Page 72 of Falling for Finn

“Already planned on it.”

I nod, silently thanking him for understanding. This will be hard on us both.

“What about you?” he asks.

“I’ll bury myself in my work like I do with every other life inconvenience.”

“Ahh, art therapy,” he muses.

“Pretty much the coping mechanism I’ve used my whole life.” I shrug.

Before he can respond, Finn appears. “Sorry it took me so long. I parked a mile away.” He comes to my side and kisses my cheek. “Can I get you some coffee?”

“Sure, that’d be great.” I look up at him and smile. “I’ll probably work on this for a while if you two wanna walk around.”

“Alright, I’ll deliver your caffeine first.”

As Finn and Levi walk away, I do my best to gain control of my emotions. I need to focus on this piece. Since it’s chilly outside, I can only paint for a couple of hours each day before my fingers freeze.

As promised, Finn returns with a hot latte. I thank him and tell him I’ll shoot him a text when I’m done. It’s hard to work with someone hovering over me, so it’s best he enjoys himself while I paint.

Jessa and Sebastian are already at the caramel apple booth, and I wave when they spot me. They’re across the street, but I almost have a bird’s-eye view from where I’m standing. It’s the perfect vantage point for the painting.

After two and a half hours, my fingers are like icicles. I have enough outlined and started that I can work on the rest back at Finn’s.

“Wow, it looks so good already,” he tells me as he carefully lifts it into the truck. We’ll keep it there while we walk around the festival.

“Thanks! Where’s Levi?”

“He found some friends and said he’d hitch a ride back with them.”

“How was the booth?”

“Bombarded with kids.”

I laugh. “The entire street is.”

“So you wanna tell me what you and Levi talked about earlier?” Finn asks, taking my hand as we walk toward the downtown area.

“A whole lot ofnone of your business.”

He glowers. “I know my best friend likes to talk.”

“And we had a good conversation. That’s all you need to know.”

He sighs. “Great.”

“What are you so worried about?”

“He has a big mouth.”

“You think he shared embarrassing stories about you or something? Because if those exist, I need to hear them.”

“Hell no.”

I giggle. “Pull that stick outta your ass, and let’s go have some fun.”

“Excuse me?” he warns, yanking me into one of the alleys and pressing me against the exposed brick. “Are we back to that?”

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