Page 17 of The One Who Changed Me

“I know exactly how you can make me forget all about telling your momma how rude you were to me. Let’s go to lunch, and all will be forgiven.”

“Thank you for the offer, Finn. But I don’t get off for a few hours yet, and I already have plans to have lunch with Peyton today.”

Just as he finishes her sentence, a phone rings in her pocket. Everyone but me reaches for their phone, trying to see who’s being called.

“It’s me,” Marissa says before flipping her phone open and answering. “Hello.”

Her eyes pull down in confusion as they flick toward me before quickly glancing away.

“You’re up to something, aren’t you?” Colt smirks in my direction.

“I have no idea what you mean.”

Dolores shakes her head as we wait patiently for Marissa to hang up the phone.

“Anything serious?” I question, trying to stop myself from fist-pumping the air to signify my victory.

“Peyton’s sick.”

“She mentioned something about not feeling well when I was at the bakery before coming here. I hope it’s not contagious.”

“Why do I have a feeling you have something to do with this?” Marissa strolls toward me, poking her finger in my chest. “It doesn’t matter. I’m still not going anywhere with you.”

“Why not? I just want to take you to lunch and apologize for the problem I caused you when I first arrived back in town. Is that too much to ask?”

“Then take Colt. It was just as much a pain in the ass for him as it was for me,” she responds coldly.

“No, it wasn’t,” Colt chimes in. “Just a ten-minute phone call to the alarm company.”

“Marissa, please put the poor guy out of his misery and let him apologize properly,” Dolores adds her two cents before winking in my direction.

“What do you say, sugar?”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that?” she grumbles before sighing loudly. “You really don’t need to thank me for doing my job.”

“Yes, he does,” Colt says before grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her toward me. “She’d love to go to lunch with you, Finn. And you can leave right now.”

“What? I have a shift to finish.”

“You know that any calls that come in over the next hour I can handle alone, right?”

She opens her mouth to respond, but Colt places his hand over her mouth. “And I promise to call you if anything comes up.”

“I swear all of you are conspiring against me.”

“Finn was desperate enough to come track you down at the station to have lunch with you. The least you can do is join him,” Dolores says as she leans forward to rest her elbows on the desk.

Okay, maybe that’s going a little too far. I’m not desperate, at least notthatdesperate. I would wait until the end of time for her to come to me, but I don’t have to.

“I promise I won’t bite—well, that is, unless you want me to.”

“Not happening, Finn.”

“Anything you say, sugar.”

Colt laughs loudly, shaking his head at our antics before stepping behind her and shoving her toward the door. “I don’t want to see you here until your shift on Sunday.”

Hmm, it seems Marissa doesn’t have any commitments for the next few days, giving me more than enough time to convince her to give us a chance. If we happen to find ourselves in bed for the second time, I won’t complain, but that’s not my intention. I want to show her I want more from her than amazing sex. I want everything.

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