Page 68 of Wood Riddance
“What do you mean you slept with him?” Parker hissed between sets of deadlifts.
She scanned the gym, using the floor-to-ceiling mirror to make sure no one was listening. The walls had ears in Lovewell. But I was too distraught to worry about discretion.
“Is this a thing? Is it gonna happen again?” Her face said it all. Telling her had been a terrible idea. But not as terrible as what I’d given in to when we were stranded in the forest.
“No,” I lied. “One time only.”
“Okay, good. Not that I’m judging you. How could I? I have eyes and ovaries. I’ve seen that man. And you weren’t of sound mind. It’s not your fault.”
My heart sank. Dammit. I didn’t want to want him, but I’d thought Parker would be slightly giddy when I broke the news. She’d been encouraging me to get out there again, after all.
“Sweetie, I don’t mean it like that,” she soothed. “You deserve all the orgasms. But I know your brothersandthis town.”
The reminder made my stomach lurch. Because shewasright, but I hated the reality of how this would play out if my family caught wind.
Sure, I had gotten swept up, but not entirely. The connection between us was undeniable. Inevitable, even. As if we’d been building to this conclusion for a long time.
“There’s more to the story.”
“How much more?”
I grabbed a plate and slid it onto the bar. “We’ve been flirting for a long time. And I’ve kissed him before. Just once. It was two years ago.”
“How am I only learning about this now?” She secured the weight with a collar and put her hands on her hips. “I thought we had become official best friends.”
“It was years ago.” I waved her off. “Before I met you. It never seemed relevant.”
“Sticking your tongue down the local Viking hottie’s throat isalwaysrelevant, Adele.” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the foam flooring, signaling that she wanted all the details.
“You know how Henri gave him an office space in my shop? It means that I see him almost every day now. Turns out he’s not the terrible monster I thought he was. He’s sensitive and funny, and he’s an amazing dad.”
As much as it pained me to get the words out, it was the truth. It’d be easy to reduce the whole family to evil, murderous felons—hell, that’s what I had been doing until recently—but Finn was a good person. He treated everyone he met with respect and had been nothing but an asset to the company.
He was also annoyingly handsome, and he refused to stop flirting with me.
Parker was watching me, her eyes wide and her mouth ajar.
“What?”
She leaned forward and whispered, “You. Like. Him.”
“I do not,” I protested, rearing back in disgust. “I can’t like him. But if things were different, I would definitely like him.”
“Do you hear yourself right now?Can’t like himisn’t the same asdon’t like him.I’m not going to judge you for who you sleep with. That’s your business, and I’m here to support you…”
“But…?”
She let out a heavy sigh. “Can you imagine what would happen if your family found out? The fallout would be nuclear. Paz would self-destruct. There’d be a mushroom cloud over our house. And Remy and Henri and Alice and your mom…”
I shot her a look. There was nothing more tiresome than machismo. I was more than capable of taking care of myself. My brothers knew that. They also knew they’d lose body parts if they tried to interfere in my dating life. “They know to stay out of my private life.”
“Yes, but what about if your private life involved a Hebert? I don’t have an issue with Finn. In my experience, all families have shitheads, and he is not his dad. I can separate how I feel about him from how I feel about his father. But I’m afraid your family might not be able to. I’m only looking to protect your beautiful heart.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Damn, I wished my engineering skills extended to time travel so I could go back and not get on that plane. Life would be so much easier if I hadn’t slept with him. If I hadn’t experienced how protective and tender he was. I had always hated thunderstorms, and he’d made me feel so safe.
That feeling was almost impossible to shake.
“He’s not a bad guy,” I said weakly.
