Well, he’d had about enough of that.
She’d probably give him a piece of her mind for helping, but he couldn’t stand around and watch her bust her ass for another hour when he was perfectly capable of assisting her so she could get it done in fifteen minutes.
It was quiet on the square when he stepped outside. That was something he’d forgotten about, living in California for so long. At this time of night out there, many people were just starting their evenings. Getting ready to go to supper or out with friends. In Havenbrook? The entire town had been shut down for more than an hour already. If you wanted to go out after seven p.m., you did so in Parkersville. Of course, that’d all change once they opened their doors.
Willow was completely oblivious to Finn as he strolled across the square. Actually, she was completely oblivious to most everything but the table currently giving her grief. She mumbled under her breath, agitation and frustration etched in every clenched inch of her body.
Without a word, he went to the other side of the table and hefted his end off the ground. She stumbled a little now that the resistance wasn’t there and stared at him, mouth agape. Jesus, even after a day of manual labor, after running around for twelve hours with barely more than a water break, she was still so gorgeous. Her hair was mussed, strands falling this way and that around her face. Her cheeks were flushed the same gorgeous shade of pink they’d been when he’d told her he’d thought of nothing but being inside her again.
And now there he stood, lifting one side of an iron table high enough to hide his hard as steel cock.
“Should I go ahead and move this myself?”
Willow shook her head then stepped into action, lifting her side of the table. “I didn’t need your help, you know.”
“I know.” And he did. She’d spent so much of her life proving herself to people it was ingrained now. The thing was, though, she didn’t have to prove anything to Finn. Never had. “Now, where are we movin’ these to?”
She paused for only the slightest moment before lifting her chin to indicate an area behind Finn. “Daddy wants them out of the pathway, so they need to stay close to the building.”
He had a hundred different things he wanted to say in regard to what her daddy wanted and exactly how few fucks Finn gave about what Dick desired, but that would only start up a shitstorm between him and Willow, and that wasn’t how he wanted to play this. Not tonight. Not with her.
They worked quietly for a few minutes, but Finn had been starved for her for so long, the silence didn’t last. “You may not use the same brand of paints anymore, but I’m glad to see youarestill painting.”
Willow’s eyes shot to his, her brow furrowed. “How do you know I still am?”
He titled his head to the side as they shuffled another table closer to the building. Wasn’t it obvious to every single person who walked through the square that Willow had painted the backdrops on them? He lifted his chin in the direction of one awash in color, a single tree in a green meadow, a rainbow sunset as the backdrop. “Wasn’t too hard to figure out.”
“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen anything I’ve done. How were you so sure it was mine?”
He smiled, just a slight curve of his lips. “You think I went even a day when I didn’t think about your touch? Trust me, I can identify every single thing you’ve laid a hand on.”
She froze for a moment, pausing with the table held a couple inches above ground. Then she shook her head and shuffled forward, her gaze locked on the ground. “That’s quite a claim when you haven’t been here in years. You don’t know me. Youknewme, once. Not the real me, though. Only the person I showed to everyone else becauseIdidn’t even know me back then.”
“You don’t really believe that. I knew you. Isawyou. Saw everything you tried so hard to hide from everyone else. I wish you’d let me in again, because then or now, nothing much has changed. You’re still my favorite.”
She blinked at him, seeming to be at a loss for words. Good, he wanted to crack those walls she’d built up. Wanted to take a wrecking ball and knock them all over.
She forced out a laugh as she spun around and grabbed the closest chair to move. “Favorite, huh? I don’t know about that. I seem to remember a certain stuffed monkey named Ralph who you absolutely treasured. He even had a better spot next to you on your bed than I did.”
He didn’t know whether to fall to her feet and hug her or hoot to the heavens. Because try as she might, shehadn’tforgotten about them. About their history or the dumb little things that made themthem. It gave him hope like nothing else had.
Making a big deal of looking around, he shot a worried glance over his shoulder. “Hush now, Willowtree. That’s supposed to be just between us.”
She pressed her lips together, clearly trying to rein in a smile, but it didn’t matter that her lips never curved. The laughter sparkled in her eyes.
And he couldn’t stay away anymore.
Not stopping until he was close enough to touch her, he did just that, tracing his finger from her temple down her jaw. “We had a lot of things just between us, didn’t we?”
Her eyes connected with his, and for the first time since he’d been back, they were open and honest—like a wall had been knocked down right before his eyes. She seemed to realize it too because she turned away, freeing herself from his gaze. “I wouldn’t recall. So long ago and all. You understand.”
Oh, he understood, all right. Understood she was fighting like hell to keep those walls up. Well too damn bad. He’d knocked one down, and he wasn’t going to let her build it back up. Not if he had anything to say about it.
Finn slipped his hands in his jeans pockets and sidled up to her as she walked toward her discarded suit jacket. “Were you able to grab anything to eat while you were workin’ down here all day?”
She slid him a glance out of the corner of her eye, the apprehension he would’ve found yesterday thankfully absent. “You been watchin’ me, Finn?”
Dipping his chin in acknowledgment, he met her stare. “Every chance I get. Don’t ever want to take my eyes off you, Willowtree.”
