“Is what true?”
She stared at him for long moments, her eyes seemingly doing their best to read him. “You know, every time we’ve been together I’ve wanted to ask why you left the way you did. Why you never called or wrote. Why you never, ever came back, but something always stopped me. Fear, I guess.” She glanced down and shook her head, a new fire in her eyes when she met his gaze again. “But I’m done living in fear. And I want to know. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to assume the story my daddy fed me was the truth.”
Finn’s stomach bottomed out, his face draining. Dammit, he wasn’t ready for this conversation. He might’ve had ten years to prepare himself, but he wasn’t even close. Not when the outcome could so easily go out of his favor. Not when what he gambled was something as precious as Willow.
He stared at her, trying to find the words to tell her why he’d done the things he had, how it’d ripped his heart out to go, and how every mile away from her had felt like the worst kind of torture.
Her eyes crumbled in his gaze, her stoic expression melting into devastation. “It’s true, isn’t it? What he said.”
“Willowtree, I—”
“Donotcall me that. You don’t get that privilege. Not when all it took to get you to leave me behind without a word was a little cash.”
Finn’s body turned to ice as a boulder settled in his stomach. He hadn’t been fast enough. He should’ve found Dick and gotten it taken care of earlier in the day. No, what he should’ve done was figure out a way to tell her well before today, to hell with her relationship with her daddy. Because now…now everything he’d ever wanted was getting snatched away in front of his eyes. He could see it in her face when she looked at him. The disappointment. The anger. The hurt.
It killed him to know he caused it.
“Can’t believe I let you play me for a fool. Again,” she whispered, shaking her head as a tear slipped free and rolled down her cheek. She swallowed, licked her lips. Took a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve spent the whole night hoping with everything in me what my daddy said wasn’t true. It couldn’t possibly be. You’d tell me it was a lie, that it never happened. That my daddy made it all up just to turn me against you.” She huffed and shook her head. “I thought that naïve part of me was dead and gone, buried alive after you left. The part that was stupid enough to believe everything you said. To believe we had somethin’ special. To believe in anus.”
“Wedohave somethin’ special. You’re the most important person in the world to me.” He reached for her again, desperate to feel her under his fingers. Desperate to wipe away her tears and comfort her. Even though he didn’t deserve such a privilege. “Willow—”
“Don’t touch me.” She slapped his hands away, her face growing redder by the second. “I can’t believe I let this happen again. I knew it would. I knew, somehow, you’d make me out to be the idiot Haven girl just like I was back then.”
It didn’t make sense. Didn’t add up. Her daddy never would’ve told her the circumstances surrounding Finn’s departure. Not when the mayor had blackmailed Finn, forcing his hand. Even without a sick momma, he hadn’t had a choice. It was get the hell out with fifty grand or stay and be indicted for a crime he never committed—underage alcohol consumption and distributing to minors in a dry county. Apparently, that was one of the benefits of having the sheriff for a best friend.
Unless… Unless Dick didn’t tell her the whole story. Only the part that made Finn look like a money-hungry coward. Not the part where Dick was close to the devil himself.
He stopped himself from reaching for her again, just barely. But he stepped closer. Displayed as much sincerity in his voice as he could. “Please, sweetness, will you let me explain?”
She breathed out a laugh. “I waited ten years for an explanation. Tenyears, not to mention all these weeks we’ve spent together. And now you want to give it?” She shook her head and strode to the front door, not an ounce of hesitation in her movements when she opened it for him as a clear sign to get the hell out. “After all the chances I gave you, I find I’m not much interested in listenin’ anymore. Goodbye, Finn.”
* * *
Finn woketo an incessant pounding in his head. Though, that was no surprise. For the past—shit, how long had it been?—however many days, he’d woken up the same way. Except as he opened his eyes, becoming more aware of his surroundings, he realized the pounding wasn’t a headache, but rather came in the form of his brother.
“’Bout damn time you woke up.” Drew stopped thumping Finn’s forehead and yanked the pillow out from under his head.
He groaned, clutching his aching skull. “The hell, man?”
Since the pillows were gone, Drew moved on to Finn’s feet, hauling them off the couch and letting them drop to the ground.
“Seriously, I’m not in the mood for this, Drew.” Finn’s head was killing him, and his mouth felt like he’d swallowed an entire bag of cotton balls. Soaked in roadkill. And then left to marinate for a week in the Mississippi sun.
“No?” Drew said. “Let me tell you what I’m not in the mood for. I’m not in the mood for my shit-for-brains brother to start demanding things when he’s done fuck all the past three days while moping like a teenager who just got his phone taken away.” Drew kicked Finn’s foot. “Time to get your ass up. Get your shit together and join the land of the living. I’ve covered for your sorry ass, but my patience is gone.”
Finn was way too hungover for this conversation. Or, actually, maybe he was still a little drunk. He groaned and sat up, propping his elbows on his knees and cradling his pounding head in his hands. “Look, I’m sorry about the bar—”
“You think this is about the bar?” Drew snorted out a laugh. “We’ve got it handled. This is about me watching you for the past ten years, you finally gettin’ what you want, only to let one little fight end everything.”
Finn breathed out a humorless laugh, the image of Willow’s face from that night blinking in his mind. It was all he’d been able to see every time he closed his eyes. The pain and betrayal so vivid on her features. While nothing he did erased it, the alcohol numbed it a little.
Hence why his mouth tasted like ass and gnomes were using ice picks to pound away at his skull.
“It was more than ‘one little fight,’” he grumbled.
“I don’t care if it was fucking World War III. Absolutely nothin’ is gonna come from you locking your mopey ass away in the apartment, drinkin’ your weight in bourbon.”
Finn glared up at his brother. “No? What the hell else am I supposed to do? The woman I love just told me to get out of her life.Permanently. I don’t think some flowers and a dozen cupcakes is gonna cut it this time.”
