“Let me help. You already look exhausted, and you just got out of bed.” Naomi insisted in a voice too low for the mic to catch. “I got this.”
“You sure? You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to do this.” She stood and shooed me away while Denver cheered.
“An hour tops,” I warned loud enough for Denver to hear. “You're not stealing too much of her time.”
“Yeah, yeah, relax. You always make such a big deal about everything. She’s helping me do a math problem, not build a skyscraper.”
Naomi chuckled while I rolled my eyes.
“I’ve started a timer,” I said. “Not a second more.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Naomi
Denverwassweet.Alittle nosy and a little rough around the edges, but sweet. Finn didn’t seem to share my thoughts. He grunted when I expressed my opinion, and seemed desperate to move on.
“You don’t go home on the weekends like the guys do sometimes,” I said. It was supposed to be a question but came out as a statement. There was no use in pretending I didn’t know he hung around the house every weekend. We’d started this semester avoiding one another since neither of us left campus. Back then, it felt like bad luck. Now, the idea of having him all to myself was thrilling.
“Nothing for me there,” Finn said. He stood in front of the mirror hanging on his closet door. I watched from the bed as he struggled to put on his tie. The hockey team always wore suits during away games. It was quite a sight to witness a bunch of rowdy guys in black ties. Why did simple dress pants make even the meanest-looking guy look charming?
I pushed off the bed to help him. He didn’t even bother protesting when I took over.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Finn asked with an amused twinkle in his eye.
“No.” I shrugged while fiddling with the tie. “But it can’t be that hard to figure out.”
He snorted and waited for me to realize my error. I sighed when my fourth attempt at making some sense of the fabric failed.
“What kind of sorcery do I have to learn?” I huffed and got out my phone to watch a quick video. Finn kept reaching for my ass as I tried to follow the instructions.
“Stop distracting me.” I laughed and swatted his hand away. “I’m trying to make sure this is on right while also learning more about you. You’re not sad about not spending much time with your family?”
He wore a ghost of a smile as he said. “Why would I be sad about that?”
I shrugged, not meeting his gaze. “Seems like something most people would be sad about.”
“I’m fine.” He brushed the back of his hand across my face. I shivered in response. “Are you? Sad about not being around your family?”
“I don’t know my mom’s side of the family, so there’s nothing to miss there. Same for my dad. The only thing I knew about him was that he left before my mom had me. I’m glad he did because I don’t have to regret anything about a failed relationship.”
He pulled his hand away from my ass and remained quiet for a moment. I finished the tie, giving it one final adjustment before stepping back to view my handiwork. It wasn’t bad for a first attempt.
“I’m not sad because, much like with your family, I don’t know them,” Finn said in a low voice. “And anytime I’m with them and try to get to know them, they want me to be someone different. I’m not him anymore. I don’t want to be, and they don’t want to let go.”
I nodded. “Have you told them that? That you’re ready to move on?”
“I tried.”
“Maybe they need to be reminded a few more times before they let up?”
“Unlikely.” He didn’t look too torn up over the matter. “My family’s the kind that talks at you. I learned that much from being carted around to every doctor imaginable. No matter how many times I wanted to stop and rest, they kept at it. I stayed in the hospital until we couldn’t afford it anymore. At first, it made me sad—for not giving them what they needed. Then, I got angry. You know that night you ran into me with that door was the first night I’d been away from them. I felt quite liberated until I tasted blood.”
I laughed and quickly pressed my hand over my mouth. He chuckled at me. I didn’t resist when he pulled down my hand.
“You can laugh,” he said with a smile.
