18. Finn #2
“I ran away when I was fourteen. I don’t even think they even noticed,” Finn continued, digging a small hole in front of him. “I guess they would have to look up from the roulette table for that to happen. What does that say about me if I’m not even worth more than some crappy odds?”
Lucie reached out and placed a gentle hand on Finn’s arm.
“You are worth more,” she said softly, her voice firm despite the tenderness. “You deserve better than what they gave you.”
Finn looked at her, taken aback by the certainty in her words, as if she truly believed it, as if she could see something in him that he couldn’t.
Lucie turned back to the sandcastle, adjusting a crooked tower and smoothing the walls.
“You know, I used to think that if I just worked harder, I could fix it all. I thought I could make my dad happy; I could make up for my mom being gone. But . . .” She trailed off, biting her lip as she shaped the sand, her fingers trembling slightly.
“It’s not my job to fix his sadness. I think I’m finally starting to learn that.
Thank you for helping me realize that. I do have good news, though.
I called my old school counselor. She’s helping me find financing, but I’m going back to school in the fall. ”
“Lu, that’s amazing,” he said, and because he couldn’t help himself, he kissed her. She smiled into the kiss. “I’m proud of you.”
“Me too,” she said, pulling away. “And also nervous. And excited. And kind of like I want to barf. But my counselor looked at my transcripts, and I only have a couple more semesters left to finish the med program. I could be done in about a year. It’s a competitive program.
I need my old teachers to write recommendations, and I have to get recertified, but I’m close.
I’m kind of mad at myself for not sticking with it in the first place.
But I’m doing it now, and that’s all that matters. ”
“What about your dad at the shop?” Finn asked, making a door in the sand.
Lucie shrugged, brushing her sandy hand down her dress. “He can find someone else. In the fall, it will start getting slow, and then I can go back to classes.”
“You’re doing it,” Finn confirmed.
“There’s so much left I have to do, like find a place to live on campus. Getting a bus pass. I need to find a hospital to work at, but it’s happening. And—” She veered off.
Finn caught her eye, scared to see what he found.
Was she going to tell him she didn’t want to see him anymore?
Was this just one last hurrah? Would it be too far away that he couldn’t get away from his responsibilities at the Way Station to see her?
But he didn’t want to be another ball and chain in her life.
“Are you saying goodbye?” Finn asked, resigning himself to the heartbreak.
Lucie laughed and shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Virginia Tech is right next door.”
His heart started up again.
“Virginia Tech?” he repeated.
She smiled, tentative.
Relief hit him so hard between the eyes that it was almost dizzying. Close enough to drive. Close enough to visit. Close enough, she could live her dream.
“It’s strange. Thinking about starting over,” Lucie said, exhaling, long and slow, as if she was settling into her future. “I think that’s what scares me the most.”
“What scares you?” he asked. If something was scaring her, he’d move it out of her path, no questions asked, nothing needed in return.
“Wanting something, wanting a future, because it means admitting I’ve never had a life that felt like mine,” she confessed. He watched as her fingers traced patterns in the sand.
Finn nodded, still at a loss from her words. He’d spent his whole life looking for a place to fit in and found it hidden in the mountains.
“Did you ever find a place like that? A place to call home?” she asked, placing shells they had collected around the castle. Decorating it in places of windows, shingles, and the drawbridge.
“I did,” he said, kicking at the sand with his foot. “I was jumping from one town to the next. Taking any job that would have me. Then it didn’t feel bad to cut and leave whenever I wanted to.”
Lucie’s hand found his, her thumb brushing gently over his knuckles.
“I told myself that it was freedom. For a while, it felt like that. I could go anywhere I wanted, do anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. Not staying long enough to get hurt. But not staying long enough to find a place to belong.” He let out a quiet breath.
“Turns out, I was tired.” He glanced at her, then back to the horizon.
“The Ranger job was supposed to be another stop. I’d been living on my own for five years.
I ended up in the DC area looking for my next job when I heard screaming coming from a dark alleyway. ”
Lucie gasped, entranced by the story, hugging her legs to her body.
“I didn’t even think. I just ran to make sure the girl was okay,” Finn said, going back to the first night he’d met Sabrina.
The rain was coming down that night. “There were three guys in the alleyway. Two holding her down, one with a knife at her throat. They were laughing—taunting her. I’d learned how to fight from being on the road for so long.
The other guys didn’t know what to do. All of their moves were sloppy.
But I fought the three long enough to get her up and get her out of there. ”
“Was she okay?” Lucie asked.
“She had a couple of bruises and a cut under her eye,” Finn explained. “I don’t know why, but I yelled and told her she should never have been there. Then she punched me in the face. Perfect right hook. Split my lip.”
Lucie gasped, then laughed. “I like her.”
“I think you guys would get along great,” he agreed.
“What happened next?” Lucie asked, scooting closer to him.
“Then the girl started to cry. She told me her name was Sabrina and that she had snuck out of her house and had no idea where she was. So there I was bleeding, and this girl was crying, and I didn’t know what to do.
After she calmed down, she told me where she lived, and I used the last of my money to get her a cab.
Right before she got in, she asked where home was for me.
I told her the truth; I didn’t have one.
I think I planned to find a 24/7 diner and sleep in one of the booths. She brought me to her home.
“For the next week, she snuck me food, letting me crash on the couch when her dad was working late. Eventually, Henry found me.” Lucie held her breath.
“I expected him to kick me out,” Finn stated.
“Instead, he told me to stay. Gave me my own room. I’d never had my own room.
He gave me a family. Rules. Space. Work. ”
Lucie leaned into her, her shoulder against her arm.
“I stopped running after that.” He shrugged, drawing a pattern in the sand.
“Sounds beautiful,” she said, looking off to the horizon.
“Maybe I can take you sometime,” he said hesitantly. He’d never introduced someone he liked to his family before.
Her eyes lit up. “I’d like that.”
The ease of her answer startled him.
“I do have crazy, nosy neighbors, and they would be very curious to meet you. I can’t promise they wouldn’t bombard you with a million questions.
” Lucie touched his hand as she laughed.
Happy and full of joy. It made him want to tell her everything about the place.
Encourage her to come. Feel at home there, too.
He pictured it without meaning to. Lucie was in the mess hall laughing with Sabrina, and Sam was trying to show off.
Charlie was baking her anything she wanted.
Then he imagined her painting somewhere quiet in the orchard.
Everywhere, he began to see her as if she were always meant to be there. She was the missing piece in his life.
So he continued, “There’s an apple orchard. I think you’d like it. We are getting ready to do our harvest. We have a big festival for it. My buddy, Charlie, makes the best apple cider donuts with them.” He leaned back on his hands, looking out at the waves.
The only way he could bring Lucie to the Way Station was if he blindfolded her. And blindfolds shouldn’t be introduced until at least the fourth date.
“There are all of these amazing places to hike. There’s this old barn near the edge of the property. It’s half falling apart, but the light inside is amazing in the afternoons; it might be a good place to paint,” he continued.
Did he go too far?
“Sounds perfect,” she said softly. For a moment, Lucie reached out and gently covered his hand with hers, her touch grounding him. Tethering him back to the present, so he didn’t float off into the past. “Thank you for telling me.”
Finn offered her a faint, crooked smile. “Thanks for listening.”
When they finished the sandcastle, Finn scooted closer to Lucie to observe their handiwork. It was lopsided; the moat wasn’t going to hold back any invaders. But they’d made it together, so it was perfect.
His watch beeped, the timer going off.
They’d been there for hours, but time was like some weird mix between being frozen and slipping through his fingers faster than sand.
Sunrise was coming soon.
“Got one more thing planned,” Finn said, getting up and dusting the sand off his hands. He grabbed the two surfboards he’d brought and nodded toward the water. “Come on. Let’s get you on a board.”