Page 28 of Persuaded

Joshua looked away, hurt. “Maybe you’ve forgotten. We don’t exactly get along.”

“But you told Sean—”

“I didn’t tell him anything. Frankly, it’s none of his—or your—business.” This time he got the car door open, felt a blast of sleety rain hit his cheek. “Goodnight, Finn.”

He hurried across the sidewalk and up the path to his cottage. Glancing back once, just before he closed the door, he saw Finn pull the car away from the curb. With his forehead pressed against the front door he listened until he couldn’t even pretend to hear the engine purr and tried not to remember the heat of Finn’s hand on his arm again after all these years.

Chapter Nine

For Finn, Thanksgiving—and family—had always meant Sean. Now it meant Sean and Tejana. Usually they all went to her folks’ in Arizona, but this year Sean and Tejana had wanted to spend the holiday in their new home.

Ordinarily, that would have been fine with Finn. As long as he and Sean were together, he didn’t care where they spent Thanksgiving. This year, of course, it was different.

It wasn’t even the memories that haunted Sean’s house that bothered him. It was the fact that Josh was ten minutes away, in his tiny little cottage, all alone over the holiday. It was the fact that Finn shouldn’t care. And it was the fact that he did—a lot more than he wanted to.

“So...” Sean said, hip braced against the counter while he sipped a beer and watched Finn prepare the turkey. “You were home pretty early last night.”

“Hey, I have manners. It was a first date.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What?”

“Finn—since when do you even wait for a first date?”

“I dunno,” he grumbled, covering the bird in foil. “Since I passed eighteen? Anyway, Liz is an elementary school teacher.”

Sean laughed. “So?”

Finn shrugged. He liked Liz, he did, and maybe she was exactly what he needed—a cute, unpretentious small-town girl. She certainly made a refreshing change from all the actresses he’d dated recently. It was just that, last night, finding Joshsound asleep on Liz’s sofa had been something of a mood-killer.Josh, Josh, Josh: he couldn’t get the sonofabitch out of his head. “I like Liz,” he said. “I do. She’s hot.”

Sean was silent in that way he had of saying nothing loudly.

“And I totally respect her, so I didn’t want to—you know—screw that up.”

“Finn—”

“Ah!” He raised a hand to stop him and opened the oven. “Thanksgiving, man. Can we drop the inquisition?” Sliding the bird into the oven, he set the timer. “So, we’ve got time for at least one movie before we need to start on the sweet potatoes—”

Sean looked suddenly guilty. “Ah, about that...”

“What?”

He nodded toward the picture window, at the clearing skies and weak fall sunshine. “Tejana thought it would be nice to go for a walk before dinner? Get some exercise before the feast.”

Finn stared. “Seriously? It’sThanksgiving.”

“Come on,” Sean said, setting down his beer. “A walk won’t kill you. We can watch movies later.”

Finn made a show of protesting, although in truth he didn’t really mind. It was a beautiful morning and a walk might clear his head. He hadn’t slept well last night. He hadn’t slept well for a long time. Eight years, maybe.

Sean and Tejana walked hand in hand, and Finn let himself fall behind as they headed past the garage—Newton’s cars were still frozen in aspic inside—and out the back gate onto the cliff top.

He remembered meeting Josh out there. Then, there had been crickets in the grass and the languid heat of summer. Now, a chill breeze ruffled his hair and bright sunlight glittered on the water. It was so long ago, though, he wondered that he remembered it so vividly.

Memory was a funny thing. Dreams aside, he’d all but forgotten about Josh while he was living in LA. Or so he’d told himself. But he was beginning to wonder whether he’d ever forgotten him at all, whether the memories had just hidden beneath the glitter of his new life, whether he’d spent the past eight years staring straight ahead so as not to glimpse them out the corner of his eye.

Tejana took them left onto the cliff path and down toward the bay. Finn knew the path well and treading it again felt surreal, like a trip down memory lane that he couldn’t share with anyone. He’d walked this path many times with Josh, hand in hand until someone else approached and they’d slid away from each other, tender and awkward in their newfound intimacy but reluctant to give it up.

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