Page 59 of Chaos

And yet the best excuse I can come up with? “I don’t have any money.”

Finn lifts a nonchalant shoulder. “My treat.”

I wonder if he can hear the alarm bells that go off in my head. Because in my mind?My treatequalsdate. Ironic, really, considering I can’t remember the last time anyone I dated bought me anything.

Come to think of it, I can’t really remember the last time I dated. Because I don’t date. A fact everyone who knows me knows, except for Finn, evidently. “Listen, I know you’ve got some kind of a crush on me now or something—”

The fingers dangling dangerously close to my upper thigh flex.

“But I’m not interested.”

Finn purses his lips thoughtfully. “No?”

“Nope.”

“Really?”

“Not even a little.” Well, that’s going kind of overboard. I do have eyes, after all. And a libido. But finding him stupid hot does not equate to daydreaming about lunch dates and frolicking through a field holding fucking hands.

“Damn.” Finn drums his fingers against the steering wheel, thinking for a second before he faces forward again, rolling his truck past the traffic lights as they turn green. “So Korean barbecue or do you have a better suggestion?”

“Did you not hear me?”

“Oh, I heard you, honey. And now I gotta bury my hurt feelings in some bulgogi.” A millisecond of a pause later, his face splits with a grin. “Kidding. I wasn’t trying to take you on a date. I’m just hungry.”

Oh. “Oh.”

“Good to know you find the idea so revolting, though.”

Revolted. I snort. How dramatic. “I would say mildly perturbed.

“Big word,” he teases before huffing a haughty noise. “You’re not exactly date material right now either.”

“Are you saying I look like shit?”

The sideways look he casts my way, a long brush of dark eyes up and down the length of me, from the tips of my boots to my overgrown roots, makes me squirm. “You could use a shower.”

I whack the forearm closest to me and grumble for him to shut up, but I guess I never really say no to the lunch thing because ten minutes later, we pull up outside a restaurant.

“Listen,” Finn starts as he shuts off the engine and twists to face me. “If you really don’t wanna or if you’re in pain, that’s fine. I’ll get takeout. But if not…”

If not, we can go inside. Eat together. He’ll buy me lunch for no reason other than I fled the ranch so quickly, I didn’t even think to stop and grab my wallet. The ranch that, if I brush him off, I’ll have to go back to. I’ll have to see my siblings, face their wrath—or worse, their disappointment.

And the thought of that alone is what has me unclicking my seatbelt. “Fine. But be warned, I’m a three beverage minimum kind of girl.”

That ever-present smile hikes up to dizzying levels of brightness and there’s a moment, a single, blinding moment where I mentally snicker at the me from ten minutes ago who insisted I wasn’t interested. And then I wonder when the lasttime Finn looked in a mirror was because he believed me?Seriously?

“Wait here,” he commands slyly as he unbuckles himself and exits the truck. “I gotta check if the ceilings are high enough to fit that ego of yours.”

The slamming of his door cuts off my outraged scoff—some might even call it alaugh—but I make sure he sees my middle fingers through the windshield as he jogs around the hood. “I can get out by myself,” I insist as he opens my door for me, rolling my eyes at the unnecessary helping hand he extends. “I got the all-clear, remember?”

“Allegedly.” His lips thin, eyes narrowing, one brow cocked. “I still haven’t decided if I believe you.”

“Ouch,” I drawl playfully as I bat his hand away. “Your distrust stings.”

“You’ve been walking around on a broken ankle—”

“It was neverbroken.”

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