“Pádraig, the very fact that you’re here asking me this question should be your answer.”
Fin waited for her to explain.
She didn’t.
“Giselle, for one minute, pretend you’re not a banshee, and stop speaking in riddles. Imagine I’m the biggest idiot you’ve ever talked to—”
“—that shouldn’t be hard.”
“Just lay it out for me, okay?”
“Have you ever cared whether you hurt someone who loves you?” she asked him.
Fin straightened up. “She loves me?” he exclaimed, and then he grabbed Giselle by the head and kissed her full on the mouth.
She pushed him away, sputtering and spitting and wiping at her lips as if she’d just been slurped by a dog that had drunk from the toilet.
“Gross!”
“Thank you, Giselle!” he said jubilantly as he jogged away.
“You’re still an asshole, Pádraig,” Giselle called after him.
Hailey finished up her experimental design, and she left the library that night with her heart in her stomach. The last thing she wanted was a run-in with Fin.
But, as she crested the stairs, she saw him waiting in the hallway and froze. Staring at the floor, she strode across the landing and made a bee-line for her room.
Fin apparently had another idea and blocked her path. Hailey stopped and looked up at him.
“What?” she demanded half-heartedly.
“Hailey, I need to talk to you.” He had her puck in his hand.
“Whatever happened to the whole leaving me alone thing? I liked that plan.”
She tried moving past him, but he blocked her way again. Pursing her lips, she stomped down hard on his insole.
Fin yelped and hopped onto his good foot, giving Hailey a way past.
“Hailey, I’m in love with you!” he yelled so loud it echoed off the wall and down the stairwell.
Wide eyed, Hailey turned to look at him, and he hopped closer.
“Hailey,” he begged, “you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. You’re feisty and innocent and unpredictable…I love that you jumped head-first into a vacuum glaze to save a complete stranger then walked around all day stinky and sticky, and somehow you were still the most beautiful girl on campus.”
She gave him a cold stare for a good three seconds, but then she dropped her gaze.
“You’re beautiful—God, you’re beautiful—and you see people. You always see the good in people, you see them for who they are inside. And the way you look at me…I’m in love with you, Hailey. I’m in love with everything about you. I love how you look terrified when you don’t know what to say... And then you just blurt out something outrageously honest and totally awkward.”
Hailey bit her lip.
“I love that you constantly wrestle with your hair,” he went on. “It always starts out so nice but ends up sticking out at some ridiculous angle…”
She tucked a wayward curl behind her ear but resisted the urge to smooth her hands over her entire head.
“I love that you make me want to be better—I am—I am a better man when I’m with you. And I like who I am when you’re around.”
“Is that it?” Hailey said quietly.
