Page 140 of Finn Rhodes Forever

She turned at the end of the hall.

“I’m sorry I brushed you off for so long.” I swallowed with difficulty, glancing away. “You reminded me of Finn.”

She nodded, eyes bright. “I know. I guess I didn’t want you to forget about him. But even if you never got back together, you were still special to me.”

She sent me a wink before returning to the backyard, and I took a few more minutes to study the family pictures on the wall.

“Hey,” Finn said at the end of the hall.

I straightened up. “Hey.”

“Everyone’s getting ready to leave.”

I nodded. “Okay. You want to go home?”

His eyes glinted as he shook his head. “Not yet.” He tilted his head behind him and held his hand out. “Come on.”

Finn led me upstairs and into his old bedroom. It was nearly the same, although there was a new duvet cover, and the room was tidier than when he had lived here. Through the window, I could see my old room.

“Finn,” I said, laughing. “Everyone’s downstairs.”

He grinned at me in disbelief. “We’re not doingthat. Jesus, Morgan, you horndog.”

My chest shook with laughter. “Why are we up here in your old room, then?”

A moment later, we lay out on the roof, watching the sun set as pastel pinks, golds, and oranges washed across the sky. Birds chirped their last songs of the day from the trees, and Finn’s hand snuck into mine. I gave him a quick squeeze.

We heard the front door open.

“Bye,” Sadie called.

I lifted my head to watch her and Holden walk down the front path to Holden’s truck parked on the street. She turned back and met my gaze before she lifted her hand in a wave. A little smile played at her mouth, and I waved back.

“You know that old house we always pass?” Finn asked, playing with my fingers.

I nodded.

“What kind of changes would you make to it?”

I hummed, letting my mind drift to the old property. “The yard needs a lot of work.”

“Yep.”

Last time we passed it, the roof was covered in moss. “A new roof.”

“Definitely.”

“I’d evict all the rats and raccoons that live there now.”

Finn chuckled. “Without a doubt.”

I thought about the projects Sadie and Holden did and how, when she redesigned a space, she let her imagination run wild. In the inn they owned together, she had convinced Holden to install a secret library with a hidden door in a bookshelf. There was even a treehouse bar in the forest behind the inn. The homes she worked on mixed function and joyfulness.

I pictured living in that house at the edge of town. I imagined it full of our furniture, full of our families as we hosted Thanksgiving or Christmas. The big party we’d host at Halloween, kids in costumes running around the yard.

I pictured being happy there with Finn.

“I’d put a skylight in over the bed,” I told him.

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