Page 32 of Off-Limits Love
Finn growled. “What are you doing?”
“What? You think I did this for you?” he asked with a cocksure grin. “I just gifted myself the best birthday cake in town.”
Mak couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. Finn’s family had brought an assortment of sandwiches, chips, drinks, and paper goods. After everyone had eaten, Hudson and his adorable niece had blown out the candles on their respective cakes—his German chocolate and her pink-unicorn and glitter-topped Funfetti—and then opened their gifts.
But given Hudson’s ornery smile and twinkling gaze every time he caught her glancing Finn’s way, she knew the cake request had definitely not just been about the cake.
Music started from the various speakers placed discreetly around the room, and Mak turned from where she’d shifted to check on Emi. She played in the corner with Bea, one of Allie and Brooks’s daughters. The two had become fast friends and got along like lifelong besties.
“You’re up, Cake Baker. Dance with the birthday boy,” Hudson said, not taking no for an answer as he gently tugged her out of her chair.
She laughed as he pulled her into his arms and began to sway. “You’re completely ridiculous, you know that?”
He smiled at her and twirled her around before bringing her back to immediately dip her.
“Uh-huh. Don’t look now, but someone is getting all up in his feels.”
Her head whirled when Hudson righted her with another flourish, and she had to hold onto him a bit tighter until the head rush stopped. “What do you mean?”
“Hey, there, brother,” Hud greeted.
Mak watched as Finn gently shoved the giggling birthday girl at Hudson who was forced to release Mak in order to catch his niece.
Finn then wrapped an arm around Mak’s shoulders to shift her toward him and danced her away from his younger brother with a speed that brought a flush to her cheeks.
Hudson’s ornery laughter followed them, and Mak glanced up at her handsome partner to see him scowling over her head. “He sure knows how to push your buttons,” she said softly. “But since when am I a button?”
Mak found her breathing turning shallow when Finn finally looked down and met her gaze. She might not have a lot of experience with men, but she didn’t need it right now, given the way Finn stared at her. He didn’t say anything, but that look?
She blinked and then blinked again.
Okay, then. “Does that mean you’ve accepted my apology about what happened with Brad? You and I are… We’re okay? Because your stuttering doesn’t bother me, Finn. Truly. I’d never think less of you for something you can’t help. You don’t have to stay silent around me. I won’t judge you if you stutter when you speak to me.”
If she and Finn were going to be friends, she wanted him to trust her enough to let himself relax and hopefully, eventually, speak more than a few words to her. Otherwise he’d be miserable anytime they saw each other.
The music changed back to a fast song, and she looked around to realize Finn had danced her into a corner on the other side of the large barn where they were out of sight of the group. Had he done that on purpose? Or was he as…discombobulated as she was whenever he was around?
Her pulse picked up speed, and her heart thrummed against her ribs. She’d been on her share of dates since she’d left Brad, but she hadn’t been interested in the men enough to put forth the energy for more. Dating was exhausting, and she wasn’t the type to go out with someone just to have a date on a Friday night.
She had to like them, be interested in something about them to make her want to see them.
And as she stared into Finn’s gaze… She couldn’t help but wonder what she’d do if he actually asked her out. She could use a friend right now, but when it came to Finn did she want things to be…more?
Was she ready? Interested?
Why was life so hard?
Why would she meet someone like Finn now when she had to help Sam and find a job and figure out how to start a business? Coparent with a man who wouldnevermake things easy?
And there was Emi. No matter what she did, she couldn’t allow her daughter to get attached to Finn—to anyone she dated—and be hurt.
She couldn’t allowherselfto be hurt. Not when she still healed from the battle wounds of her marriage and divorce. When she faced Sam’s death and the aftermath… When falling apart wasn’t an option, because as a single mom and a caregiver she didn’t have time to be less than one hundred percent present in the moment.
“Why?”
Finn had shifted his hands to cradle her face, and given their differences in size, his pinky fingers ran the length of her jawline while his thumbs easily brushed over the V between her eyebrows, smoothing it away. Soothing it away, at least momentarily. “Why am I frowning?”
At his tight nod, she hesitated. Sam had told her that morning he hadn’t said anything to Finn yet about his illness but that she was free to say what she liked. But was a birthday party the right time to do it? “Life just confuses me sometimes. Why it has to be so hard and bad things happen to good people.”
