Chapter 6
Chapter Six
FINN
It’s a real good thing that Oakleigh can’t throw a punch to save her life. Otherwise, that would have hurt like a motherfucker. Luckily, the groan I let out is more for her sake than mine because honestly, I do get it. I sprung this on her just as much as I sprung it on myself.
“What the fuck, Finley?” she seethes.
“I know, I know,” I groan, making a show of wincing as I sit up straight. She’s spilled tea on her couch, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “Let me explain.”
“Oh, you’re going to explain alright. You’re going to tell me every last goddamn detail, otherwise the next punch will be right to your dick.”
Okay, that one might hurt.
“It all happened in the space of a split second. Hell, I was in the middle of a massive spiral and just started ranting, I had no idea that I was going to mention our kiss—”
“You what?!”
My lip fuse together. She watches me cautiously. I take a deep breath and ready myself for another punch.
“As usual, Mom and Dad kept hounding me about why we’re not dating and all that crap.
When it was just Mom and myself, she started talking about all this stuff, like how Wren is so happy and not alone and then she told me how she’s worried about me because I am alone and that’s part of the reason she wants me to be with you and—” I let out the breath I’m holding “—and I don’t know, it just all came out as one jumbled mess. ”
“Well, why the hell didn’t you backtrack?”
“I tried! But by the time I was able to, she had already told everyone, and no one believed me when I tried to tell them I didn’t mean it.”
“God, I’m going to kick your ass.” Oakleigh groans.
“I feel terrible about this, Cherry, really, I do. But the more I thought about it during the night, the more I thought that this could actually be a good thing for us.”
She watches me like I’ve grown two heads.
“How the fuck could this be a good thing? Why the hell do we even need a good thing?”
“I just thought that if we pretend that we’re together for a little bit, then tell them we broke up, maybe they’d just leave us alone after that because at least, to them, we gave it a try.”
I’m about to take a sip from my cup, when my mind decides to play tricks.
It’s been a while since you checked that tea…
So? I think.
God only knows what’s gone in there since you last took a sip. Best to just make a new cup.
I shake my head and try my best to focus on Oakleigh, because after taking two sips, I’m not making a whole fresh cup of tea. Cherry looks to be a concoction of furious, confused and apprehensive.
Make it.
Make it.
Make it.
“I have to make a new cup.” I try and say the words so quietly as I stand and storm over to the kitchen, shame making my stomach twist. It seems my intrusive thoughts are winning more and more these days.
I pretty much whisper it, but it doesn’t matter.
We’re two people in a house by ourselves.
There are no other noises to drown out my shame, and so, of course, Oakleigh hears me.
“I thought the compulsions had stopped?” She follows me, trying to inspect my face, as if the compulsions are some kind of rash on my skin.
“They have,” I lie. “It’s just the occasional one that breaks through.”
For once, she actually looks concerned for me, and I lap up the change in attention. It’s so rare that I get anything other than contempt coming from Oakleigh, so to finally have a moment where she’s offering me something new? I’ll take it, no matter what it is.
“Finley—”
“Anyway, I know it was wrong to lie to her, but she seemed so sad, Lee. What else could I do?”
She stays silent, nursing the cup of tea in her hands.
“Look, it’ll only be for a month. One month, and then we can tell her we broke up and she’ll just be happy that we gave it a shot.”
“This is dangerous territory, Finn,” she says, caution making her voice strained.
“I know, I know. Trust me, I’ve been beating myself up since yesterday. But Oakleigh, call it pride or selfishness, whichever it is, I can’t bring myself to tell her that it’s not true.”
She watches me closely and I squirm under her hazel gaze, choosing to focus on the new cup of tea sitting on the countertop, staring at me like some cruel joke.
“Please, Cherry.”
Minute after agonizingly slow minute, she stares at me. A zip goes up my spine when her tongue darts out to lick her lips. The new glint of moisture beckons me like a moth to a flame and I’m only too happy to burn.
After an eternity, she says, “Stop calling me Cherry and I’ll think about it.”
“No can do.”
“Why the fuck not? It’s a stupid nickname.”
“It’s a brilliant nickname. It’s your nickname, so no.”
She’s exasperated, but the nickname is non-negotiable. She’s my Cherry.
“What’s wrong with Cherry anyway? You love cherries.”
“Exactly,” she breathes. “I love them, and your nickname just mocks that.”
“You think that’s why I call you Cherry? To mock you?”
“Isn’t it?” she asks. I plan on telling her that it isn’t, it’s so much more than that, but before I can, my phone starts to play the ringtone I have assigned to my mom.
I clear my throat as I pull the phone out my back pocket.
“We should get going. She’s probably getting impatient.”
She shakes out something invisible from her body as she straightens her spine, more tea spilling onto the floor. I snatch the cup from her hand.
“Give me that.”
Her eyes roll as she moves around the couch. “Whatever. And who the hell has their phone on loud nowadays?”
“I work in construction, smartass. If my phone isn’t on loud, I don’t hear it.”
A couple more jabs here and there and we’re finally on our way to my parents’ house. The whole journey has my stomach clenching and my fingers tapping on the wheel, because the one thought I can’t get out of my head is that Oakleigh didn’t say no… But she also didn’t say yes.
* * *
We both step out of my car after a silent drive over. I decided to leave the truck at Wren’s, since Lee shouldn’t have to sit in a dusty old truck like that. The only reason I picked up my parents in it is because I needed space for all their luggage.
Oakleigh meets me at the hood of my white saloon.
“So, what exactly does your mom think is happening here?” she asks.
Hope widens my eyes. “She thinks that we’ve been seeing each other secretly for a while. That we haven’t even told Wren.”
She nods. I’m about to explain further when I see movement in the corner of my eye. How like my mother to come and spy through the window. Well, her idea of spying anyway since she’s shit at it.
“Fuck.”
Before I can warn her, I grab Oakleigh by the waist, hauling her closer toward me. I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight enough that even as she attempts to wriggle out of my hold, I still have a tight grip.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she hisses, eyes turning to slits as she leans her head up to throw daggers at me.
“Stop wriggling,” I growl at her. “My mom is watching.”
She freezes, eyes turning wide as she tries to subtly turn her head toward the house. She clearly sees my mom grinning like she just won the lottery. God, I’m really not sure what’s going to be worse—the mom who insisted that we need to be together; or the mom who thinks that we are.
I throw my fakest smile onto my face, leaning down so I can whisper into Oakleigh’s ear. “Just smile as you talk.” I feel a small shiver rake down her spine as my breath hits her ear and a shot of adrenaline races through me.
She plasters on her own fake smile before saying, “I swear to God, if this backfires on me, I’m going to kick you so hard, your kids’ balls will hurt.”
I fake a laugh. “And I swear that if you tell them the truth, I will take that little notebook of yours and throw it in the shredder.”
“That was weak.” Her smile is fake but the way she grits her teeth is so real.
“And yours was cliché,” I counter. “Look, I promise I’ll make it up to you, but, Cherry, I need this.”
She stares at me for a long time, her fake smile unable to hide the frown marring the rest of her face. Long eyelashes meet furrowed brows.
“Why do you need this so badly?” she asks, one hand clenching the back of my shirt.
“Because I need to be free.”
Free of my family’s jokes about us. Free of my mother’s worry weighing on my heart. Free of hiding my feelings for Lee.
“How about we make this interesting?” I ask. “You know, make the most of a bad situation?”
Oakleigh eyes me cautiously, but I don’t miss the way her eyes light up with mischief.
“Oh?”
I nuzzle my face into the crook of her neck, giving us an extra minute by doing something that my mother will fawn over.
Cherry’s breath hitches and my eyes close of their own accord as the smell of cherries overrides my brain and short-circuits my willpower.
Knowing I still have this effect on her, even after eight months of ignoring this unresolved chemistry between us, has my mind in a tailspin.
Cherry sounds breathless as she asks, “What’s this idea of yours?”
“Let’s pick up where we left off eight months ago, Cherry.
” When she starts to argue, I interrupt by adding, “I said I could make it out of the best-friend’s-brother zone if I wanted to.
So, how about a competition? Because last I checked, I never told you whether or not you were in the sister’s-best-friend zone or not. ”
She leans back, eyebrow raised and ready for an argument. “Oh, wow. You really are bitter about that.”
“Oh, you think so?”
She lets out an obnoxious laugh. “You so are! Sister’s-best-friend zone? Seriously?”
I lean back and laugh. “Very good deflection, Cherry.”
“I wasn’t deflecting!”
I let out a low hum but otherwise stay quiet. Oakleigh lands a slap against my chest making my smile widen, and she heads into the house leaving me to remember why we’re here and I turn back into a nervous wreck.
* * *