6. Logan
LOGAN
I woke with a start, eyes wide, staring up at the ceiling. One name was on my mind. Trey. He’d done this. He was the one who’d been working with Bobbi and communicating with Finley as though he were me.
It made sense. When Finley mentioned the prank with the bottle of urine, I hadn’t pieced it together. But nobody would’ve known that story but us. Not even Bobbi.
Trey was Bobbi’s nephew. He’d grown up in Wildwood Valley. Of course, he’d helped out his aunt.
“You awake?”
I looked to my right, and all thoughts of Trey and Bobbi fled my mind. Last night. The tacos, the margaritas, the sight of her in my T-shirt.
Yeah, that last one had just about done me in. The sight of her, draped in my clothes, looking like the sexiest woman alive… Because she was the sexiest woman alive, as far as I was concerned.
One thing was clear. Now that I’d met Finley, there was no other woman for me.
“I just woke up,” I said.
Finley was propped on one elbow, smiling at me.
I’d brought her to orgasm two more times before she drifted off to sleep.
All the pleasure was for her, not me. Every touch, every kiss—I’d focused completely on her.
I’d held off on making love to her again because I knew she was still sore, but it was morning. She’d had time to rest. To recover.
I didn’t know how this was going to play out. I was confused about what was going through my own mind.
“I said I was never getting married,” I blurted, like an answer to my own thoughts.
Her smile faded, which made me want to get to the good news faster. Anything to keep a smile on this angel’s face.
“I was supposed to marry my high school sweetheart,” I said. “Go work for my dad’s construction company. I had it all mapped out.”
I shifted my stare to the ceiling. It was easier to talk about this without looking at her. Normally, this conversation would take me to a dark place, but not this time. It felt like I was purging it from my system. Making space for something new. Something better.
“She dumped me graduation night.” I sighed.
“That summer, she started dating my best friend. I tried to work, tried to keep going, but it was a small town. Too small. Everyone knew everything. All my friends were off at college anyway, so I enlisted.” I paused.
“Never looked back. Never went back either. I settled here in the mountains, alone, where no one could hurt me again.”
I looked over at her and realized I’d done nothing to return the smile to her face. There was compassion in her eyes, but also a flicker of fear. She still thought I was about to dump her. To send her packing after the best night of my life.
“But then I met you,” I said.
Her eyebrows arched. The smile hadn’t returned yet. That was my goal.
“I suddenly realized something. When you meet the right woman, you aren’t afraid. You just know.”
Her features relaxed. The hint of a smile appeared.
I breathed a sigh of relief. My words could have scared her off, but they didn’t.
She was still here with me, and she’d stay.
I knew it as sure as I knew the sun would rise tomorrow morning.
And the next. And the next. I’d have Finley in my bed for every single one of them.
“I know who’s been helping Bobbi,” I said, pulling her into my arms.
She settled against me, cheek pressed to my chest. “You do?”
I kissed her forehead and felt the warmth of her smile against my skin. “Yeah.”
“You going to confront him?” she asked, voice soft with curiosity.
I shook my head slowly. “Nope. Not even close. In fact, I owe the guy a huge thank-you.”
She tilted her head to look up at me, brows drawn. “You do?”
“If he hadn’t been playing matchmaker behind my back…” I tightened my arm around her. “I never would’ve met the love of my life.”
Her eyes softened. “That’s me?”
“That’s you, angel.”
She kissed me then—slow, sweet, and lingering. The kind of kiss that settled into my bones and rewrote everything I thought I knew about the rest of my life.
We lay there for a while, listening to the birds chirping outside the window and watching the sun rising over the ridge. Finally, her leg slid over mine. Her hand followed, trailing down my chest, lower and lower, until I caught my breath.
“You sure?” I asked, already feeling my body stir.
She nodded, eyes sparkling. “I want you again. I want to feel that way again. With you.”
I rolled her gently onto her back, kissing her as the mattress shifted beneath us. She still wore my T-shirt. It bunched around her hips as I moved between her legs, and when I started to lift it, she caught my wrist.
“Not yet,” she whispered. “But soon.”
I nodded, brushing a kiss over her lips. “I can wait.”
“By the way,” she said. “My real name’s Renee. It’s my old name, though. I want to be Finley from now on.”
I stared at her a long time, but finally, a smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Finley suits you. It’s perfect.”
She smiled, tugging me closer. We made love as the birds sang outside, sunlight warming the sheets and her body curling around mine like she’d been there forever.
And as far as I was concerned, she would be.
Forever.