She bit her lower lip as she grinned. “I wanted to see your face when you noticed. Better than I’d hoped.”
Lowering to his knees, he pressed his lips to her core. “You utterly, completely astonish me.” Licking, tasting, he nearly came as she leaned into him, biting her cheek to silence her sweet moans as he laved.
Rising to his feet, he carried her to the bed. He pulled a condom from the bedside drawer, the last of the box, and rolled it on.
Before sliding inside her, he paused at the precipice. Wrapping her legs around his hips, she gripped his waist, pulling him closer. Running his hand along her side, her abdomen, he savored.
“Now,” she whispered.
Meeting her gaze, he locked on, unable to pull away. That heaviness she’d worn since after dinner had only intensified as they’d pleasured each other. Refusing to look away, loving that she held his gaze, he slipped inside her.
Connected, her eyes never leaving his, he kept his movement slow, feeling everything as she tightened around him, then released as he thrust again. Faster, intense, she moved with him.
Her eyes fluttered shut as she squeezed him, her breath coming fast, her soft whimpers tipping him over the edge. As he neared his climax, he whispered, “Haley?”
Still in the grips of sensation, her eyes flashed open and met his. Refusing to release each other, they finished together, rhythmically, powerfully.
As he rolled to his back, she came with him, resting her head on his shoulder. Neither moved for hours, until the cool of the night brought a chill to the room, and he pulled the blankets over them. Glued to his side, she slept wrapped around him… and he couldn’t have let go if the house burned down around them.
Thunderboomedoverthehouse as morning closed in around them. Haley breathed in one last taste of Finn. Zoe was right; they were crossing lines they hadn’t intended. Last night, they’d broken all the rebound rules.
Sitting up, Haley quietly slipped on her clothes and tiptoed down the stairs. She made it all the way to the door before she ran into anyone.
Scott was waiting at the entry, leaned up against the doorway to the kitchen like Finn had. He held out a spare cup of coffee, as if he’d been waiting for her. Nodding to the kitchen, he beckoned her in.
“I really ought to get home,” she futilely argued.
“Five minutes. Finn doesn’t wake early, but you’d know that better than me these days.”
At Scott’s instruction, she sat on one of the bar stools while he pulled up the one next to her. Accepting the impending lecture, meddling, or whatever it may turn out to be, she took a testing sip of her coffee.
“When Finn was a baby, we were so terrified. Brenda was only eighteen at the time, a senior in high school.” He stared blankly across the kitchen. Haley couldn’t help but listen. “Quite the scandal, as I played for ASU at the time. We lived in an apartment off campus when Finn came along, getting by on her wages as a server while I worked the kitchen between homework and games. But she never let me quit. Gave up everything for me.”
Burning in her gut nagged at her, knowing this wasn’t going to make things any easier. That she would regret it if she didn’t stay to hear it.
“When Finn was thirteen, she came to me one day and said, ‘Scott? There’s this adorable town up in Washington. And a perfect little building with a lot for sale downtown.’ Not having a clue what she was getting at, I said, ‘And?’ That’s when I realized how much she’d given up for me. At the time, I was coaching Finn’s team, working at the local butcher’s smoking meats and cheeses. Brenda, she stomped her foot and took both of my cheeks in her hands and said, ‘I love you. You’re a great father and a hard worker. But it’s my turn. We’re opening our own a restaurant’.”
Smiling, Haley realized the conversation wasn’t going quite where she had expected.
“So, we made an offer and uprooted the family. Finn was pissed, not wanting to leave his friends, his team. But Brenda was right. It was her turn. We took out a hefty loan from the bank and bought the property. Poured our hearts and souls into creating a unique menu, building a restaurant that would stand the test of time.
“When she went through that last PET scan, and it was clear the cancer had beat an unbeatable woman, I was devastated. Not Brenda. She grabbed my cheeks again and claimed, ‘It’s not my turn anymore. I would have liked more time, but sometimes life’s stupid that way. Let’s bring the kids home. It’s their turn now.’ She knew they were floundering.”
“She must have been an amazing woman.” Haley thought of the family photos that lined the stairwell, the smiles and love between them.
“She was. Will always be with me.” He drained the last of his coffee, staring into the bottom of the cup. “Know what did it for me?”
“What?”
“I can’t say we had planned anything. We’d been having fun, two stupid kids that figured we were just fooling around. Well, we all know how that story ends.” He toasted his coffee. “But we stuck together. She wouldn’t marry me right off, told me she didn’t want a pity proposal.”
“What made her change her mind?”
“That day in the delivery room. Holding Finn in our arms. I brought her the biggest bunch of flowers I could afford and said I’d put up with her hemming and hawing for nine damn months. That she was the strongest woman I’d ever met. That no one else set me on fire like she did. And that baby was so perfect. That it didn’t matter what tomorrow brought, as long as she was with me.”
“Did she say yes?”
He chuckled, “She stared at Finn for a minute, his fierce scowl that she said looked just like mine. Said this wasn’t her plan. About the time I was starting to panic, thinking she was about to dump me, she said things don’t work out the way you think they will, but sometimes life drops something better in your lap.”
