by Lucy Gage
“So, you think you’re doing better?” I ask, twisting my palms in my lap.
“I know I am,” he states confidently.
“Oh, yeah? How do you know that?”
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.” He turns the vehicle down my street and parks the car in front of my building, killing the ignition. “You are how I know.”
“I don’t follow.”
Beckett takes off his seatbelt and adjusts himself in his seat to face me. “Don’t freak out, but I’ve had a huge crush on you since the moment I met you.”
“What?”
“It’s true.” He chuckles to himself. “I know I wasn’t good at showing it at the time, but you made me nervous. Actually, the way you made me feel made me nervous. I didn’t think I was ready for you. I likely wasn’t. I always went speechless in your presence.”
I laugh at the memories. “That I do remember.”
“I also remember our seven minutes in heaven.” His eyes drop to his lap. “That scared me even more. I knew how much I liked you, but everyone kept telling me I needed to ease back into normalcy and to just have fun. It was college. So, that’s what I did.”
“Some might say you’ve been having a lot of fun.”
“True.” He scoots closer to me. “But tonight, when Katie wasn’t able to join me, and there you were, basically dropped in my lap with an opportunity, I took it as a sign.”
“A sign of what?”
“That maybe it was our time.” He traces a finger up my forearm. “I don’t think I was ready for you three years ago. It wasn’t our time, but I’m hoping it is now.”
“So, does this mean our fake date wasn’t really fake?”
He raises his brows to me. “I’d like to think it wasn’t if that’s okay with you?”
“Why don’t we play another round of seven minutes in heaven and see where it leads us?”
Beckett palms the side of my face and leans in, kissing me softly on the lips. “I’m game.”
“I’ll set my timer.”
Renee Ericson is the author of More Than Water, After Tuesday, and Forgotten Tomorrow.
Originally from the Midwest, she now resides in a small town just outside of Boston with her husband and three children.
Most winters, Renee can be found skiing with her family on the slopes of the White Mountains. During the summer months, she likes to spend every spare minute soaking up the sea air at the beach. All those moments in between, she is talking to imaginary characters and caring for her children.
Blog: www.reneeericson.wordpress.com
Facebook: ericsonrenee
Twitter: @EricsonRenee
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Renee-Ericson/e/B00CQZY17A
Mine
Copyright © 2018 by Lucy Gage
All rights reserved.
[email protected]
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
We were sitting in the middle of a brewpub, the kind you’d expect to find in an eclectic town like Burlington. The white-washed walls brightened the space, taking advantage of all the natural light reflecting off nearby Lake Champlain. Everything else was bathed in rich-toned wood, from the rustic floors and hand-hewn beams to the lacquered-finish tables and polished chairs, and splashes of color appeared everywhere. At the center of the space, a massive bar seated thirty-odd people.
After lunchtime on a Thursday, you might expect this place to be slow. But people flocked to Vermont in late August, and it was buzzing. Conversations swirled around us as we devoured the most divine Reubens I’d ever had north of New York City. Hand-cut seasoned sweet potato fries and a gourmet salad rounded the meal, along with a smooth IPA that hit all the right notes.
I was in gastronomic heaven, and that said a lot when I’d spent the past six years in Northern California.
“How did you find this place?” I asked my cousin Ryan. He was based in Boston, but every chance he got, he drove to Vermont to ski—at least when he wasn’t meeting me and our cousin, Gabe, out west. “Did you come here with some new fling after a ski vacation?”
Ry laughed and ran a hand through his short, wavy, brown hair. His green eyes sparkled. To a stranger, he’d look like my younger brother, but our fathers were siblings. Gabe’s mom was their sister, and she looked more like our Nana, where our dads looked like Pops. Right now, Ryan’s expression of smugness reminded me of my cardiologist father. “More like an old fling. This is his place.”
After I swallowed a bit of salad, I carefully wiped my mouth. “Which old fling would this be?” I already knew the answer. Ryan’s liaisons were rarely hometown locals because of his somewhat-recent coming out.
“Stef.” Ryan waited for me to say something. When I didn’t, he opened his mouth wide and bit into his sandwich. An eyebrow arched. Still, I remained silent. Around his food, he said, “He’s part-owner here.”
“Huh.” Was it a lame response? Yes. But words failed me. There was only one person by that name whom we both knew. The last time I saw my former classmate Stef Kovac coincided with the worst day of my life, aka when the guy’s best friend Finley Powell drop-kicked me to the curb at the end of our college senior spring break.
The truth was, I’d made that damn bed when I failed to tell Fin that my breakup with my ex, Kelsey, had been somewhat recent. It might have been a lie of omission, but the impact had been as devastating as a blatant fib.
I should’ve expected Kels to show up with the intention to rekindle our relationship, even though I’d made it clear it was done before that fateful spring break. Maybe if I hadn’t caught her gyrating on my roommate’s lap in her birthday suit, I might have been stupid enough to take her back after she wanted a break. At least once.
As it had stood, I was grateful for that utter humiliation.
“What’s huh supposed to mean? Did you lose your massive brain cells en route to Vermont from California?”
“For one, why didn’t you say that you were seeing Stef?”
“I’ve been seeing him off and on for six years. You never wanted to discuss anything about Destin, so I didn’t tell you. It wasn’t serious in the past.”
It wasn’t like I forbade conversations about that week in Destin, but I usually redirected them. Damn. Ryan and Stef had made spending time with Fin on that spring break an easy prospect since they’d connected, too.
“It’s serious now?”
“I’m telling you about us, am I not?”
“And?” My heart thumped at what it could mean.
He finished chewing his food, wiped his mouth and hands, and sipped his beer. A long, slow smile crossed his lips. The little shit was taking his sweet fucking time.
“And when he comes to this table in a minute, I hope you’ll act like an adult.”
“He’s here?” I twisted in my chair to look for Stef and caught sight of him speaking to the hostess—his once-thin frame now supported a still-fit but more muscular shape. Beside him stood the statuesque woman of my dreams and nightmares—Finley Powell.
My breath caught as Fin tossed her head back and laughed—from across the room, her corkscrew curls shook, and her golden skin appeared to be exactly as it had been six years ago, like flawless porcelain. At the memory of us, my fingers itched to caress her smooth cheek, and I longed to bury my hand in her thick hair while I kissed her breathless. Potent flashes of sweaty bodies inundated my mind immediately.
I spun
back in Ryan’s direction, heart pounding, mind reeling. “Why didn’t you tell me she was coming?”
If I didn’t love the guy, I’d hate him—his smirk told me he had no regrets about his decision to leave me in the dark. I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose, hoping to quell the rising panic in my chest.
“You would have found an excuse not to be here. It’s time to shit or get off the damn pot, Reid. If you want another shot with Fin—and I know you do, so don’t try and bullshit me—then take it. If I’m wrong, and you don’t want to get back what you lost that day, then grab your friggin’ closure and move on. For real, this time.”
I’d have explored more about that statement, but time had expired. From behind me, Stef’s voice crooned, “There’s my favorite boy toy.”
“Shut up,” Ryan replied. “You know how much I hate that title.”
“Which is exactly why I use it. Reid! Ryan said you’d be in town for Gabe’s wedding. I wasn’t sure your flight would arrive in time for lunch.”
“Nice to see you, Kovac.” I rose and shook Stef’s hand, at which point he pulled me in for a hug.
“Play. Along,” he said through his teeth. Whether it was a strong suggestion or a warning, I wasn’t sure. When he pulled away, he smiled in that same way Ryan had earlier. No qualms with this charade at all, and it was likely that he’d blindsided Fin the same way Ry had knocked me for a loop.
Friggin’ matchmakers.
“Reid?” Fins dulcet tones caressed my ears.
Fuck. I’d been waiting for this since the moment she’d walked out the door in Destin, but I had absolutely no clue what to do now that it was here.
“Hey, Fin.” A grin split my face of its own accord. “Ah, it’s been a while.”
She pressed her lips together, clearly suppressing a smile. “It has. How have you been?”
I gulped, and before I could speak, Kovac said, “Sit.”
It irritated me to be commanded, but my ass still plunked into my chair, and Fin followed suit at the only available seat—the one to my right.
To think, I’d once pursued her relentlessly that long-ago spring break after a kiss that had rocked my world from its foundations. And yet, here I was, tongue-tied.
“Well, Reid, tell her what you’ve been doing,” Kovac said with an air of authority as if he was privy to every detail of my mostly-private life.
My brows rose in Ryan’s direction, at which he shrugged a shoulder and winked. The ass. He owed me an explanation.
I turned my attention back to Fin, who’d propped her head on her hand the way I’d seen her do when she was interested in what someone had to say. My voice wavered.
“Ah, I’ve been in California. Um, for a while.”
“And?” Kovac asked.
Again, Ry feigned innocence while still making it clear that he had no misgivings.
To Fin, I said, “I’ve been writing software at a tech startup since the beginning of grad school. I’m hoping to form my own.”
“Soon.” The continued input from Kovac was unnerving. I’d told a handful of people about my medical software development firm. Aside from Ry and Gabe, only my investors and my partner, Ness, knew the details. I hadn’t even shared the news with my parents. That wouldn’t happen until it was a done deal. My relationship with my father had been strained since the day I returned from spring break and admitted that I wasn’t going to med school. Unless it was on the books, I offered nothing to my father and little to Mom.
Inhaling, I said, “Hopefully.” I forced a smile.
“Making those dreams come true, then?” Fin asked.
“Some of them,” I admitted.
For a beat, I held her gaze, and she licked her lips in a subconscious gesture I recalled from the week we spent turning each other inside out. It had usually preceded a dive at my lips, frantic kissing, and long, sweaty, naked sessions. Could we possibly still have that electric connection?
“That’s fantastic,” she said. The slightly-breathless quality in her voice inspired a natural progression toward thoughts of Fin, me, and all the surfaces against which we drove each other to the brink.
“Ryan, can you help me move those kegs for tonight?” Kovac asked my cousin.
“Absolutely,” Ryan replied.
I shook myself from the inappropriately lusty fog I’d launched into. “Wait, what?” My voice surely sounded as freaked as I felt. As incredible as it was to see Fin again, I wasn’t sure I could handle being alone with her.
Not that sitting in a restaurant full of patrons could be called alone, but that didn’t matter to my brain. It still reacted with unfamiliar anxiety that I hadn’t felt in years. Six years, four months, one week, and three days, to be precise—since those first couple days when I put myself out there in hopes of winning a few moments of attention from the woman who’d knocked me flat with the first kiss of a lifetime. I’d been waiting years for a chance with Finley Powell.
Of course, then, I’d had youthful confidence in our immediate chemistry because I didn’t know any better. Now, despite how much it seemed a switch had been flipped, the last memory of her—as she walked out the door of our family beach house—weighed on my heart.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “It’s for Gabe’s bachelor party. You know, the second one to make up for the fact that you missed our trip to London. I told you I’d take care of everything for you, Best Man. Stef did all the hard work, so the least I can do is move the kegs for him.”
With that, he splayed his fingers on Kovac’s back and nudged him toward the bar. I watched them leave, and when they disappeared through a door on the other side of the room, Fin said, “They just want to be alone. They haven’t seen each other in weeks.”
My head whipped toward hers. “You know about them?”
She laughed. “I knew about them before that night they ran off together in Destin. It was obvious they had chemistry from the moment they met.”
I swallowed hard, and she smiled wider. God, did she really mean Kovac and Ry? Or was she talking about someone else?
Like us.
Her tongue swiped her lips again before she said, “Do you remember?” She’d leaned closer to me, and her gaze darted down at the table before she looked up at me with those gorgeous brown eyes and long lashes.
“Never forgot,” I murmured, my dick suddenly swelling painfully as I watched her suck her lip into her mouth.
“Hey, Fin,” a guy said. “Got your order.”
She looked at the waiter beside the table, then smiled. “Thank you, Brendan. How much do I owe you?”
“Boss said it was on the house. Yours, too, sir.” He gestured toward me. “He also asked if you could give Mr. Watson a ride. I guess he’ll be a while with, ah, Mr. Watson?” The kid arched his brow.
“He meant me,” I supplied. “I’m also Mr. Watson.” Even if that made me feel old. “Not that I see how it’s very polite of Ryan or Stef to ask that of her.”
“It’s no trouble, Reid. We’re going to the same place.”
“You’re all set, then, Fin?” Brendan the Waiter asked.
“We are. Thank you.” Brendan nodded his head once and left. Fin turned to me. “Did you not remember that Gabe’s and Sadie’s wedding is happening at Peyton’s Place?”
My mouth dropped open, and I’m sure I looked like a damn dying fish. “Uh, no. When he asked me to be his best man, I told Gabe to let me know when to show up and where. I figured he was getting married at his parents’ house on the lake if I needed to come home.”
“Are you ready to head over there? I really should get back, but I don’t want you to rush through your lunch.”
“Oh, of course. I don’t want to hold you up…”
“I’m not in that much of a hurry. I have staff who take care of the busywork, but I like to be around while things are coming together so that I can solve any problems that might arise. I run a tight ship, but there’s always something.”
I stood and gestured for her to accompany me. “Let’s get going, then. My aunt will have my head if the wedding isn’t perfect. Gabe is her only child, so this is her one shot at a big, fancy wedding.”
Fin threw her head back in a laugh that I had always loved, even before we meant anything to each other. It’d been a long time since I’d made her do that, and I’d take what I could get.
Whatever I’d thought or hoped before I arrived on the east coast for the first time in six years, Ryan was right; I wanted her back.
She was mine before Kelsey fucked up our chances. Whatever it took to prove to Fin we were worth another shot, I’d do it—wooing, begging, anything—because I’d given up too soon after Destin. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
For the first few minutes that we sat in the front of Fin’s Subaru Forrester as it rolled down the street, silence reigned. Somehow, we’d lost the rapport we’d reclaimed in those few minutes at the pub. But, once we’d cleared the in-town traffic, Fin turned to me and said, “Tell me about your work.”
Inhaling deeply, I thought about what I could say that wouldn’t become a diatribe of computer-geek-speak. “Just your typical tech startup, really. I bring the product, and my partner is the businesswoman.”
“So, you’re starting a business with your wife?”
“Wife? No. I’m not…why would you think I’m married?”
She shrugged. “You hear things.”
“Whatever you heard was wrong. I met Ness through her fiancé. They’re friends of mine from grad school.”
“Proof that men and women can be friends?” she asked, a note of teasing in her voice.
I chuckled. “Maybe. Anyway, the details of what we’re doing are a little boring if you’re not part of it. I’d rather hear about you. Sounds like you’re the wedding coordinator for Peyton’s Place?”
Fin smiled and looked straight ahead. “I’m the owner.”
My head darted back. “Really? How’d that happen?”
