Page 7 of Persuaded

It took a second for him to swallow because apparently the cliché was true and his hearthadleaped into his throat. “F-Finn—?”

“No!” Lexa laughed. “Sean. And his wife, Tejana. She’s gorgeous, by the way. And so’s he, which of course he would be.”

Joshua managed to say, “Oh.”

“Yeah, he was so adorable,” Lexa carried on, oblivious to Joshua’s turmoil. “And tall—Oh my God! Anyway, he was really cute and was asking us about the town and I was telling him we’d be neighbors, andhesaid that was cool and that he was going to have a housewarming barbecue next weekend and that we should all come!” She grinned at him. “Isn’t that awesome?”

Joshua nodded. “Yes, very friendly.”

“Totally. But that’s not even the best bit.” She bounced on her toes, turning to walk backward in childlike glee. “The best bit is that Finn’s going to be there!”

Which was when the bottom fell out of Joshua’s stomach. “Oh...”

“I know! He’s coming for the weekend or something—actually Sean didn’t know when he was getting here, but he’s definitely going to be at the barbecue. Oh God, I have like a week to lose six pounds.”

Joshua had a week to come up with an excuse. Perhaps he could invent a dead grandmother whose funeral he needed to attend? In China.

But then he realized that Sean probably hadn’t intended to invite him at all. Wouldn’t it be weird to invite the son of the disgraced tycoon whose house you’d just bought in a fire sale? Relieved, although shaky at the thought of Finn in that house, of all places, he composed himself enough to say, “It sounds very exciting.”

“Right? I mean, when does anything like thateverhappen around here?”

For the rest of the day, Joshua couldn’t think about anything except the fact that Finn would be in his father’s house—that he’d be sleeping in the place where it had all started, and ended, between them. And that Finn would be remembering Joshua. It would be impossible for him not to.

Whathe’d remember was another question entirely, and another good reason why Sean wouldn’t be inviting Joshua to his party. Finn must have told him what had happened all those years ago and Sean, being a good brother, wouldn’t want to make things awkward.

On one hand he found that a comforting thought, on the other it just deepened his isolation. He stood outside all the excitement erupting in New Milton, an unlucky but familiar place to be. He’d been on the outside all his life.

By Wednesday, excitement levels had reached fever pitch. Joshua had an afternoon shift at the coffee shop, and an extra one the following morning because Lexa and Ali were going clothes shopping and doing something called “threading” to their eyebrows. It sounded painful.

“But totally worth it,” Lexa insisted as they headed out the door.

“I’ll take your word for that.”

“I need to—” She walked right into a tall man in the doorway.

“Whoa,” he said as they collided.

Lexa squealed and then laughed and blushed. “Sean! I’m so sorry.”

Joshua froze behind the counter, eyes darting past the stranger in dread (hope?) of seeing a familiar face behind him. But Sean was alone.

“No problem,” Sean said easily, stepping aside to let Lexa and Ali leave.

Not that they looked like they wanted to go anywhere now. “I didn’t think you were coming back until the weekend,” Ali said, smiling and giggling.

“Well, my brother flew in early, so we decided to come up here a couple days ahead of Tejana.” He gave an easy grin when he saw Lexa and Ali bouncing with excitement. “I left Finn back at the house. He’s still on west-coast time. And, anyway, he’s a lazy bastard in the morning.”

The girls giggled and Joshua turned away, trying not to remember Finn sleeping next to him, dawn sunlight streaming into the little trailer and burnishing his tawny hair. But the memory took hold so powerfully it was all he could see, all he could feel as it coiled up in the pit of his stomach.

“...Newt?” He started at the sound of his stupid nickname and Lexa frowned at him over the counter. “Earth to Joshua Newton,” she said. “This is Sean.”

For his part, Sean stepped forward with a friendly smile and held out his hand. He had a handsome, open face. “Joshua, I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

Pulling himself together, he shook Sean’s hand. “Yes,” he said stupidly. “Hello.”

Sean’s mouth tightened. Was he about to say something about Finn, about water under the bridge? Joshua flushed in anticipation. But when Sean spoke, he said, “I hope it’s not too awkward about the house. It must be difficult for you.”

“The house?”

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