Chapter 11
eleven
FINN
We fell easily back into the pattern of the week before, meeting up and spending time together nearly every day.
I didn’t normally hate my job with the pack, but the more time I spent away from Emmy, the more I considered what it would be like if we were mated.
My cabin felt more bland and lifeless every day. Not because of the lack of color—I would never be obsessed with the rainbow the way my mate was—but because she wasn’t in it.
My mornings felt too quiet without her in them. After a few days, I started calling her while I made and ate breakfast. Even when we were both quiet, there was something nice about having her on the line.
My bed felt way too fucking cold, so after a few weeks, I asked her if she’d mind if I stayed the night most of the time. She agreed, as long as I agreed not to judge her for being consistently late to work. I would’ve promised her anything at that point.
A few weeks into me spending the nights at Emmy’s place, I drove back to Moon Ridge on Friday morning, after she left for work.
My nerves were shot as I stopped at the hardware store in town to pick up a fuck-ton of pink paint, along with the necessary supplies. I’d spent way too much time researching the right way to paint the outside of a cabin.
The folder on my passenger seat threatened to burn a hole in the chair, and I kept looking over at it.
My heart hadn’t stopped pounding since I picked it up the day before. Emmy’s meeting to go over her contract was the next day, so I was out of time.
Luckily, the bastards in my pack were reliable pains in my ass.
All of them were sitting on my porch when I drove up, along with a few of the other guys in our pack who didn’t live in town. Axel and Kai had come, and brought Ryder too.
“Did any of you actually watch the video I sent about how to do this right?” I asked, as I got out of my truck.
“Nope.” Ethan popped his lips on the p.
I could tell he was lying. He’d watched it.
Wyatt’s grunt said he hadn’t.
Connor scratched the back of his neck. Not a chance he’d even opened the link. I’d be lucky if he saw the message at all.
Graham grimaced.
Kai, Axel, and Ryder didn’t bat an eye. None of them had bothered either.
“I did,” Nico said. That answer, I’d expected.
“We did too,” Austin said, obviously referring to both him and Enzo. I’d expected that, too.
I opened the tailgate of my truck and handed the first five-gallon bucket of paint over. The others followed. “The three of you and Ethan can take the exterior. I’ll handle the interior with everyone else.”
“Are you sure your mate wants everything pink?” Axel checked. “That seems like a lot.”
“Emmy thinks pink is always an improvement,” I said.
“You should see the inside of her house. Plain pink is an improvement,” Wyatt remarked, as I handed him a bucket.
My elbow met his gut. “It’s fucking cheerful.”
“He’s seducing her with the color pink. Just accept it,” Graham advised.
He wasn’t wrong.
Ethan and Connor had helped me prep everything the day before, so as soon as we got the buckets open, we were rolling paint.
Everything ran smoothly outside, and I attempted to guess which shade my mate would want in each room.
She was probably going to want to change everything, but it was the effort that counted.
At least, I hoped it was.
Emmy texted me an apology to delay our weekend plans after she got off work, saying that her friends had talked her into a shopping trip and dinner together. Abby, Stella, and Jade were going to drop her off at my place afterward.
I’d planned that, obviously.
She was going to be shocked. The only clue I’d even given her was that I smelled like tape the day before. Because of her years in kindergarten, she thought tape was a perfectly normal thing for a grown adult to smell strongly of.
She also thought having more than two-hundred colored gel pens was normal, so teaching had screwed with her idea of normalcy. Her insane level of optimism, obsession with bright colors, and trust fund had probably contributed to that.
Maybe my feelings on the subject were biased, but I loved it.
We finished moving the furniture back in around six, and after I sent everyone away with IOUs, I pulled the cake out of my freezer and checked my phone.
Emmy
Finally heading back! Be there in an hour!
She’d sent the message…
One hour ago.
Fuck.
Fuck.
My heart was fucking pounding again.
Was the air conditioning working?
I wiped my palms on the sweats I was wearing, which now had streaks of dried paint on them in various shades of pink. They were going to be Emmy’s new favorite pair of my pants.
Everything could be about to change for me. For us.
Of course, there was a real chance she would see the pink house, and the folder, and still decide she wanted more time.
I’d get it.
I’d wait as long as she wanted.
Opening the fridge, I grabbed the hideous cake I’d worked so hard on, then went out to the porch.
The cake—in the dome I’d borrowed from Emmy’s house—went on the side table next to the lemon-yellow couch on the porch.
The folder was on top of the dome. The couch’s color was a nod to her place near the university.
I took a seat, leaning back casually as I forced myself to continue breathing normally.
I was going to have another fucking panic attack if—
The crunch of dirt on tires had my gaze snapping up to Stella’s truck.
Emmy was in the middle seat, between Zoe and Stella, her head turned away from the house as she chatted with them.
They parked in front of my place, and Stella poked her on the arm when she didn’t turn toward me right away.
Emmy finally looked at me.
Her lips parted. Then opened wider as she took in the house.
Fuck.
She was going to hate it.
She was going to tell me I’d done something wrong.
She—climbed over Stella like the woman was a piece of furniture and flung the door open. She stumbled when she landed, and I was on my feet, as if I could get to her fast enough to catch her before she fell.
I couldn’t, but instinct told me otherwise.
Luckily, she caught herself.
“You painted it pink!” she exclaimed, gesturing toward the house almost violently.
“Yeah.” I started putting my hands in my pockets, trying to calm my nerves.
Emmy hurried up the stairs, tripping again as she reached the bottom one. My hands snapped out in time to catch her hip, steadying her before she threw herself into my arms and hugged me tightly.
“It’s perfect, Finn,” she breathed, her grip iron.
“Call us if you need a ride!” Stella yelled from the truck.
“I won’t!” Emmy called back.
Abby opened the vehicle’s back door long enough to drop a couple of bags that I assumed belonged to my mate, before they pulled away.
Emmy’s eyes were wet as they met mine. “I can’t believe you painted your cabin for me.”
“Someone told me it was depressing.”
Emmy laughed, dashing tears away with the back of her hand. She was crying again, which was fucking terrifying, but her smile was so brilliant I could tell they were happy tears. “She sounds like a bitch.”
“Nah, she just loves pink.” I kissed her lightly.
“I really—is that a cake?” She pushed me away, rushing over to it
I turned toward her but stayed where I was as she picked up the folder I’d left on top of the cake.
She looked over her shoulder at me, her lips parted in a perfect circle after she saw the logo on the front.
Moon Ridge Elementary.
“I know you’re not ready to move here, but I wanted to at least see if they were hiring for the next school year.
They insisted on giving me an offer after they heard how long you survived teaching kindergarten and looked you up.
You wouldn’t be starting until late August, if you wanted the job, and the pay probably isn’t as great as it could be because Moon Ridge’s classes are pretty small, but—”
She dropped the folder on the cake and walked back to me in two steps.
Then grabbed my paint-stained t-shirt in both fists. “You painted your house pink for me, found me a job, and made me a cake?” she demanded.
“Yeah.” I grimaced. “It sounds desperate, but—”
“You’re in love with me,” she said, her fists tightening in my shirt. “Don’t even try to deny it. You wouldn’t go to all this trouble if you didn’t love me. It’s not desperate. It’s thoughtful, and sweet, and perfect, Finn. I’m in love with you too.”
She went up on her tiptoes and kissed me, hard.
I held her hips, pulling her closer and parting her lips with my tongue.
Shock warred with something that felt a hell of a lot like hope.
I was in love with her.
She was in love with me too. My mate. My whole fucking world.
I never would’ve expected to actually want a mate bond, but now, I would do whatever the hell it took to keep ours.
Emmy pulled away. “We should eat the cake.”
“It’s not going to be as good as yours.”
“All cake is good cake, Finn.” She slipped her fingers through mine and dragged me over to the chair. “We’re going to have to paint the inside of the house too, if I’m going to move to Moon Ridge.”
Her casual remark about moving here, with me, was enough to make me feel like my stupid fucking chest was going to burst.
“I considered that.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You didn’t paint the inside too, did you?”
My expression must’ve answered the question for her, because she grabbed the cake with a squeal and rushed inside.
I couldn’t fight my grin as she gushed about how much she loved it, walking from room to room and checking out the different colors I’d gone with.
She was crying happy tears and trying to wipe smeared mascara off with the back of her hand when we finally cut the cake.
I pulled her into my arms. “Leave it, Em. I like you messy.”
“How messy?”
“Filthy.”
“Take your clothes off and prove it.”
I dragged her into my arms and carried her back to my room.
Our room.
The cake could wait.