We turn the corner and reach the front of the house again, and Piper asks, “So, when are we leaving anyway?”
“I don’t know. Tomorrow morning around nine, I guess.”
“Okay. I’m going to drive with you. I think Otis and Luc are too?”
“Yep. I don’t know if Mason’s going with his dad or with us, but we have room.”
I stop dead in my tracks because Finn is sitting on the step of the Crews’ bus, where it’s parked in the driveway.
In his lap is a bouquet of wildflowers, messy, beautiful, and impossible to ignore. My entire body freezes, my breath stalls in my throat, and I think someone flipped gravity off.
I’m floating, weightless,panicked.
“You gonna talk to him?” Piper halts beside me, her gaze flicking from him to me.
“I guess so.”
“I’m gonna wait inside. Yell if you need me.”
“Sure,” I whisper, eyes locked on the boy—no, the man—on the step who looks like he’s been through the wringer.
As we approach, Finn stands up quickly, tugging his red hoodie down. There’s a dented, half-rusty car pulled up awkwardly on the side of the road.
Is that how he got here?
“Greer,” Piper greets, cool but not unkind.
“Hey, Piper.”
“Don’t do anything dumb.” She squints. “I’ve got just as hard a punch as Dane.”
Finn nods. “Noted.”
Piper disappears inside, and then it’s just us.
I stop a few feet away, arms crossed instinctively. My sleeve shifts, and Toulouse moves up to my wrist like he knows I need some emotional support. I feel his tiny twitching nose against my skin, and somehow it helps.
Let’s get this over with.
I square my shoulders. “What are you doing here?”
Finn steps closer and holds out the bouquet. “These are for you.”
Vivid purples, whites, blues, greens, and petals slightlybruised from his grip. There are so many, and it must have taken him ages to pick them all.
Memories flood me of the countless flower bracelets I once made for him, and my vision blurs briefly. Still, I hold firm. “No thanks.”
Finn nods quietly, placing the bouquet gently on the bus step. He moves toward me again, a cautious advance that instinctively makes me step back.
“I’m here because I fucked up. The way I apologized last time wasn’t good and wasn’t enough.”
I finally look him in the eyes. They’re a mess. Red, ringed in exhaustion, black and blue from Dane’s punch, and still they’rehis.
“You were right, baby girl. Actions speak louder than words, but I still need to apologize properly before I show you.I’m sorry. I was a coward. I was a fucking fool, and I didn’t deserve your love. Not then, and especially not now. But I swear I’m going toearnit. I’ll do everything in my power to be someone worthy of it.”
Fuck. I feel my knees go weak, but I grit my teeth against the onslaught of feelings his words stir inside me.
“Even if you don’t love me anymore…” he says quickly, “… I’ll still step up. I want you to be proud that you loved me for a decade, even if that’s all I get. Because, Al, when you looked at me like that, like I’d gutted you, it almostbrokeme. I don’t regret you, not for a fuckingsecond. I don’t want you to regretmeeither. So I’m going to be better.”
