FULL NOVELXO Finn Rhodes Forever: Chapter 6
A COUPLE MORNINGS LATER, I stepped outside the back door of the bar to meet Finn, and came face to face with him leaning against an emerald-green vintage sports car. His eyes met mine and a mix of panic and excitement shot down my spine as a cocky grin grew on his mouth.
I let out a ha! “Absolutely fucking not,” I said, stopping short at the door, glancing between him and the car with disgust on my face. “No. No way.”
He tilted his head at the car, smiling wider. “Come on. I’ll drive.” He winked.
Sam Rhodes’ green car had become a strange tradition among his sons. When the Rhodes boys knew they had found the person they wanted to be with forever, they took her out in the vintage Porsche 911, a deep emerald green like the forests surrounding our town. Avery, Hannah, and Sadie had all been picked up in the car.
There was no way I was getting in that car.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. This was a mistake. I knew he’d pull this shit. My stomach rolled forward, and when I looked up at him, I couldn’t tear my gaze from his. God, his eyes were so pretty.
No. I mentally slapped myself. I didn’t care that Finn had pretty eyes and thick lashes. I didn’t care that when the corner of his mouth kicked up and his eyes lit up like that, all amused and mischievous like he was up to something, my heart beat harder.
I fucking hated Finn Rhodes.
This summer, I was going to find that stupid little flower as fast as I could. The faster I found it, the less time I had to spend with Finn. I’d finish my PhD, he’d get bored and leave town, and we’d all move on.
“I’m not getting in that car.” I strode over to my own car, parked beside his, and hauled my pack into the trunk.
Finn pushed off the car and tossed his pack in beside mine. “Alright, next time, then.”
“No. Never.” I slipped into the driver’s side, turned on the engine, and threw it into reverse.
Finn opened the passenger door and got in just as the car started moving. A laugh burst out of his chest.
“This is going to be fun,” he told me as I pulled the car out onto the street. His fingers drummed on the car door as he smiled out the window, up at the clear blue morning sky.
A COUPLE HOURS LATER, we were both breathing hard as we stopped at the top of the hill we had hiked, and his scent breezed past me. My stomach fluttered and I ignored it.
I swung my pack down and pulled out my notebook, studying my map. Half the map had been hatched with red lines, indicating areas I had already searched.
Beside me, Finn dropped his bag and took a deep breath, inhaling the forest. “God, it’s fucking gorgeous out here.”
I ignored him, pulling out my printed images of the pink sand verbena. The pictures were burned into my brain.
Finn leaned over my shoulder to study them, and my stomach dipped at the heat of him against my back. His smell invaded my space and I stepped away, tucking my papers back into my bag.
“You can’t ignore me forever, Liv,” he said, a teasing note in his voice.
When our eyes met, my pulse picked up.
I’d never admit this out loud, but fucking hell, he was hot.
My gaze lingered on the tattoos circling his right forearm, disappearing beneath the hem of his sleeve. On the other arm, stars spilled down his arm, constellations of pinpricks. Finn had always been my kryptonite, but as an adult? With the tattoos, his filled-out form, and the sparkle in his eye?
If I didn’t hate him so much, he’d be irresistible.
“I’m surprised you’re not bored.” I shrugged, keeping my face blank. I whirled around and walked away, eyes scanning the ground, cataloguing every plant.
“Bored? No way. Out here, with you?” He winked at me and a spark traveled down my spine. “This is heaven.” The grin hitched higher on his mouth.
Yeah, this bantery bullshit? I wasn’t doing this. “It’s quiet time,” I told him. “I’m working.”
My gaze swung back to the ground, scanning the surrounding area. Sword fern. Pacific oak fern. Western hemlock.
My mind wandered to the old house at the edge of town we had passed on our drive into the mountains this morning. As teenagers, we used to ride our bikes to it. It was an older couple who lived there, and since the house was deep in the forest, they didn’t get many people coming by. They used to keep popsicles on hand in the summer for us. They passed away in the years since, and their adult son owned the property but didn’t live there. The yard was overgrown and the house looked like it needed more upkeep.
My heart twisted. This town was full of memories of Finn and me.
“Rocky Mountain juniper,” Finn said at my side, pointing off to our right.
“That’s a common juniper.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I stared at him as his expression broke into a roguish grin. He knew it was the common juniper. “It’s still quiet time.”
“Sadie said the bar is busy. You work there a lot?”
I gritted my teeth, keeping my eyes on the ground.
“My shifts at the fire hall are four days on, four days off,” he continued. “I was thinking we could do a few overnight trips if it works out with your bar shifts, now that your parents are back.”
My skin prickled at him citing things I hadn’t told him. Had he been asking about me? What else did he know?
“We’re not doing overnight trips,” I said. “I don’t need you crawling into my tent pretending you’re cold.”
He laughed. The sound was low, warm, and rich, and it sent a thrill through my stomach.
That was why Finn was so dangerous. Around him, my brain melted. I used to love making him laugh. I was addicted to the sound.
“If we camp, we can cover more ground instead of having to go home each night.”
He had a point. I thought about my conversation with my advisor. I had until the fall to find this flower. It made sense to cover as much ground as we could.
I’d have to talk to my dad about coverage at the bar. The summer season was starting soon and our town thrived on tourism. With only two thousand residents, Queen’s Cove saw over a million tourists a year. People flocked from all over the world to enjoy our cold-water surfing, lush emerald forests, and sparkling Pacific Ocean waters. In the evenings, they packed the bar. He had hired a full staff for the summer, so could handle me working fewer shifts than usual.
I stared at Finn, with his trademark cheeky smile.
When we were hiking and I didn’t have to talk to him, it was manageable, but what about at night when we had to eat dinner and sit by the fire? We couldn’t just sit in silence.
“No overnight trips,” I told him.
He shot me a smug, knowing smile. “By the end of the summer, Livvy, we’re going to be best friends again.”
My stomach clenched. “Don’t call me that.”
Livvy. He used to call me that when we were teenagers. Only when we were alone, only for my ears.
I turned around and continued traipsing through the forest, eyes on the ground.
Our boots thumped on the soft ground, and something poked in my brain. Twelve years we had circled each other, leaving town when the other was about to come home.
I stopped and turned to him. “Why now?”
His eyes widened for a brief moment. “What?”
“Why now?” My brow creased and I swallowed. “You’ve had twelve years and now you come back and want to be besties again. Why?”
I caught a flash of insecurity across his face. “I, uh.” He lifted a hand and ran it over the back of his neck, breaking eye contact before his gaze came back to mine. Gray eyes like his brothers, but his irises were darker than theirs. “I realized I made a mistake.” His gaze roamed my face, like he was memorizing my features.
Did he think I looked different than before? Did he hate my pink hair?
I don’t care, I reminded myself.
Finn dragged in a deep breath, like he was steeling himself. “Liv, I know you hate me, I know I fucked up and deserve to rot for how badly I fucked up, but—” He took another deep breath. “I love you, you’re my soulmate, and we’re destined to be together.” He swallowed, and his broad chest rose and fell with another deep breath. “And I’m going to do everything I can to change your mind about hating me.”
Well, then.
My stomach fluttered with a flock of butterflies. My pulse pounded in my ears. This was a weird dream, and any second I’d wake up and laugh at the fucking bizarro world where Finn and I were soulmates.
We weren’t soulmates.
Fuck that shit.
I opened my mouth to tell Finn to go fuck himself. I’d tell him it would be a bitterly cold day in hell before we got back together. If he was waiting for me to run back into his arms like in some romance novel, he’d be waiting until the day he died.
Something occurred to me and I paused.
I knew Finn. It had been over a decade but I knew this guy. Finn would get an idea in his head and he wouldn’t let it go. He didn’t care how dangerous something was, or whether it was illegal or not.
My stomach bottomed out. It was just like graduation night. He had wanted to go cliff jumping, so he did. Drunk. Even when he said he wouldn’t.
Finn wouldn’t stop until I gave in, and a tiny part of me wanted to give in, even though he hurt me. Even though I knew he’d do it again.
I couldn’t have my heart broken again by Finn. I’d never put it back together again.
I had to convince Finn that he was wrong, that he didn’t want me. That we weren’t soulmates. That I wasn’t the same person as I was twelve years ago.
It had to be his idea, though.
Finn stood there, watching my reaction. I could see in his features—the lifted eyebrow, the cruel mouth curled into an amused smirk—he was ready for me to shoot him down. To tell him to go fuck himself and go bleed out in a ditch.
“I don’t hate you,” I lied.
He blinked, frozen. “What?”
I shook my head. “I don’t hate you. I agree with you.”
“With what part?” I nearly laughed at the surprised look on his face.
“The, um.” I cleared my throat and crossed my arms. “That word you said. We’re, um, that.”
“Soulmates?”
“Yep.”
His eyes narrowed. “You think we’re soulmates,” he repeated in a flat tone loaded with disbelief.
“Uh-huh.” I nodded.
“Really.”
“Yes,” I hissed before I put on a small smile. “We are.”
“Say it, then.” The corner of his mouth curled up and his eyes danced.
“Say… that word?”
“Soulmates. If you think we’re soulmates, say it out loud.”
My mouth went dry. “Soulmates.” The word tasted like chalk.
He flattened his lips and glanced away with a smile before looking back at me. “And you forgive me for leaving?”
“Mhm.” It came out higher pitched than I expected. I swallowed, smiled, and nodded. “I forgive you for leaving.”
“And you’re ready to be together again?”
“Yep.” My heart slammed in my chest and my stomach did flips as nerves poured through me. Every cell in my body screamed this is a bad idea.
He stared at me for a moment, blinking, before his face broke into a huge smile.
My heart fluttered.
That smile. My underwear practically disintegrated. The way his eyes lit up, the way his grin stretched across his face, lifting a little higher on one side, it had always disarmed me. Finn could always talk me into doing things with that lopsided smile.
This was a bad idea.
Ha. No. Finn loved a thrill, and he’d get tired of Queen’s Cove soon enough.
Guys like Finn and my biological dad, they got bored and moved on. They’d both done it before, and it was only a matter of time before Finn lost interest in me and the town.
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me in a warm, tight hug. His mouth pressed to the top of my head in a firm kiss and he inhaled my hair. His warmth surrounded me, his scent whooshed up my nose, and my brain stuttered.
Fuuuuuuuck. This felt good.
“Knew you’d come around,” he whispered against my forehead as I stood with wide eyes, heart beating wildly.
Finn and I were back together, but not for long. I was going to make Finn Rhodes dump me.