Page 95 of Exile and Embrace

Finn sighs and moves closer to me, reaching out to twirl a strand of my hair around his finger. He gives it a light tug.

“Aves, I’m going to miss you like crazy.” He swallows hard, dropping my hair and taking my hand instead. He pulls me to him and hugs me tight. “Do everything you can to stay safe. And if you don’t feel safe, you call me, and I’ll be on the next plane out there.”

“I’ll miss you too, but everything is going to be okay.” I loop my arms around his waist and hug him back. “I know what I’m doing and if nothing else, I have to be there for Zoe.”

He sighs. “I hope you get what you want out of this trip. Stay safe, Aves.”

When Finn kisses me, I want to stay.

The urge to call my sister and tell her that I’m not coming bubbles to the surface.

I want to stay with him and forget about everything that has to do with my father, but there’s still a small chance he could be the man I remember.

The chance of getting an explanation for everything is worth more than staying home and being content with letting my father go.

Finn pulls back from the kiss, hugging me again before letting me go. “You better get going before the plane takes off without you.”

Laughing, I shift my bag higher up on my shoulder. “I’ll call you as soon as I land and let you know that I’m there.”

Finn nods, tucking his hands in his pockets and taking a step back.

I climb the stairs and disappear into the plane, hoping that I’m making the right choice.

My heart pounds as the door to the plane shuts. The engine starts as I store my bag in one of the cabinets and take a seat.

Camila sits across from me, crossing one leg over the other. “So, are you sure about going home? Zoe caught me up on a lot of what has been happening, and I can tell you that if it was my father, I wouldn’t want to be there.”

“I feel like I have to.” I sigh and run my hand through my hair, looking out the window to see Finn still standing beside the car. “I want to talk about literally anything else. I need a distraction.”

Ruben appears from one of the rooms in the back with a bottle of whiskey. He sits down in the seat beside Camila. “I heard that somebody was looking for a distraction.”

At that moment, I’m grateful that the two of them flew out here to get me. If I had to fly alone, I was going to spend the entire trip thinking about my father and everything that he’d done to destroy our family.

With Camila and Ruben here, it’s a little easier to breathe, even though I wish Finn was with me.

I have no clue what I’m going to be walking into when I get back to Tennessee, but there is no turning back now.

25

FINN

It’s been two days without Ava, and I’m losing my mind.

I never thought that I would hate coming home to an empty house.

For most of my adult life, I loved going home and being alone. There was nobody I had to answer to. It was the one place where I got to be alone with my thoughts.

Now, I’m missing Ava like crazy and spending most of my time with Cillian. He's been keeping me busy since we spoke about my father.

Today is no exception.

I’m sitting in his backyard beneath the sun, running through several of his accounting books.

He’s got me putting all the numbers from his legitimate businesses into a new bookkeeping program.

Cillian comes into the backyard with his hands tucked into his pockets. “How’s it going out here?”

“I’ve got most of the numbers from the last three years put into the program. There’s still four more years to input, though.” I put the binder to the side and look up at the sky, blinking to get rid of some of the ache in my eyes.

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