by Zoe York
“Why do I feel a but coming on?”
“But…” Avery reached forward, tapping her nail on the drawing of the willow tree. “He’s sweet on you. I feel like you’re carrying too much baggage from the past to see it for what it is. And, really, who cares if people know you’re together? You’re a grown-ass woman and can make your own decisions. Even if your dad doesn’t want you to realize that.”
Willow finally gave life to the one thing that’d been weighing her down since she dove headfirst into this thing with Finn. “He’s leaving, Avery.”
“Yeah.” The main phone rang, and Avery stood and strolled to the edge of the office, glancing back before she stepped out. “But wouldn’t you rather have something real while he’s here than spend the next ten years wondering what could’ve been?”
Willow stared down at the card again, replaying Finn’s words in her head. Hearing the tinge of hurt lacing them. They were at an impasse—both of them wanting something the other couldn’t give. And Willow could admit that now—that she wanted Finn as much as she’d wanted him when they’d been teenagers. What she felt for him had never truly faded over time. With him being back, with them spending time together, those feelings had only blossomed and grown.
And now there she was, almost exactly where she’d been back then: in love with a Thomas boy who had no intention of staying in Havenbrook.
Why couldn’t there be any demo left to do? The one day Finn could really use it and there was nothing. Not even a fucking nail to pound in. Instead, he grabbed a paint roller and went to town. Wasn’t quite the same as breaking shit with a sledgehammer, but it’d have to do.
He certainly couldn’t do what he wanted, which was go over to town hall and give Willow a piece of his mind before kissing the ever-loving shit out of her. If her phone call was anything to go by, him actually showing up would give her a coronary.
He’d been trying damn hard to prove to her this time was different. Ever since their talk a couple weeks ago, he’d made an effort. Except it hadn’t really felt like an effort at all because what he was doing made her happy. Or so he thought.
This morning shot that theory straight to hell.
He’d woken up and decided to send her flowers on a whim—her favorite and something he’d never been able to afford to get her when they were teenagers. Nola was friends with the owner of Bloom, so he’d asked her to do him a favor. Technically, Willow’s secret admirer everyone was going on about was Nola. She’d brought him the card which he’d drawn on, and he’d given her the money to pay for them, but the order and delivery instructions had come from her.
Which Willow would know if she’d given him a damn second to explain.
“Dude. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Drew asked. “You’ve been stomping and huffing since you got off the phone.”
Finn had half a mind to tell his brother to fuck off, ignore him altogether, or blow smoke up his ass, but none of it would be any use. Drew would bother Finn until he came clean—might as well get it over with.
“Willow is what’s wrong with me. She’s fucking with my head.” He tossed the roller into the paint tray and linked his hands behind his head. Jaw ticking, he paced back and forth next to the bar top. “She doesn’t want people to know we’re together again, but with the way this town is? Do you know how fucking difficult that is? I get it and I’m tryin’ to respect it, but I’m walkin’ on eggshells around her—around everyone—when all I wanna do is grab her and kiss the hell out of her in front of the whole damn town.”
He blew out a deep breath and dropped his hands. “When it’s just us, it’s amazing. Better than it was back then, even. But whenever other people are thrown in, she’s colder than a walk-in freezer. And forget about doing something nice for her! Bites my damn head off. Jesus, I love the girl—you know that—but it feels a helluva lot like this whole thing is one-sided.”
The sounds of saws and power drills filled the space as Drew stared at him. Then his shit of a brother let out a booming laugh. “You’re such an ass.”
“What the fuck.”
“Man. Seriously.” He shook his head and clapped a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Good job, you did a few nice things for the girl you’re in love with. Someone get this guy a cookie,” he called over his shoulder.
“Why are you being a dick right now?”
“Because I’m the only one who’s gonna give this to you straight. Yeah, you’re doing nice shit for her, and that’s great. But you left her,” he said, enunciating every word. “I think you forget how much you broke her. You’re lucky she can even be around you without kicking you in the nuts. And she took your ass back!
“Now just imagine for two fucking seconds what it’d feel like if she picked up and left you. Right now. Just packed her shit and bailed without a word. No goodbye, no reason, not even a fucking note to tell you why she’d gone or where she went off to. You with me?”
Drew didn’t wait for Finn to respond before he continued. “Now imagine being an eighteen-year-old girl who’d just slept with a guy for the first time, and then he bailed shortly after. Man, you should thank your lucky stars she can even look at you. So, yeah, you’ve got some shit to deal with. I don’t care if you give her the whole fucking galaxy every day for the rest of your life—she still doesn’t owe you any favors, and she certainly doesn’t owe you a free pass. You wanted her back, and now you’re bitching about having to earn it? C’mon now. Don’t be a dick.”
Drew shook his head. “If you ask me, I think you did a shit thing back then—you know how I felt about it.”
Finn narrowed his eyes, curling his hands into fists. That was a shitty move to play, and he didn’t appreciate it. It wasn’t like he’d run off into the sunset. Between what Dick had forced upon him and their sick momma, he hadn’t had much of a choice. “I did it for Momma.”
Drew nodded. “I know you did. And even if I could, I wouldn’t want to go back and do it differently, because it allowed her to be with us now. But it also doesn’t change the fact that it was a shitty thing to do. You could’ve handled it a hundred different ways, but you didn’t. And now, comin’ back here? You fucked with her head again. Have you even told her we’re plannin’ on stayin’?”
Finn crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw ticking. His silence was answer enough for his brother.
“Yeah, thought so. Look, man. I’m glad you two are back at it—you deserve someone who makes you happy, and Lord knows she does. But here’s the thing: you’re gonna have to keep climbing those fucking mountains every day to win her over. To continue to win her over, just to prove you’re not that same nineteen-year-old jackass who left her without a word. Every damn day, for as long as she’ll let you. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
Power tools continued to whir in the background as Finn stared at his brother, letting his words sink in. Dammit, he hated when Drew was right.
“Wow.”
Finn and Drew both turned to find the source of the voice. Nash stood several feet away, drill in hand, his attention locked on them.
“What?” Finn and Drew said at the same time.
Nash shook his head. “Damn, that was some straight-up Lifetime channel shit. You been spendin’ your time watchin’ talk shows, Drew?”
“Fuck off. You’re supposed to be workin’. Go fix shit.”
Nash’s laugh boomed over the sound of his drill whirring, and he turned his back on them.
Before Finn could thank his brother for being a dick, for giving him the kick in his pants he needed, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, expecting to see a message from Nola or maybe Momma. Instead, it was from Willow.
I’m sorry. Can you get free tonight? Tree house at 9?
Finn’s pulse pounded in his ears. He hadn’t been in the tree house since the night he’d slept with Willow for the first time. Walking home from there had been when everything had started on the downhill slide into a pile of shit. Her daddy’d seen him sneaking back to his ca
r late that night, his shirt on backward and inside out, hair a disheveled mess, leaving very little question as to what he’d been getting up to with the mayor’s baby girl. Dick had taken it about as well as could be expected. He’d promised Finn his time with Willow was coming up, but, with the untouchable air of a cocky nineteen-year-old, Finn hadn’t believed him.
He should’ve.
Drew stepped close and glanced down at the screen, his brows lifting once he’d read the text. He clapped a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “She’s meetin’ you halfway, man. Don’t fuck this up.”
No way in hell did he plan to. Looked like he had some work to do.
It’d been a long time since Willow had made the trek to her childhood tree house. Truth be told, she had no idea what kind of shape it was even in. It’d been years since she’d been back. It’d just been too difficult, climbing up there and being immersed in the kind of memories she and Finn had made there once upon a time.
But she also knew she needed to extend an olive branch, and she figured this was the best way to do it. She’d screwed up with him that afternoon. He was trying, attempting to prove himself to her all over again, and she needed to give him credit for it instead of biting his head off for doing something nice for her.
She’d really felt like an ass when Avery had done some sleuthing and found out it hadn’t even been Finn who’d placed the flower order, but Nola. If any of the Havenbrook busybodies found out that tidbit, it’d be easy enough to brush off as a thank-you gift for all of Willow’s help in dealing with the red tape surrounding the bar renovation. So Finn had taken her reservations into account and had found a way to work around them. And Willow had spat all over his gift. A gift that, as she’d had time to gain some perspective on the situation, meant the world to her. He’d thought enough of her to let her know she was on his mind, and he did so with her favorite flowers. Which she knew for a fact she hadn’t mentioned since he’d been back. He was trying to prove himself to her every day, and it was time she got out of her own way.
Besides that, Avery had been right—Willow was a grown-ass woman, and it was about damn time she started caring less about what her daddy thought and more about what she actually wanted.
Dusk had settled in fast, and while there wasn’t much to be scared of in good old Havenbrook, and even less on her family’s acreage, she still walked a little faster as she hurried toward her destination, her phone’s flashlight guiding her path. Their daddy’d had the tree house built when Willow had been only three—too young to go in it then. It perched in a thicket of trees, far enough away from the main house that she and her sisters had always felt a sense of independence whenever they’d played there.
Although considering what she and Finn had gotten up to in there, perhaps building it such a distance from the house hadn’t been her daddy’s brightest idea. Even before she and Finn had slept together, they’d done everything-but enough times to lose count, all in that hidden-away place in the trees. But that night… Willow smiled to herself, the memory sitting bittersweet in her chest. She’d been scared and nervous, but he’d been so gentle. So giving. So loving. He’d made her come twice before he’d even slid inside her, just to make sure it was good for her.
At the time, she’d thought they had the world at their feet—that they’d go off to college in Nashville, start a life together.
Days later, he’d been gone.
She shook away the memory as she tucked her phone into her pocket and climbed the ladder into the tree house. Finn had only sent her a short I’ll be there response, so she couldn’t even begin to guess what his reaction to her apology was going to be. For all she knew, he was going to tell her to take a hike. That this, as fun as it’d been, was over. That it was too big of a hassle to continue with anyway, given he was leaving soon.
The thought pierced her chest, leaving a hollow ache in her heart.
But she wasn’t going to think about that now. Finn leaving had been a foregone conclusion. Their relationship would end the same as before. The only difference was, this time, she’d gone into it with her eyes wide open. When her heart broke open again, she’d have no one to blame but herself.
As soon as her head crested the tree house floor, she looked up and gasped. Inside was a fairy wonderland. Hundreds of white twinkling lights draped down from the peaked ceiling before flowing down the walls and bordering the windows. Lush pillows and blankets covered every square inch of the floor. In the center of the space sat a picnic basket with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
And in the corner stood Finn. “Hey.”
Willow climbed the rest of the way, not able to stop gawking at what he’d done. There was no way this space had been in any semblance of decency as of this afternoon. As far as Willow knew, no one used it anymore—she and her sisters were too old, and Rory’s kids were too busy with their twelve-thousand extracurricular activities to ever take advantage of it.
“What—when…” She shook her head then locked her eyes with Finn. “Why did you do this?”
His long legs ate up the space between them, and then he stood in front of her, his body heat seeping into her bones. He reached out and linked their fingers together, resting his other hand on the curve of her neck. “I was an ass.”
“You—what? No, I was the ass. You did something lovely, and I threw it back in your face. I’m sorry.”
Finn was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Don’t steal my thunder, Willowtree. It’ll screw with my seduction plan.”
She laughed, her head tipped back as warmth filled her chest. She felt…content. For the first time in so long, she was happy. As much as the lead-up to the Fourth of July parade depleted her energy, she loved this part of her job. Like the entire town was her canvas—a living, breathing creation. On top of that, her daddy had finally started to see her worth, she was getting along with all her sisters, and her love life wasn’t a pile of ash like it’d been for so long.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” Finn brushed his thumb down the column of her neck, his breath warm on her lips. And then he dipped lower, bringing their mouths together.
She sighed into his mouth, loving how seamlessly they fit. How he knew exactly where to touch her, exactly the speed to go, exactly the words to whisper to make her melt into a boneless puddle of need at his feet. That wasn’t something you could teach, something that developed after years of intimacy—it just was. Pure, raw chemistry.
And they had it in spades.
“You hungry?” His words rumbled against her neck as he rained kisses there, punctuating them with licks and nips with his teeth.
“Not for food.”
He groaned, the vibration sending a shiver down Willow’s neck and shooting straight to her nipples. They hardened beneath her tank top, ached for his hands or his mouth or both.
“You’re making it damn difficult to give you the romantic replay of that night—the one you deserved that I couldn’t give you then.”
She pulled back and cupped his face, the couple days’ worth of scruff scratchy against her fingertips. “You can romance the hell out of me. After.”
He placed his hand on the small of her back, pulling her in until their bodies were flush. Pressing her against the hard ridge of his cock. “Last chance, Willowtree. You gonna let me be a gentleman, or what?”
Finn and gentleman didn’t belong in the same sentence, especially in regards to the bedroom—or tree house, as it were. And that was one of the many reasons she loved him. He took what he wanted without apology, doled out pleasure like candy, and she was ready for every bit of it.
Stepping back, she gripped the hem of her tank and pulled it up and off, leaving her bare under his gaze. One of the benefits of having small breasts—no need for a bra. Something Finn definitely approved of, if his heated gaze and low growl of appreciation were any indication.
For two breaths, neither of them moved, both frozen, and then it was like something snapped in each of them. T
hey crashed together, hands grappling with clothing, peeling layers off until they were both finally bare. Tripping over the picnic basket, they tumbled into a pile of pillows in the corner, their mouths never breaking.
Finn swept his tongue against hers, his hands roaming her body, exploiting all the places that made her weep with pleasure. When he grazed her clit, she tipped her head back, a moan lodged in her throat. Once he slid his fingers deep inside her and rocked his palm against her, that moan broke free, her hips lifting to meet his hand.
“Ahh, you are hungry for it, aren’t you? My greedy girl.”
Willow groaned, her head tipped back as he sucked her nipple deep into his mouth, his fingers still working their magic inside her. She was already close, though she shouldn’t have been surprised. Finn had a way of wringing every ounce of pleasure from her body—pleasure she didn’t even realize she was capable of reaching.
“You’re gonna come all over my fingers, aren’t you? Christ, can’t wait to feel that pussy squeezing my cock. C’mon, sweetness. Give it to me so I can slide nice and deep.” He pumped his fingers into her harder, faster, his palm a constant pressure on her clit.
Three more thrusts and she peaked, her body going taut, her breasts jutting out to meet his tongue as she pulsed through her release. Struggling to catch her breath, she managed to get out, “Finn…” But he knew what she wanted. What she needed.
Sometime while she was lost in her bliss, he’d sheathed himself with a condom, and then settled his weight between her thighs, his cock nudging her entrance before he slid inside. The girth of him stretching her, just this side of painful.
“Sweet fucking Jesus, how does this pussy get better every time you let me inside?” He pulled out, soft and slow, letting her feel every generous inch of him before he snapped his hips forward and drove deep. “Anyone who says heaven isn’t on earth’s never been inside you, have they?”
Willow couldn’t answer—how could he expect her to? Especially when he sat back and propped her ankle on his shoulder, his hips rolling forward, sliding him even farther inside with each thrust.
