FULL NOVELXO Finn Rhodes Forever: Chapter 4
SHE WOULDN’T EVEN LOOK at me.
It was one in the morning at the Queen’s Cove hospital, but I was wide awake, knee bouncing up and down, pulse skittering around, my stomach flip-flopping. It took everything in me not to blurt out what I had figured out in the past few weeks. Picking her up in the helicopter wasn’t how I planned to see her for the first time.
I didn’t have a plan. I was just winging this.
We were supposed to fill out the Search and Rescue paperwork before her medical exam, and I didn’t know where to look. Her wavy, pale pink hair, tied up in a cute ponytail? The freckles scattered across her nose and cheekbones? Or her warm brown eyes, eyes that wouldn’t meet my gaze for more than a few seconds?
In the chair across from me, she shifted, crossing her arms.
I opened my mouth to say something, but her gaze flicked to mine and the words got stuck in my throat.
Olivia Morgan had always tripped me up.
“What, no kiss hello?” I asked. The helicopter had been so loud, and there were two other people with us, watching and listening, so we couldn’t talk.
Her lip curled as she stared at me in disgust. ‘Can we finish up the paperwork so I can go home?’
I crossed my arms, mirroring her body position, leaning back in my chair to study her. “You’re cranky tonight.”
Her nostrils flared, and behind her eyes, I saw rage. Amusement pitched in my chest.
‘If you’re cold, I can put a blanket around your shoulders,’ I continued. Her jaw tightened, and it took everything I had not to smile.
‘Finn.’ Her voice was sharp and her glare could melt my skin off.
The way she said my name made the back of my neck prickle.
I raised my eyebrows at her and patted my lap, because around her, I couldn’t help myself. ‘You can sit on my lap for warmth.’
She looked like her head was about to explode, and I tried not to laugh. This rage? This was good. Rage was better than indifference, because indifference meant she was over me. Rage meant she still cared—which meant there was hope for us.
Olivia’s eyes flashed. ‘You have three seconds to start asking me the questions on your form before I leave.’
‘Are you seeing anyone?’
She stood. ‘I’m out of here.’
I jumped up, hands in the air in surrender. ‘Okay, okay. I’m just teasing you. Let’s fill out the form.’
She regarded me for a moment before taking her seat again, and I sat down across from her. I glanced over the form.
‘What were you doing out there?’
She glanced away, crossing her arms. ‘Hiking.’
‘Just hiking?’
Over the years since I left Queen’s Cove, I’d never outright asked about Olivia, but any scrap of information, any overheard gossip or updates, I was listening. I knew she was finishing up her PhD in forestry sciences, and that she was looking for a flower she and I had spotted as kids.
Since she was a kid, Olivia’s dream was to work in forestry science. She had always been curious about plants and ecosystems in school. Two decades later, I still remembered how her whole being transformed in the forest, how she smiled and laughed more.
I leaned in. ‘You were looking for the flower, right?’
Her gaze lingered on mine, wary and uncertain, but she didn’t answer me.
‘Sadie had your route, which was helpful. That was smart of you,’ I told her, ‘to give her that information.’
She snorted. “I’m thrilled to have your approval.”
‘We would’ve had a tough time finding you if not for that map. The Search and Rescue crew picked up a group of hikers last week from that area as well.’
I watched her face, hoping this information would make her feel better about being rescued. Olivia hated being helped.
She was safe, though. She was the most qualified person in this town to be hiking out there by herself, but the idea of her stuck alone all night in the pouring rain? I’d hike out there by myself to rescue her if I had to.
Her gaze swung to the forms in front of me. ‘What other information do you need? I have to be up early.’
I pulled the forms closer to me so she couldn’t see them. Most of the information I could fill out myself. Location of rescue, reason for rescue, time and date, name of person rescued. She didn’t need to know that, though. I had a feeling that finding moments like this, just me and her, would be tough.
‘You need to find the flower to finish your studies, right?’ I asked her.
‘That’s not a question on the form.’
The corner of my mouth ticked up. ‘Just trying to get a full picture of what happened tonight.’
She stared at me. Fucking hell, she was so pretty. I couldn’t help but smile wider.
In my head, I replayed images from that night years ago. The way her soft, smooth skin looked in the dim lighting. The way her hair looked fanned out across her pillow. The sweet sound of her gasps as her back arched.
She must’ve seen something in my expression because she stiffened. ‘What are you doing here?’
I held her gaze, ignoring my heart beating in my chest like a drum. I could smell her shampoo from this distance, light and floral, and I had the urge to pull her into my chest and bury my face in her hair.
She’d bite me if I did that.
‘I moved home,’ I told her.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘For how long.’ She didn’t say it like a question, she said it like a statement. Like it was inevitable that I’d leave again.
My entire life, I had had a reputation. When I left, I cemented that reputation in Liv’s head.
‘For good,’ I told her, holding her gaze. ‘I’m not leaving this time.’
She gave me a look like who are you fooling? and my chest pulled tight. I didn’t blame her, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Sure. I won’t hold my breath.’
Her gaze flicked to someone behind me and I turned.
Beck Kingston, a doctor at the Queen’s Cove Hospital and my older brother Wyatt’s friend from school, leaned against the doorframe.
“Hey,” he greeted me with a smile. “I heard you were back in town.”
I beamed back at him. “You heard right. How’s it going?”
He shrugged, gesturing around us at the hospital. “Good. Keeping busy here. You know how it is.”
The town’s fire department worked closely with the medical staff at the hospital, and I knew the demands of Beck’s job in a small town where resources weren’t always available.
When he wasn’t working insane hours at our small-town hospital, he was out on his boat. I think a few years ago he had a crush on Wyatt’s now-wife, Hannah, but Wyatt put a stop to that. Beck was the kind of guy who moms mooned over. His dark hair was always combed like he was on his way to church, for Christ’s sake. He answered his phone at all hours of the night, hardly ever took time off, and remembered everyone’s medical history off the top of his head. Beck Kingston, Queen’s Cove most reliable guy.
My complete opposite.
Beck crooked a grin at me. “First day back and you’re here already, huh?”
I’d lost count of the number of times I’d been admitted to this hospital with injuries. A broken arm from climbing a fence, an ankle on backwards from falling out of a tree, a head injury from falling out of the same tree, a broken collarbone from falling off my bike.
I forced a smile. “Dr. Kingston, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m the perfect picture of responsible reliability.”
I used to revel in the troublemaker role, but now, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
He laughed before turning to Olivia. “Your checkup will only take a few minutes, and you can come back and finish the questions later if you need to.” He gave her an apologetic look. “It’s procedure.”
“I know. We’ve been through this before.” Olivia jumped up, and guilt stabbed me in the gut at how quickly she wanted to get away from me. ‘We’re done, anyway.’
I watched her disappear out the door before meeting Beck’s curious gaze.
Olivia’s hatred toward me was no secret around town. No one knew what happened, but everyone knew we had been best friends until we weren’t.
He raised an eyebrow, glancing between me and the door. “So,” he prompted.
I let out a long breath. “Yeah.”
“I guess that didn’t go as expected.”
I didn’t know what I had expected. Liv sure as shit wasn’t going to jump into my arms and cover me in kisses. The thought made me huff a laugh and rake a hand back through my hair.
“Nope,” I told him with a lopsided grin, ignoring my sinking stomach. “No, it did not.”
He said goodbye and left, and I sat there in the empty room, hearing Liv’s mom Jen’s words from years ago in my head. The same words that had been playing over and over for years.
I wasn’t that guy anymore. Doubt rose up inside me but I shoved it away. If I wanted Olivia back, I couldn’t be that guy anymore. I had to prove her and everyone else wrong.
Olivia hated me, but this summer, I was going to change that.