’s with the name Heavenleigh?”
I groan. “God. You sound like every substitute teacher I ever had.”
His lips twitch.
I sigh and lean back, letting the words spill before I can overthink it.
“Mamma named me Heavenleigh because that’s how she felt when the nurse put me in her arms. She figured that I might be the only pure thing in her life and that she needed to be reminded that there was another world outside of our trailer park.
” I pause, thinking about my Mamma. “She’s a romantic deep down. ”
Finn’s quiet, but his gaze softens in a way that makes my chest ache.
“It’s fine,” I say quickly, waving it off. “I get it. It’s kinda like I was made to write country songs, doesn’t it?” I half joke.
“It suits you,” he says, like it’s a fact.
My words get caught in my throat for a second, but I push past it. “My brother just made the football team,” I blurt, needing a safer subject. “He’s got one foot out the door already. I just want him to graduate and get out of there. I want him to make something of himself.”
“You’re proud of him,” Finn says, smiling a little.
“Yeah. He’s got a shot at something better, y’know?” I fiddle with the ring on my finger. “Dreams. A future. I get it. I’ve got dreams too, you know.”
“Yeah?” He leans forward, interested.
“One day,” I say, eyes brightening, “I’m gonna write a song with Rose Maghee.
She’s what I aspire to be. They said in high school to emulate yourself after your role model, and well, she was mine.
” I shrug, like it was a million years ago that I was in that double-wide, hoping that I’d leave it one day.
“ If I can make that happen, then maybe everything else falls into place. Y’know? ”
“Yeah, I do. You’ll do it,” Finn says, like it’s obvious.
He says it like it isn’t next to impossible. I blink because he caught me off guard with how sure he sounds. He doesn’t even try to convince me that it’s next to impossible, and that alone gives me hope.
He takes a slow sip of his drink, then says, almost offhand, “I hit someone once.”
I freeze. “What?”
“It was justified,” he adds, voice calm but hard. “Still… doesn’t mean it wasn’t messy. It was a blip on my stats. I was suspended for a few games.”
“What happened?” I ask because something about the way his eyes darken tells me it wasn’t just some bar fight.
“My brother was going through something,” he says quietly after a beat. “Not my story to tell. A player on the ice made it an issue, and it just got to me, y’know? Like the women at the gala event got to you.”
I observe him, surprised by the rawness I hear in his voice. He’s not just protecting himself—he’s protecting someone else.
“You’re loyal,” I say softly.
He let out a breath, like he wasn’t expecting me to understand.
“Some things are worth protecting,” he murmurs with a shrug.
We sit there, the air thick between us, and I swear, something shifts inside me in that moment. He’s honest and real, so real, and it feels good—too good.
“You’ve got this reputation,” I say, my voice light but cautious. “Why keep it up if it’s not who you really are?”
He gives me a slow, almost sad smile. “Because until now, no one ever gave me a reason to be anything else. But you bring out the best in me, Kate. And I love that about you. You’re hardworking and honest, and you’re real. I’m in this with you. There’s no one else.”
My heart beats in double time, and I’m grappling for oxygen to breathe.
And maybe it’s the altitude or the fact that I’ve already fallen too deep, but I can’t stop myself from admitting, “I never really had time for anyone special, either. I was too busy surviving and trying to find a way out of Pine Hollow.”
He reaches for my hand, and it’s as if we’ve had a meeting of our minds and hearts.
This feels real.
Too real. But it doesn’t keep mr from falling further into him.