He smirks, but there’s something about the way his jaw twists that warms my heart. “Maybe I’ve just never met the right woman.”
I roll my eyes, but can’t help the little flip in my stomach.
He tips his glass toward me. “Your turn. What’s with the nameHeavenleigh?”
I groan. “God. You sound like every substitute teacher I ever had.”
His lips twitch.
I sigh and lean back, letting the words spill before I can overthink it. “Mamma named me Heavenleigh because that’s how she felt when the nurse put me in her arms. She figured that I might be the only pure thing in her life and that she needed to be reminded that there was another world outside of our trailer park.” I pause, thinking about my Mamma. “She’s a romantic deep down.”
Finn’s quiet, but his gaze softens in a way that makes my chest ache.
“It’s fine,” I say quickly, waving it off. “I get it. It’s kinda like I was made to write country songs, doesn’t it?” I half joke.
“It suits you,” he says, like it’s a fact.
My words get caught in my throat for a second, but I push past it. “My brother just made the football team,” I blurt, needing a safer subject. “He’s got one foot out the door already. I just want him to graduate and get out of there. I want him to make something of himself.”
“You’re proud of him,” Finn says, smiling a little.
“Yeah. He’s got a shot at something better, y’know?” I fiddle with the ring on my finger. “Dreams. A future. I get it. I’ve got dreams too, you know.”
“Yeah?” He leans forward, interested.
“One day,” I say, eyes brightening, “I’m gonna write a song with Rose Maghee. She’s what I aspire to be.They said in high school to emulate yourself after your role model, and well, she was mine.” I shrug, like it was a million years ago that I was in that double-wide, hoping that I’d leave it one day. “ If I can make that happen, then maybe everything else falls into place. Y’know?”
“Yeah, I do. You’ll do it,” Finn says, like it’s obvious.
He says it like it isn’t next to impossible. I blink because he caught me off guard with how sure he sounds. He doesn’t even try to convince me that it’s next to impossible, and that alone gives me hope.
He takes a slow sip of his drink, then says, almost offhand, “I hit someone once.”
I freeze. “What?”
“It was justified,” he adds, voice calm but hard. “Still… doesn’t mean it wasn’t messy. It was a blip on my stats. I was suspended for a few games.”
“What happened?” I ask because something about the way his eyes darken tells me it wasn’t just some bar fight.
“My brother was going through something,” he says quietly after a beat. “Not my story to tell. A player on the ice made it an issue, and it just got to me, y’know? Like the women at the gala event got to you.”
I observe him, surprised by the rawness I hear in his voice. He’s not just protecting himself—he’s protecting someone else.
“You’re loyal,” I say softly.
He let out a breath, like he wasn’t expecting me to understand.
“Some things are worth protecting,” he murmurs with a shrug.
We sit there, the air thick between us, and I swear, something shifts inside me in that moment. He’s honest and real, so real, and it feels good—too good.
“You’ve got this reputation,” I say, my voice light but cautious. “Why keep it up if it’s not who you really are?”
He gives me a slow, almost sad smile. “Because until now, no one ever gave me a reason to be anything else. But you bring out the best in me, Kate. And I love that about you. You’re hardworking and honest, and you’re real. I’m in this with you. There’s no one else.”
My heart beats in double time, and I’m grappling for oxygen to breathe.
And maybe it’s the altitude or the fact that I’ve already fallen too deep, but I can’t stop myself from admitting, “I never really had time for anyone special, either. I was too busy surviving and trying to find a way out of Pine Hollow.”
