Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Frankie
"Knock, knock.”
I stood up too quickly and banged my head on the angled beam above me. Finch cringed.
"Oh, Finch, hey," I said a little too quickly, trying to play it off like I hadn’t just smashed my freaking skull into the ceiling. "Must remember there's a beam there."
Finch’s cheeks dimpled as she walked to the freezer. "You'll get the hang of it after a few more knocks, I’m sure.” Her laugh was deep and rasping and made my stomach do all sorts of strange flippy things. She fished out a packet of frozen corn and wrapped it in a dish towel. “Ice. Animal doctor’s orders.”
"Thanks," I said, taking the cold bundle and putting it on my head. It would probably hurt once the adrenaline wore off, but my heart was jackhammering so fast that I couldn't feel the egg forming. "What's up?"
"Something smells delicious," Finch said, ignoring my question and strolling to the kitchen island in the center of the room. She lifted the tea cloths covering my cinnamon rolls. "Wow."
"They're not good.” I held out my hands like she was about to pick up a grenade. "They're just practice ones. I'm working out the oven settings with a few test batches. I’ve got to account for the salt air and humidity. It’s different than upstate. Obviously.”
"You better not tell the twins about these test batches or they'll all be gone by lunchtime,” Finch quipped, putting her hands in her scrub pockets and leaning against the brick wall of the Peckish Peacock. She looked like some sort of sexy, androgynous Grey’s Anatomy character with the way she leaned like that. She seemed like the sort of person who would be calm in an emergency, that catlike cunning, shrewd mind that could go from playful to razor sharp in a second. I wondered what she’d look like in action during a code red . . .
Finch reached for a roll, and I darted forward.
"Oh no.” I waved my arms like a referee over the rolls. "These aren't up to scratch. I'm throwing these out."
"What?" Finch scoffed. "They look perfectly fine. Delicious, even.”
"I don't want my first impression to the world to be these rolls.” I huffed, dusting my flour-covered hands down my emerald-green apron.
“First, the world may be a little extreme.” Her lips curved up, making her piercings glint with the movement. “Second, the warthogs have a more refined palette than I or any of my siblings do and they routinely eat bugs so . . .”
“You’re exaggerating.”
Finch guffawed. “Have you met my siblings? Honestly, zookeepers are just as feral as their animals when it comes to free food.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. It was really sweet the way this family teased and joked about their siblings. They were constantly poking fun but in a loving way, as if they actually liked each other as people and not just out of familial obligation. How many families could actually say that?
The Lachlans were the most welcoming group I’d ever met. I didn’t know grown siblings could actually be friends. It was beautiful, but it also made me ache for something, the same ache that had kept me glued to Jake even when we’d fought, even when we hadn’t made any sense, even when I’d questioned if I was making a big mistake. I wanted that feeling of place, of rightness, one I’d never really had with my own family, one that existed so readily here with this rowdy bunch of zookeepers.
"May I?" Finch asked, lifting a sticky roll. She laughed at my pinched lips and tight expression. “You're a bit of a perfectionist, aren't you?"
"I don’t?—”
“I’m a literal garbage disposal,” she pushed. “I promise I won't judge you."
I craned my neck to look up at the ceiling so I didn't have to meet her eyes as I said, "Fine. On your head be it.”
I could still see from the periphery as she took a bite. Maybe she'd spit it out. Maybe she’d try to make a funny remark to cover for how truly horrendous they were . . . . But then an indecent moan escaped her lips and she said, "Sweet baby boa constrictors, this is seriously fucking delicious.”
"You don't have to say that?—”
"I wouldn't lie to you," she said with a warm laugh. "You can look at me now." She waved a powdered sugar-covered hand in front of my face. "Frankie, look at me." I finally lowered my gaze to find her standing a hair's breadth from me, licking frosting off her full lips. I cleared my throat as she said, “Really. These are like orgasmically good."
First the lip licking and the smell of sweet cinnamon on her breath, now the mention of orgasms. I felt the tingling across my cheeks and knew I was definitely turning bright red. It didn't help that Finch looked like a tatted, masc Xena Warrior Princess. God, I got all giggly and weird around hot people. I had no chill.
I bet she had really sexy orgasms too, deep, groaning, throaty ones, not cringy, embarrassing ones like me. And now I was thinking about her sex face. Great , that was really intrusive.
"I can do better," I said, sounding just as flustered as I was.
"Well, if this is your version of bad," Finch said through another mouthful, "I am certainly not prepared for your best."
I opened the window, trying to act like I was wafting the smell outside and not stealing some fresh air to cool my flushed cheeks. "Did you smell the baking? Is that why you've come for this unexpected visit?”
"The twins are like hounds for this stuff," Finch said as she finished the last bite. "I give it ten minutes before they get here with that window open.”
"They can have as much as they like, except for two. I told Aya and Kirby I'd bring some home."
Finch arched a pierced brow. “Oh, so they are good enough for Aya and Kirby, but not for me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
I shrugged. “I don't know. I care what you think, I guess," I muttered, sweeping my hair nervously behind my ear. Ugh, god, Frankie, pull your shit together. "So, Goldfinch?—”
"Finch," she corrected.
"Finch. Right,” I said, cocking my hip, and I noticed the way her eyes dipped to my waist. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" I tried to suck in my gut. This shirt was too tight and she was probably staring at my rolls, and not the cinnamon kind. Wonderful.
Finch swept a hand through her short hair. "I, uh, just wanted to say hi and, uh, clear the air between us."
"Clear the air?"
"Just that we kissed at that restaurant and now we're working together, and I just wanted to make sure that wasn't weird and that you're okay after everything that happened with Sgt. Douchebag.”
"I'm okay, well, mostly," I said with a laugh as I put the frozen corn on the stainless steel countertop. "You rescued me. It was like knight in shining armor worthy, so thank you.” I wanted to thank her for that hug in the alleyway too. The way she’d held me like she could fuse my broken heart back together with her arms alone . . . That hug still echoed through my body. Never had it felt so good to be held in someone’s arms. But I couldn’t say that aloud, so instead I simply said, “No weirdness, I promise."
"Well, I never knew I wanted to be called a knight in shining armor until now," she teased. "So we're all good?"
"All good," I said, sticking my hand out. She quirked her brow at it but shook it anyway.
Jesus, Frankie. A handshake? Really? What the fuck is wrong with you?
I needed a quick getaway. I hooked my thumb behind me. "Well, I was just heading back to the Salty Dog. Needed to grab something, so, uh, I'll see you around."
I turned too quickly and almost ran smack dab into that fucking beam again, but Finch was faster, reaching out and grabbing me by the wrist. She yanked me backward so that her chest fused with my front, and I sucked in a sharp breath. We stood there frozen for a beat as her thumb swept over my pulse, and I swallowed at her calloused hands on my skin.
"You keep on saving me there," I joked a little breathlessly.
"All the knight talk got to my head," she joked, finally releasing my arm and stepping back. "I've got to get to surgery."
I turned to look at her. “Oh my god, I hope you're okay."
Her brow furrowed. "Not my surgery . . . I'm doing a removal on a partial tail drop on a leopard gecko. Vet, remember?"
"Right." I let out a loud, uncomfortable laugh. "Of course. I knew that.”
I needed to go crawl into a hole and never emerge. I whirled, ducking under the beam this time and bolting out the café door.
"See ya!" I called over my shoulder as I fled that embarrassing situation.
I walked double pace down the path out of the zoo to the main strip of shops. What the hell was wrong with me? This wasn't 7th grade. I could kiss another adult person and then just move on like it wasn't a really great kiss. It was all just for pretend anyway. It wasn’t like I wanted to repeat it again and again and again.
I let out a shaky breath. "I hope you're okay?" I groaned, embarrassment burning through me as I stormed down the path. "God, Frankie. Good job."