The Finn Factor Page 14

  No matter what, Scarlett was a non-negotiable in my life. If this thing between us didn’t work out, I’d do my damnedest to retrieve our friendship from its ashes. And if that happened, no one else needed to know the whole sorry saga.

  “Okay, I’ll be your secret boyfriend.”

  “Sounds kinda sexy,” she said, looking up at me through her lashes. “I’ll be your secret girlfriend.”

  As I leaned in to seal it with a kiss, I felt a moment of trepidation, but banished it. There would be no need to retrieve our friendship from the ashes of this relationship—being with Scarlett meant far too much to let something go wrong.

  Not working was not an option for us.

  Chapter Twelve

  Scarlett

  The phone on the reception desk buzzed and the red light showed it was an internal line.

  “You’ve reached Reception. Scarlett speaking.”

  “It’s Cathy. Can you get lunch now?”

  I glanced at the clock: 11:52 a.m. “Hang on.” I put her on hold while I turned to Andrea beside me. “Do you mind if I go a bit early for lunch?”

  “Sure.” She smiled. I’d covered for her a few times when her boyfriend had dropped in, so I knew she meant it.

  “Thanks.” I took Cathy off hold and said, “On my way.”

  In the staff room, I grabbed my lunch bag from the fridge. My parents had bought us a box of organic apples to say thanks to Finn for taking Harvey to the vet, so I had two of those plus a cheese sandwich. I poured two coffees from the percolator and was still adding milk to the one for Cathy when she arrived.

  Handing it over, I noticed her eyes shining. “What’s up?”

  She dropped her lunch on the table and handed me a piece of paper from her pocket. “I’ve found him.”

  The sheet of paper had a grainy photo of an attractive guy with hipster glasses and a short beard. I handed it back. “Had you lost him?”

  “No, I’ve found the perfect guy for you.” She flattened the page out on the table between us.

  A shiver of unease rippled across my skin. I hated lying to her, but if Finn and I were going to have our best shot at making this work, we really did need to do it away from other people’s expectations and reactions. When we’d arrived home from the workshop two nights ago, we’d managed to act normal. At least, no one seemed to have noticed anything was different. Then, both nights, a couple of hours after everyone had gone to bed, Finn had sneaked into my room. We’d had to be quiet, but it was possible that had added to the excitement—something had to explain how explosive sex with Finn was.

  So far, so good. No one had realized we were dating. And to keep it a secret, it had to be a secret from everyone, which included Cathy.

  However, my conscience couldn’t let Cathy keep thinking I needed setting up on dates.

  “You know, I think I might take a break from dating,” I said brightly.

  She went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “His name is Dane and he’s twenty-three and he already manages the café near my house. On social media he talks about art and painting, and he volunteers at an animal shelter. This,” she said, stabbing her finger beside his face, “is your future husband.”

  “Right.” The picture didn’t have great resolution and only showed his head and shoulders, but I could tell he wasn’t as broad as Finn. His hair was medium brown compared to Finn’s dark brown, and he had one eyebrow raised behind his glasses in a way that was cute, but not something Finn would ever do in a photo.

  I pulled my cheese sandwich from the container. “Have you been stalking this guy or do you actually know him?”

  “I know him,” she said but her eyes slid to the left.

  “Oh my God, Cathy. You’re stalking people to set me up on dates now?”

  “I buy coffee from him every morning and today it suddenly hit me that he could be the love of your life, so I looked up the café on social media and followed some links until I found his personal pages. That’s all. Nothing wrong with any of that,” she said primly, then grinned.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Do you even know if he’s single? Or straight?”

  “He hasn’t checked the ‘in a relationship’ box or mentioned a partner anywhere.”

  “Maybe he values his privacy,” I said, heavy on the irony.

  She chewed on her bottom lip as she considered. “Maybe, but it can’t hurt to try. How about we meet there for coffee Saturday morning?”

  “I can’t. Saturday is Finn’s birthday.” We still didn’t have a plan but it was an unwritten birthday rule that we were around for the full day at least.

  “Okay, what about Sunday?”

  I bit into my sandwich and made a non-committal noise.

  Cathy narrowed her eyes at me over her coffee mug. “Are you seeing someone?”

  The room shrank down and I was lost in memories. Finn’s body pressed against me late last night in my bed. Finn’s mouth, hot and wet, on my throat. Finn entering me, filling me. Finn groaning into my neck as he came. My skin heated and I pushed away from the table. Water. I needed about a gallon of water.

  Cathy followed. “You are seeing someone! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  After I’d finished an entire glass of water in one go, I took a breath and faced her with an I’ve-got-nothing-to-hide smile. “Nope, not seeing anyone.”

  I crossed my fingers behind my back.

  Cathy folded her arms. “Then what was that look in your eyes for?”

  “What look? There was no look. My eyes are always like this.”

  Jared, one of the lawyers, came in for coffee, passed a remark on the weather and left. Cathy not-so-patiently waited until he was gone, then said, “When I asked if you were seeing someone, your eyes glazed over and you happy-sighed.”

  “I made no happy sigh.” Though it was totally possible I had, since the feel of my legs wrapped around Finn’s hips as he thrust inside me was definitely my new happy place.

  “You’re doing it again!” Cathy tapped her shoe on the linoleum floor. “Spill.”

  “I can’t,” I said then winced. I’d pretty much just admitted there was a secret.

  Cathy grabbed my elbow and steered me back to our seats at the end of the table, where our lunches still sat. “Scarlett Logan, you will tell me what’s going on right now. Is it one of the partners of the firm? Is that why you’re keeping it a secret?”

  “What? No!”

  “Then who?”

  I picked up my apple and toyed with the stalk. Maybe I could tell her. She didn’t know anyone else in our little friends and family bubble, and it might be good to have someone to talk to about it all. Normally I talked to Finn about my love life. Now he was my love life, which limited my options somewhat.

  “Okay, here’s the thing. I slept with Finn by accident and now we’re going to try dating.”

  Cathy’s mouth popped open in a silent, thrilled scream. “That’s fantastic. You’re already friends and he’s so hot and he sleeps in the same house—this is perfect!”

  A warm fuzzy glow sprang to life in my chest—she was right, this could be perfect if we didn’t screw it up. Plus, it was nice to have someone else as excited about this as I was. “We’re keeping it a secret for now, until we find our rhythm.”

  “Roger. My lips are sealed.” She mimed locking her mouth then completely ruined the effect by immediately opening it again. “Tell me the sex is great. Please tell me that much.”

  “The best sex I’ve ever had.” I tried not to look too smug, but it was a hard ask and I probably failed. “Five times better than any other sex. Maybe six.”

  “You’re not still worried about him being aloof if you dated him, are you? Because I think that horse already bolted.”

  It was that, but so much more too. “Finn is pretty much the most important person in my life. I love my parents and my brother, but I don’t see them every day.” Well, I did see my parents every day at the moment, but they’d move on soon. “If I have a falling out w
ith anyone else in my life that I care about, it would be a sad thing. But if this goes wrong with Finn, and I lose him and have to move out, my entire life would be turned upside down. We eat breakfast and dinner together every day. We’re involved in each other’s families. He’s my biggest cheer squad and support. If I ruin all that for sex—even great sex—I’d be devastated.” Devastated was far too mild a word. My world might end. I couldn’t lose him.

  She scrunched up her nose as she considered. “Okay, I see that. But I think it will work and you’ll have it all. You’ll have that friend stuff plus great sex every night.”

  “That’s what I’m counting on.” Praying for. I picked the stalk out of the top of my apple. “My entire life seems to be about gambles at the moment.”

  “What else is going on?”

  I glanced around to check no one was coming through the door. “I’ve been offered a promotion here, to a PA position.”

  “That’s great,” Cathy said, practically bouncing in her chair. “It will be so much easier to sync our lunch breaks.”

  Good point. “So you think I should take it?”

  She frowned. “You didn’t already?”

  “They said I could have this week to think about it.” And the week was almost up. I really had to make a decision. Cathy and I had talked about her life for most of our lunches this week, so I’d avoided mentioning it. I’d hoped if I let my mind settle in with all the information, it would spit out the answer, but that method hadn’t worked even a little. Maybe I should have told Cathy sooner.

  “Are you holding out for more?” she asked in a stage whisper.

  That depended on the definition of more. “This was supposed to be a temporary job to save up some money to finish my degree. I’m still officially enrolled in accounting, I’ve just deferred it.” Twice. But who was counting.

  Cathy leaned back in her chair. “Do you want to be an accountant?”

  I automatically opened my mouth to say “yes”, but paused. For all intents and purposes, Cathy was outside the ecosystem of Finn and my parents, so I could be honest without worrying that anything I admitted would be held against me in future discussions about my career.

  “I don’t hate accountancy—the spreadsheets and graphs are fun—but it’s not a dream career or anything.” Though, how many people got to work in their dream career? Maybe I was being too picky.

  “Why did you choose it?” She swiped one of my apples.

  “Honestly? A friend in high school had parents who were both accountants. They had a nice house and enough money for things they needed.”

  “You didn’t have that?” She bit into my second apple while I kept playing with the first.

  “My parents are hippies. They don’t think material possessions are important, so their definition of what we needed and mine are totally different.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “I had no idea.”

  “They’re camped out the back of Finn’s place now, visiting. I don’t want to be camping at their age. I don’t want to be camping at my age. I want financial security, and accounting seemed like it could do that for me. Plus, I was good at math, so it made sense.”

  “But it’s not the only job that would give you financial security,” she pointed out.

  I got up and found a knife for my apple, and cut off a couple of pieces. “You don’t think I should be an accountant either?”

  “Either?” she said, snagging the knife for her apple. “Who else doesn’t think you should?”

  “Finn. My parents.” And the Universe, according to my mother. I bit into an apple piece.

  “Why have we been talking about me this week when you have all this more interesting stuff going on? My life is boring compared to yours at the moment.” She smiled in glee, obviously relishing having something juicy to talk about. “But back to the topic at hand. Why don’t they want you to be an accountant?”

  “My parents think I should paint. They think talents like that are a gift from the Universe and you should honor the gift by following it.”

  She drummed her dark red fingernails on the table as if I was under interrogation. “And Finn?”

  “Pretty much the same, but without the references to the Universe. He thinks painting makes me happy, and I should do what makes me happy.”

  “He’s got a point there.”

  “How many financially stable artists do you know? That are still alive?” I ate some more apple. “So few artists make a living at it. Painting might make me happy, but buying my own house with a dishwasher and an icemaker will make me even happier.”

  “Okay,” she said, waving the knife in my direction, “if you’re just looking for a job that gives you money, why not take the promotion?”

  “And forget about accounting?”

  “Don’t forget about it, but see where this promotion takes you. Maybe it will lead to some other opportunity you don’t know about yet. And if nothing else, it will give you more of an understanding of how businesses run if you do go back to accounting.”

  That made sense. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? What if this promotion was the Universe offering me a leg up, but my parents were too focused on my painting to see it?

  “What I need here is a chart.” I jumped up and grabbed a notice about not taking other people’s lunches from the fridge, then found a pen on the counter.

  “A chart?” she said dubiously.

  “Well, more of a list.” I flipped the notice over so I could use the blank side. “A list of the pros and cons of taking the promotion.”

  For the next five minutes, we went over all the reasons again as I wrote them into either the pro or con column. When we were done, the pro side was longer.

  “You’re right.” I scrunched up the paper bag my lunch had been in, and threw it and the apple core into the waste bin. “I’ll go and tell them now I’m taking it.”

  “Excellent,” she said. “I’ll cross my fingers that your desk is near mine.”

  And I’d cross my fingers this was the right decision.

  Scarlett

  I cast off the last stitch of my latest arm knitting project and spread it out on the carpet in front of me, pretty pleased with the outcome.

  Amelia leaned over to see. “That’s the best one yet.”

  “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.” It was another infinity scarf, basically an O shape that would hang around the neck.

  “I’ll get Harvey,” Amelia said, jumping up.

  “Hey,” Finn said from the dining table where he was making notes on some research he’d done. “Harvey’s happy outside.”

  Amelia looked at him like he was insane. “No, he’s not. But anyway, he has to try on the new scarf Scarlett made him.” She opened the door, and Harvey trotted straight over to Finn and sat at his feet, smiling.

  Giving in, Finn gave him a pat then looked over at me. Nothing about his outward appearance changed when our gazes met, but I felt it all the way to my toes. There was electricity in the air, and I knew he felt it, too. With Amelia in the room, neither of us could acknowledge it, but that didn’t lessen the intensity.

  Finn cleared his throat. “You made him a scarf?”

  “It’s emerald green.” I held it up for him to see, perhaps being a little too jiggly in my pose, but it paid off when his eyes started to glaze over.

  Finn rubbed a hand down his face, clearly trying to keep his focus on our conversation. “Perhaps it’s escaped your notice, but dogs don’t generally wear scarves.”

  “It will keep his neck warm.”

  “He has fur for that.”

  Ignoring his irrelevant point, I held a hand out for Harvey and he came to me and rolled on his back. I gave him a quick tummy rub. “Okay, sit up now so I can see how this looks.”

  In one smooth motion, Harvey was back on his feet and doing his best sitting. I looped the scarf over his head but it hung too low, so I doubled it over and arranged the edges so it looked pretty.

  �
�It’s perfect,” Amelia said, fingering the scarf. Harvey smiled at her, seeming to know that whatever we were saying, it was good. “He’ll need some other colors, though. Some for round the house—”

  “He doesn’t live in the house,” Finn interjected from the table, but we ignored him.

  “—some for going out. And we should make some for his doggy friends. I bet Mr. Snuggles would look fabulous in red.”

  It was great to see Amelia so excited about a project, so I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Oh! I know. We could make some for the dogs at the shelter, too.”

  “That’s a lot of scarves,” I said skeptically, also wondering if the shelter would even accept a donation of dog scarves.

  “I’ll help. And Finn will, too, won’t you, Finn?”

  Her brother looked up from the table and ran his hands through his dark hair. Damn he looked good when he did that. I should ask him to do it again once we were alone. Maybe while I was kissing my way down his abdomen…

  “Help what?” he asked, apparently not noticing my reaction.

  “Make scarves for the dogs at the shelter. I was thinking we could make lots of scarves and all the dogs would be warm in the winter. If the three of us all make some, we’ll have heaps for the shelter dogs.”

  Finn’s eyes looked pained and he opened his mouth, but then he hesitated. I saw the moment he realized how much this meant to Amelia, and how excited she was, and stuffed his own reluctance down, replacing it with an indulgent—if not altogether believable to me—smile. “Sure.”

  My chest just about burst at the sight of his beautiful heart in his eyes, his willingness to do something ridiculous for his little sister. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around him and hug him tight. As he made his way over to us, he glanced at me, and my feelings must have been written over my face, because he gave me a slow, but tender, smile. I was a lucky, lucky girl.

  He dropped onto the floor beside Amelia. “Show me what to do.”