I SHIFTED my leg open a little more, studying his face for any sign of teasing. My stomach was molten, twisting in weird anticipation.
“Thank you.” He pulled out a bottle of antiseptic and shook it, expression neutral.
I frowned.
His hand came to my thigh, warm and solid, and his gaze met mine. “I need to disinfect it.”
I nodded, swallowing. Did I remember to shave my legs? I didn’t want to glance down and draw attention to them. Fuck, his hand on my thigh felt nice. He gave me a light squeeze, holding my gaze. His gray eyes were so clear and bright, rimmed in dark lashes. My heart thumped harder in my chest.
“Deep breath in,” he said, eyes on me.
I sucked in a breath.
“Let it out in eight counts.”
There was something very calming about this version of Finn. It was probably part of Search and Rescue training, learning how to keep people relaxed.
One, two, three—Finn sprayed the antiseptic on me and pain seared across my skin. I gasped and flinched.
“Ow.” My mouth fell open. “That hurt.”
He made a comforting noise in his throat, and something weird flipped in my stomach. He ripped the bandage package open and pulled the wrapper off.
“Poor Livvy,” he said in a low, teasing voice, eyes on where his fingers applied the bandage with care. My pulse tripped at the nickname. “Trying to look ugly and even that doesn’t work.” His eyes flicked up to mine with a little smirk on his face before he brushed the bandage lightly to make sure it stuck.
That brush zinged all the way up to the apex of my legs. A sharp clench around nothing, a flash of quick heat. I sucked a breath in and swallowed.
“I wish you’d stop calling me that,” I whispered.
“Why?”
Because it made me feel things. Because it was sweet and nostalgic. Because it made me forget why I hated him so much.
He arched an eyebrow. “You want me to call you something else? Like girlfriend?”
Oh my god. I ignored the pulse in my chest and stood. “Thanks for the help.”
He rocked back onto his heels and watched me move around, picking up my bag and digging around inside for nothing to keep my hands busy.
“You should put those other pants on.”
My gaze cut to his. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
He burst out laughing. “I would, but that’s not why I said it. The zipper on those shorts is going to bug you all day.”
I was torn. The yoga leggings would make my ass look amazing, which seemed dangerous, but even I wasn’t stupid enough to keep wearing these pants.
“Fine,” I told him, pulling them out of my bag before I pointed at him and twirled my finger in a circular motion. “Don’t look, though.”
“I won’t.” He stood and turned.
I paused with the pants in my hands, nerves running through me. “I’m serious, Finn.”
He sighed. “Liv, when I see you without pants on, it won’t be against your will, okay? You’ll be begging me to take them off.”
I blinked, heat flashing through me. “Whatever.”
He snorted, and even with his back turned, I could see his smugness turned up tenfold. “Yeah, whatever. Right.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Do your thing, I won’t peek.”
Once I had removed my boots, I yanked the shorts from hell off and threw them onto my bag before pulling on the yoga pants as fast as possible.
“Okay. Thanks. Let’s eat lunch.”
Finn nodded once before we pulled our food out and ate. After our sandwiches were done and we had polished off another bottle of water, Finn reached into his bag and tossed me—
I gasped at the crinkly orange bag. “Cheezies?!” My face lit up with a big smile. “Oh my god. I could so fucking go for some Cheezies right now.”
His smile hitched, and embarrassment at my excitement over the snack had my skin feeling warm. He leaned his chin on his palm, watching me. “So go for them. I brought them for you.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You did?”
“Are they still your favorite?”
I tore the bag open. “They sure are.”
“Then I brought them for you.”
I bit into one and closed my eyes. “Oh my god. So good.”
Cheezies were absolute trash junk food. They were made of space dust, chemicals, and salt. They glowed bright radioactive orange and were in bizarre little cat poop shapes.
They were delicious.
I crunched one, dancing in my seat as the salt hit my tongue. “Mm. So good. I love these.”
Finn watched me with bright eyes. “Good.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you. I almost forgot that you touched my inner thigh today.”
He snorted. “I was a gentleman and a professional.”
“You were.” My eyebrows bobbed as I chewed. “I’m kind of impressed. Being a gentleman is so unlike you.”
Something moved through his eyes. Determination and regret. Worry pinched in my gut. Should I not have said that? Was I being a dick?
“I’ll have to keep showing you what a gentleman I can be, huh?” His gaze held mine and my stomach did a lazy roll.
After we finished eating, we packed up our garbage and sat around for a few minutes, staring at the forest and listening to the birds chirp around us.
My mind wandered to the flower. It was already June, which meant it was definitely in bloom by now. If I couldn’t find it, the last five years of my life would have been a huge waste of time. No one was going to hire a researcher who hadn’t finished school.
A researcher who most people were laughing at behind her back.
“Hey,” Finn said, eyes soft. “We’re going to find it. I know it’s out there.”
My eyebrows pinched together. The way he said it, the confident, assured expression on his face, it filled me with a weird rush of gratitude for him.
“Are my thoughts that obvious?” I joked.
“Yes,” he said. “We saw it. I believe you.”
My heart squeezed. When he said things like that, he gave me hope, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing anymore.
“I think you’re the only person who does.”
“You’ll show them, Liv.” He slid down to sit beside me, back against the log. His warm arm brushed mine. “I know you will.”
WE SPENT the rest of the afternoon working in silence, aware of each other walking through the trees in the forest but focused with our eyes on the ground, stopping for snack breaks before getting back to work. When we were three hours from sunset, Finn called out that we should head back to the car, and we began the hike back to the logging road.
“Don’t worry,” Finn said as we got to the car. “We’ll find it.”
I nodded, avoiding his eyes.
“How’re your inner thighs?” He tossed his bag in the back and shot me a smirk. “You need me to take another look?”
I couldn’t hide the grin. Even if I didn’t want to, Finn always knew how to make me laugh.
“They’re fine, pervert.”
He chuckled and closed the trunk. “I’ll drive back if you like.” He tilted his chin to the keys in my hand.
I massaged the spot on my shoulder where my pack strap had rubbed all day. After a full day out in the woods, my batteries were drained in the best way—that bone-deep tired from being outside, breathing in the fresh air. My gaze flicked up at him.
He cocked a grin at me. “Come on, let me drive. I’ll go the speed limit and I won’t help any criminals get away, promise.”
I rolled my eyes and tossed him the keys.
“You working tonight?” Finn asked a few minutes later as he drove the car down the bumpy logging road that led back to the highway.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Good.” Instead of turning left toward Queen’s Cove, he turned right.
“Finn.” My eyebrows shot together and I straightened up. “Where are we going?”
He slid me a sly smile before turning back to the road, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “Let’s get some food.”
My mouth opened, ready to protest, but the words didn’t come. Aside from finding out Finn had unwittingly helped someone steal a car, today had been fine. More than fine. Nice, even.
My mind wandered to the bag of Cheezies he had brought for me, and his focus in the forest as he searched for the flower, like it was important to him.
Like my goals were important to him.
I sat back and watched the forest as we passed, and Finn turned up the music.
