Page 178 of Chaos

I make a noise in the back of my throat.

Making one of his own, Finn copies my relaxed stance, chuckling when Grouch snuggles closer and laps at his chin, sobering as he gently pushes her away.

“One day,” he says to me, those eyes cutting a path to my soul, “you’re gonna stop questioning why I want to be around you and just accept that I do.”

“Wouldn’t hold your breath.”

He doesn’t laugh. He barely cracks a smile. He reaches out, fingers brushing my hair away from my face, his index tapping my temple. “Wanna know what’s going on up here, beautiful girl.”

Murderous schemes. The stirrings of an existential crisis. An untimely, near constant awareness of how damn good-looking he is. “Nothing worth repeating.”

Finn doesn’t look convinced. Scooting closer, he shifts to lie on his side, head dipping until his mouth brushes my shoulder. “Spill.”

With a dramatic sigh, I lazily prop myself up on my elbows, eyes wide and innocent—and blank, God I hope they’re blank, I hope he can’t see right through them, into my brain, my thoughts, my secrets, the wordRickyflashing in glaring, neon light. “Just wondering what they put in the water in Texas to make you so pretty.”

As his lips stretch and lift, something in my chest eases. “Pretty?”

I press my thumb into his dimple. “Gorgeous.”

Those eyes spark. “Are you using flattery to distract me?”

Busted. “Is it working?”

That smiling mouth expels a huff, but a ringtone cuts off any words. Digging his phone out of his pocket, Finn peers at the screen, and then, as he quickly answers the call, he does smile. For real. Wide and happy, and honestly? Fuckingadorable. “Hi, momma.”

I shoot fully upright.

“Yes,” Finn drawls—a little sarcastic, a lot tender. “We’re fine.” He pauses, and I strain to hear the muffled voice on the other end of the line with absolutely no success. “I’m with her now.” Another pause. A soft laugh. Dark, glittering eyes. “My mom says hi.”

I blink. “To me?”

“Yeah, baby. To you.”

He did it. Hebaby’dme. While on the phone to hismother. He says a bunch of other things I don’t hear or even try to hear because I’m a little caught up on that one word and the complete and utter casualness with which he said it.

It could be a minute, an hour, an entire fucking day later when he finally hangs up, I have no idea, but my voice cracks like it hasn’t been used in a damn decade. “Your mom knows about me?”

Duh, his face says, though his mouth is a little more polite. “My momknewabout you, Lot. For a while now.”

That’s… fuck. Terrifying. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Though his smile remains, his brows pull together. “You know me being your boyfriend makes you my girlfriend, right?”

“Right.” I swallow the idiotic confession that… no. I mean, Iknewthat, but I hadn’t reallythoughtabout it. Considered it. Rolled the label around in my brain, on my tongue, to find I quite like the fit. “So you told her…”

“That we’re together?” he finishes for me. “Of course.”

“Oh.”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“I just… I didn’t know it was like that.”

“Like what?”

I don’t know. I don’t thinkseriousis a very good answer, and I don’t think it’s what I actually mean either. I guess, “I just didn’t know we were telling those kinds of people.”

Importantpeople.Influentialpeople. People whose opinions really matter to Finn.

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