“I’m alright.”
He keeps me pinned in place with his perusal for another moment, then nods. “Go do something for yourself and come back. We’ll be fine right here.”
I take the gift he’s giving me and try to decide what I’ll do with the time. There’s a long list of things I need to do at the house I’ve ignored all weekend. I could get a jump on the week’s meals and do some prep. There’s always laundry to do. Or maybe I should go for a run now that the roads are clear of this weekend’s snow.
Right as I reach my truck, I see Finn’s car easing down the long driveway.
Shit.I don’t want to talk to him and hear about Sam. I definitely don’t want to hear him pretend he’s sorry he missed soccer in order to do it. I don’t have it in me right now. But I rally, because he parks and comes straight to me.
“Hey, glad I caught you. I need to talk to you.”
Instead of the shiny, elated Finn I expected to see, I’m confronted with a man who appears genuinely burdened. It’s completely different from what I expected to see him radiating.
Worry grips me instantly, all thoughts of exhaustion vanishing.
“What’s wrong?”
His eyes shift around, settling on the barn in the west pasture. He swallows hard, mouth turned down in a very un-Finn-like frown, and then he speaks without looking at me. “I’m afraid something’s going on with Sam.”
My eyes narrow. “Explain.”
He turns back to me. “We were chatting at May’s earlier, just talking, and she took a call. As soon as the person started talking, she froze. And I don’t mean like a quick, startled thing. I mean she damn near turned to stone in front of me.”
My pulse notches up. “What did she say? Could you hear the caller?”
“After she answered, she said hello twice, like the person didn’t start talking right away and asked, ‘Who is this,’ then she didn’t say anything. All I could hear was that someone was talking, definitely a man, but I couldn’t make out specifics.” He shakes his head, genuinely disturbed. “When she hung up, it took a bit to get her to snap out of it. Like, she couldn’t remember to breathe kind of deal.”
Bad news. Imagining her so affected has my focus narrowing.
“What did she say? Who was it?” I’m running a mental checklist of what I know about her, anyone who might’ve done this, but I don’t know nearly enough.
“That’s just it. She hardly said anything. Didn’t explain it. She blew it off like yeah, it was a surprise, but nothing huge, she was just shocked by it.” His head droops before he looks at me again. “Then she begged me not to tell anyone, and I got the feeling she particularly meant you.”
My teeth grind together but I ignore the useless pang of hurt that strikes, too. “You did the right thing, Finn. I can’t help her if I don’t know what’s going on.” I don’t want to saymore, but he seems so deeply troubled by this, I make myself. “I know you guys are new, so I’m sure this feels scary, but you did the right thing.”
He squints. “We’re new?”
“Yeah. The dating. Brian heard it from the gents. Which is, you know?—”
“I’m not dating Sam, idiot. If anyone’s going to date her, it’s obviously you, but I’m pretty sure that’s not happening until you use your sheriff superpowers and help her with whatever’s going on.”
It’s obviously you.
An eruption of relief and elation bursts through me so fast I can hardly make sense of it, and instead of maintaining any kind of composure, I blurt, “But you missed soccer.”
He grimaces. “I did. But I couldn’t leave her. Didn’t want to make a whole thing of it, so I just hung out with her, bought her lunch, tried to distract her a bit.”
I shouldn’t feel relief and a jolt of pure happiness inject into my veins, but there it is, bubbling through me like I’ve taken off a flak vest after days on patrol. A huge weight lifted.
At the same time, frustration takes a swing at me. Why did she not want me, specifically, to know, when I’m probably the person who can actually help her?
He snickers like he can read my every thought.
“Why don’t you stop rejoicing in the fact that I didn’t make a move on your woman and go figure out what’s going on with her?” He starts walking, then tosses over his shoulder, “I’m hanging for the movie and dinner, so I’ll bring the girls home if you want.”
I accept the offeras I bolt to my car.
No need to figure out what I’m going to do with this time—it’s decided.
