Nash shook his head. “Damn, that was some straight-up Lifetime channel shit. You been spendin’ your time watchin’ talk shows, Drew?”
“Fuck off. You’re supposed to be workin’. Go fix shit.”
Nash’s laugh boomed over the sound of his drill whirring, and he turned his back on them.
Before Finn could thank his brother for being a dick, for giving him the kick in his pants he needed, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, expecting to see a message from Nola or maybe Momma. Instead, it was from Willow.
I’m sorry. Can you get free tonight? Tree house at 9?
Finn’s pulse pounded in his ears. He hadn’t been in the tree house since the night he’d slept with Willow for the first time. Walking home from there had been when everything had started on the downhill slide into a pile of shit. Her daddy’d seen him sneaking back to his car late that night, his shirt on backward and inside out, hair a disheveled mess, leaving very little question as to what he’d been getting up to with the mayor’s baby girl. Dick had taken it about as well as could be expected. He’d promised Finn his time with Willow was coming up, but, with the untouchable air of a cocky nineteen-year-old, Finn hadn’t believed him.
He should’ve.
Drew stepped close and glanced down at the screen, his brows lifting once he’d read the text. He clapped a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “She’s meetin’ you halfway, man. Don’t fuck this up.”
No way in hell did he plan to. Looked like he had some work to do.
It’d been a long time since Willow had made the trek to her childhood tree house. Truth be told, she had no idea what kind of shape it was even in. It’d been years since she’d been back. It’d just been too difficult, climbing up there and being immersed in the kind of memories she and Finn had made there once upon a time.
But she also knew she needed to extend an olive branch, and she figured this was the best way to do it. She’d screwed up with him that afternoon. He was trying, attempting to prove himself to her all over again, and she needed to give him credit for it instead of biting his head off for doing something nice for her.
She’dreallyfelt like an ass when Avery had done some sleuthing and found out it hadn’t even been Finn who’d placed the flower order, but Nola. If any of the Havenbrook busybodies found out that tidbit, it’d be easy enough to brush off as a thank-you gift for all of Willow’s help in dealing with the red tape surrounding the bar renovation. So Finnhadtaken her reservations into account and had found a way to work around them. And Willow had spat all over his gift. A gift that, as she’d had time to gain some perspective on the situation, meant the world to her. He’d thought enough of her to let her know she was on his mind, and he did so with her favorite flowers. Which she knew for a fact she hadn’t mentioned since he’d been back. He was trying to prove himself to her every day, and it was time she got out of her own way.
Besides that, Avery had been right—Willow was a grown-ass woman, and it was about damn time she started caring less about what her daddy thought and more about what she actually wanted.
Dusk had settled in fast, and while there wasn’t much to be scared of in good old Havenbrook, and even less on her family’s acreage, she still walked a little faster as she hurried toward her destination, her phone’s flashlight guiding her path. Their daddy’d had the tree house built when Willow had been only three—too young to go in it then. It perched in a thicket of trees, far enough away from the main house that she and her sisters had always felt a sense of independence whenever they’d played there.
Although considering what she and Finn had gotten up to in there, perhaps building it such a distance from the house hadn’t been her daddy’s brightest idea. Even before she and Finn had slept together, they’d doneeverything-butenough times to lose count, all in that hidden-away place in the trees. But that night… Willow smiled to herself, the memory sitting bittersweet in her chest. She’d been scared and nervous, but he’d been so gentle. So giving. So loving. He’d made her come twice before he’d even slid inside her, just to make sure it was good for her.
At the time, she’d thought they had the world at their feet—that they’d go off to college in Nashville, start a life together.
Days later, he’d been gone.
She shook away the memory as she tucked her phone into her pocket and climbed the ladder into the tree house. Finn had only sent her a shortI’ll be thereresponse, so she couldn’t even begin to guess what his reaction to her apology was going to be. For all she knew, he was going to tell her to take a hike. That this, as fun as it’d been, was over. That it was too big of a hassle to continue with anyway, given he was leaving soon.
The thought pierced her chest, leaving a hollow ache in her heart.
But she wasn’t going to think about that now. Finn leaving had been a foregone conclusion. Their relationship would end the same as before. The only difference was, this time, she’d gone into it with her eyes wide open. When her heart broke open again, she’d have no one to blame but herself.
As soon as her head crested the tree house floor, she looked up and gasped. Inside was a fairy wonderland. Hundreds of white twinkling lights draped down from the peaked ceiling before flowing down the walls and bordering the windows. Lush pillows and blankets covered every square inch of the floor. In the center of the space sat a picnic basket with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
And in the corner stood Finn. “Hey.”
Willow climbed the rest of the way, not able to stop gawking at what he’d done. There was no way this space had been in any semblance of decency as of this afternoon. As far as Willow knew, no one used it anymore—she and her sisters were too old, and Rory’s kids were too busy with their twelve-thousand extracurricular activities to ever take advantage of it.
“What—when…” She shook her head then locked her eyes with Finn. “Why did you do this?”
His long legs ate up the space between them, and then he stood in front of her, his body heat seeping into her bones. He reached out and linked their fingers together, resting his other hand on the curve of her neck. “I was an ass.”
“You—what? No,Iwas the ass. You did something lovely, and I threw it back in your face. I’m sorry.”
Finn was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Don’t steal my thunder, Willowtree. It’ll screw with my seduction plan.”
She laughed, her head tipped back as warmth filled her chest. She felt…content. For the first time in so long, she was happy. As much as the lead-up to the Fourth of July parade depleted her energy, she loved this part of her job. Like the entire town was her canvas—a living, breathing creation. On top of that, her daddy had finally started to see her worth, she was getting along with all her sisters, and her love life wasn’t a pile of ash like it’d been for so long.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” Finn brushed his thumb down the column of her neck, his breath warm on her lips. And then he dipped lower, bringing their mouths together.
She sighed into his mouth, loving how seamlessly they fit. How he knew exactly where to touch her, exactly the speed to go, exactly the words to whisper to make her melt into a boneless puddle of need at his feet. That wasn’t something you could teach, something that developed after years of intimacy—it just was. Pure, raw chemistry.
