Page 15 of Match Made in the Maldives

“Um. Okay. Come here often?”

I held back a snicker, the corner of my mouth twisting.

“Sorry,” he said with a shake of his head. “Inappropriate.”

As I was rendered speechless by those gorgeous blue eyes, a beat passed.Has Finn always been this handsome?

One of my friends meowed in our direction, causing everyone in the group I came with to laugh. Finn twisted to see who I was glaring at.

“Ignore them,” I said, pulling his attention back to me. “They’re being dumb.”

“What’s going on?”

“Would you kiss me?”

“Excuse me?” he sputtered. His coworker returned and Finn handed off the rest of their drinks. “Be there in a sec.”

“So…” I lowered my voice and leaned toward Finn. “My friends and I are playing this game. We’re supposed to go out and pick a person to talk to and then we have to get them to kiss us.”

“I see.” His jaw ticked. “This a usual Friday night activity for you?”

“No. First-time player over here.” I held up my hand in aGuilty!gesture, but rather than laugh at how adorable I was, he scowled.

“And you win by kissing as many guys as you can?”

“Wrong. I win by kissing a guy and getting my friends off my back because they think I’m hung up on someone.”

“Ah.” Finn slid me a glass of water I hadn’t even noticed he’d ordered, and I took a big, refreshing sip. “Are you?”

“Hung up?” I pointed to myself, and Finn nodded. “No. I’m cool. Me and Tanner aren’t girlfriend-boyfriend, anyway.”

“Tanner?”

“Yeah.” I swooned into my cup. “He’s dreamy.”

“Dreamy?” This elicited a chuckle from Finn.

“Don’t laugh.”

“Sorry. So…tell me about him. What’s so great about Tanner?”

“He’s funny. Charming. Super hot and athletic. He has this scruffy beard-mustache thing going on.”

Finn rubbed his whiskered chin, his expression indecipherable. This was before he’d started growing out his facial hair, giving him a more grown-up, sexed-up look.

“Whatever. Makes total sense he wouldn’t text or call. He’s got other stuff happening tonight.”

“Like what?” Finn asks.

“Dunno. Don’t care.”

“You been seeing him long?”

“A few months.”

“Months?” He almost did a spit-take, then composed himself. “Lou,” he went on, his voice tender, careful. “You deserve everything. To be the one a guy wants to contact on a Friday night, that’s the bare minimum.”

My eyes stung. I wanted Tanner and me to be official, but the man couldn’t bother to send a quick text or make plans for the weekend. What hurt the most, though, was that Finn had such clarity on my situation in a matter of minutes. I felt like a fool—pathetic and pining over Tanner, pathetic and found out by Finn.

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