Page 67 of Best Friends, Tennessee

I had always dared to be myself when I was a teenager, and that was something I always got punished for, here. I even got made fun of for enjoyingpainting, for fuck’s sake. The kids I saw on TV in New York or LA were able to flourish creatively.They wereencouragedto be different, unique, or anything they wanted. So why couldn’t I?

Leaving Bestens had been my only escape route.

I’d never let myself stop to think about what I’d left behind.

The people whodidlove me.

“You know, Finn likes having you back, too,” Danielle said. “Even if he won’t say it like that to your face.”

“He says it in other ways. Sometimes. When he’s not antagonizing me.”

He says it with his eyes, when his mouth is wrapped around my cock.

“He likes taking care of you,” Dani said.

Something twisted in my chest.

“I guess. Sometimes.”

“You shouldn’t worry about the housing situation so much, by the way,” she said. “Finn can help you with that.”

“How so?”

She gave me a conspiratorial look. “Don’t tell him I said this.”

“Oh, God. What?”

“He told me he has his eyes on that house for sale, over by Full Moon Ranch,” she told me, waggling her eyebrows. “I think he went to go talk to them about it last week.”

I paused. “What? Does he realize the house is forsale, not for rent?”

She was suppressing a smile. “You know Finn’s made some good cash from a couple of his instructional videos, right? He’s too modest to talk about it, but he’s doing really well.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Well, I think he might be willing to help you with putting a down payment on a place,” she said. “You didn’t hear this from me. But if he can talk them into a good price, I think he’s going to offer it to you.”

Whatever wall had been slowly building in me suddenly seemed to snap into existence.

Instantly I had a fucking stone castle wall inside me, armed and ready to fire.

“You can’t be serious,” I said. “He’s been doing that without talking to me about it? He knows I’m not ready to purchase anything in Bestens. Am I even going to be living here in a year or two?”

“I mean, if he dropped a wad of cash on it, you’d certainly be able to handle the mortgage payments.”

A tense coil was winding itself up in my chest.

I shook my head, undoing my apron. “I need to go on a quick break. I’ll be back in ten, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, giving me a questioning glance. “You doing alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, giving her a nod before stepping out the back door.

I sucked in a deep breath outside, walking over to lean against the brick wall out back. I watched cars driving down the side road a little further past the lot, trying to reel in my emotions. My shirt suddenly felt too tight, and I knew I was going to get a headache.

How many times was Finn going to try to do this?

To try to “fix” things in my life—but without ever letting me in on it until later?

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