Page 85 of Just Do It
I leant my head against his shoulder, sipped the drink and sat watching the scenes around us, absorbing the atmosphere, and storing it away on a shelf in my mind labelled favourite memories. Strangely enough, since I’d met Finn, the shelf was filling far quicker than it ever had in the past.
‘This used to be Finn’s old bedroom,’ his mum said as she showed me up to the room shortly after we’d arrived.‘Heartbroken he was when we told him we’d ripped down all the Baywatch posters.’
‘Oh, I didn’t have you pegged as a Pamela Anderson fan?’
‘Oh, no love,’ his mum said, straightening the curtains in the warm and welcoming room. ‘Not Pammy. David Hasselhoff.’
Finn put a hand to his side. ‘Oh no, I think I cracked a rib.’
‘Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,’ she said. ‘I heard you had the sense to leave him to it on that rugby field.’
‘I’m afraid so. Reading in the car was far less stressful.’
‘Not to mention warmer, I expect! Good girl.’ She turned back to Finn. ‘You said she was clever. I think that says it all. The hours we spent on Sunday mornings freezing our backsides off while he ran up and down and got knocked black and blue as a kid. You wouldn’t think to look at him now, but he was quite a puny little thing once.’ Her eyes were dancing with mischief and I knew now where Finn got it from.
‘Mum!’
She leant closer, conspiratorially. ‘He’s a bit tetchy about it.’
‘I’m not tetchy.’
‘See what I mean?’
I glanced up at Finn. His face was serious but it was becoming obvious that this was a family who laughed, and teased, together and were all the closer for doing so. He dropped his gaze to me and rolled his eyes in mock irritation.
I turned back to his mum. ‘Please tell me you have pictures,’ I said, laughing.
‘Traitor.’ Finn’s voice was gruff but I could hear the warmth beneath the words.
The rest of the evening had been full of good food, laughter and the sense of warmth I’d felt the first time I’d met this family back on Alice’s birthday. But this time I hadn’t drunk much as I didn’t want to be dealing with a hangover on Christmas Day.
‘You’re looking a bit shell-shocked,’ Finn said as he closed the door to the guest room we’d been assigned at his parents’ home.
‘Am I?’
‘Yeah,’ Finn said, sitting down on the edge of the bed I’d just flopped onto. ‘You OK?’
I pushed myself back up. ‘Perfect. Yes, it’s a lot but a lot in a good way. I love it. The way you all laugh together, the chatter, the stories of all your childhoods.’
‘Some of those I could have done without!’ Finn said, laughing as he lay back.
‘But I couldn’t.’ I turned and leant on his chest, looking into those beautifully blue eyes. ‘I loved hearing them. I loved hearing about you. Learning about you.’
Finn watched me for a few moments then wrapped his arms around me. ‘Come here,’ he said and cuddled me close.
‘Hey?’ Moments later the deep voice burrowed into the comfy, cosy space I was making in my brain for sleep.
‘Hmm?’
‘Go and get ready for bed.’
I grumbled as Finn unceremoniously tipped me off him. I sat up, rubbing my sleepy eyes.
‘That wasn’t very nice.’
He gave me one of those sexy smiles that he didn’t even know he did and I forgave him. ‘You’ll thank me in the morning.’
I shuffled my bum to the edge of the bed and padded into the en suite his parents had installed. ‘We’ll see.’
