Camera Shy (Lessons in Love, #1)(135)

Finn waits until the front door clicks closed before he wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “What’s going on?” he asks softly. “This can’t just be about a fish.”

I sniffle. “I almost gave you up for her. I almost picked her over you.” Finn’s so patient. He just nods as I babble nonsensically. “That’s why I wasn’t going to move. Palmer needed me, so I had to go back to L.A. to be there for her. I promised. I keep my promises.”

“I understand,” Finn says. “That’s your best friend. It’s okay, Avery. I told you, we’re going to make it work—”

“She’s been sleeping with Mason for four years, behind my back. Years, Finn. I am so fucking stupid and clueless. I had no idea. Maybe the signs were there and I didn’t want to see it. I’ve just been working and working, completely blind to the fact that everyone was living their life, except me.”

“The fuck?” he whispers. “Palmer and Mason? You’re not serious.”

I nod as I continue to ugly cry. “I’ve been missing out on so much, worried about everybody else, but now, I’m worried about me. I said no to the Legacy Resorts job. I’m done with Arrow Consulting. There’s nothing for me in L.A. I don’t have anything to go back to…and my fish is dead.”

He pulls me against his chest and I breathe in his salty, musky skin. I feel Finn’s lips on the top of my head. He lets me sob against him, my tears running down his chest and abs. Stroking my back, he shushes me sweetly and tells me it’s okay. When I’ve settled and we can hear ourselves over my open weeping, Finn says, “How about we don’t go back? Either of us. How about we try forward? Together.”

“Forward is good, but…” I kiss his pec and then step out of his embrace. Taking a deep, calming breath, I continue, “I have to do this differently this time. So, Finn, I think you’re way out of my league—”

“Avery,” he interrupts, rolling his eyes.

“Let me finish. But just because you might be the sexiest man on the planet, doesn’t mean you don’t have to earn me.”

He grins wide. “Okay. How do I earn you, Queen?”

“I want a date night more than once a year. In fact, I’d like an official date night once a week, and at least once a month we put on nice clothes and leave the house and flirt, in public.”

“Done.”

“Wait, I’m not finished.”

He smiles again. “Needy girl.”

“I want you to teach me how to cook.”

“You can finish your demands in my arms, baby.” He reaches back out and grabs me by the hips. “I will happily teach you how to cook, if we can have a dip buffet for dinner every now and then, too.”

“Fair enough.”

“What else?”

“I want to walk with you. And I do mean walk, not run. But I want a relationship where we do outside stuff sometimes. I don’t want to stay behind a computer screen for twelve hours a day. I want to be healthier all around.”

He squeezes my hips. “Okay, we can do outside stuff together.”

“And I don’t ever want another woman in bed with us. I don’t like it.”

He nods solemnly. “Me neither. Never again.”

“And the big one…”

Finn widens his beautiful baby blue eyes. “Go for it.”

I inhale and hold it for a moment before I exhale. “I’m not waiting four years to get married. We don’t have to rush, but I’m not going to ignore my needs for yours. We can always compromise, but if it is going to take you half a decade to decide whether you want to spend your life with me, I will walk away. I want a family. I want a home.”

“Okay,” Finn says. “I hear you loud and clear, Queen.”

“And I don’t ever want you to stop calling me Queen.”

“Fine with me.” He tries to kiss me again, but I lean back. He raises his brows, his patience running a little thin. I think he’s ready to start our happily ever after. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s everything from my end… But what about you? What do you need?”

Finn touches his smooth lips against mine. It’s not a kiss, just a touch. He rubs his nose against the tip of mine. “Just this. I need you to never stop telling me what you need. I want you to cry in front of me, so I know how you’re feeling and I can try and fix it. No more running out on me when you’re upset and making me worry.”

“I can do that.”

“Good.”

“All right, Finn Harvey. Well, now that that’s all settled, I think I’m ready to fall in love with you.”





39


Avery





I stop in front of Finn on the couch and smile at him like a lunatic with a bowl of buffalo chicken dip in my hand.

“What?” he asks with a concerned smirk. His face is lit up with the slight glow of Dex’s aquarium behind me.

“Nothing. I’m happy.”

“Are you sure? You can cry some more if you need to. You won’t scare me off.”

“No…I’m okay today.” I’m cried out, honestly. It comes in waves. I don’t miss Mason, but I do miss Palmer. It’s bizarre. Losing your best friend is like taking off a security blanket and feeling a chill. At first, it’s uncomfortable, but soon after, you realize you were burning up the entire time. The cold becomes welcome.