Page 135 of Hound Dog
I laughed at that one. “Good for her.”
“I’ve been dying to tell you for a week… my mom had a boyfriend. A man she truly loved after my dad left. We all just thought he was a family friend.”
My eyes went wide. “She hid a great love from all four of you?”
A smile split his face and he nodded. “For years until he passed away.”
I pressed my palm to my chest. “Your poor mom.”
He nodded. “Apparently the Evans family doesn’t fall in love often, but when we do, we fall hard.”
His eyes lingered on mine, searching. Desperate.
“Please, Haylee.” His voice cracked with my name. “Please give me another chance. I fell in love with you six years ago that night on the roof. I don’t think I’ve ever recovered.”
Freckles wriggled in his arms, and he gently set her down.
I gulped as the tears I’d been fighting to hold back blurred my vision. “You really think you can do this? Be in arealrelationship? You can’t just run away every time something freaks you out.”
“I know. I can’t guarantee I won’t fuck up. Hell, it’s me we’re talking about here. But I want to try. I want to succeed. I can’t imagine ever loving anyone the way I love you.”
I sucked in my gasp. “You love me?”
“I do. I love you so much, Haylee.”
I soaked in his words, breathing them in like they could give me life. And in a way, they were.
One of my tears escaped, gliding down my cheek before landing on his list with a heavy drop. “There’s still one problem,” I whispered.
A shaky sigh escaped him. “What is it? I’ll do anything, Haylee. Anything.”
A smile flickered on my lips, and I held up the list he had handed me. “In order to check this off, you need to have some sort of grand gesture.” I glanced down at the coffee in my hand. “Unless this lukewarm gas station coffee is the gesture… in which case, we need to work on your game, Finn Evans.”
A grin split his face and he stepped in closer to me. Lifting his hand to my jaw, he traced a path down to my neck. “There’s not a damn thing wrong with my game, Haylee. Grab your bucket list. We’ve got a grand gesture to get to.”
Holy hell.I’d actually just been teasing him when I said that. But as Finn led me two blocks down the street, I nervously glanced around.
“If you think I’m making love under the stars with you tonight, you have another thing coming,” I joked to ease my nerves.
He glanced back at me with a grin. “Oh, it’s much better.”
“Better than orgasms beneath starlight?”
He nodded and we paused across the street from the bus stop my mom used before she was able to buy her car. Except now there was a bench at the bus stop.
There was never a bench at this stop. I would get so antsy waiting for the bus to come that Mom and I would sing to keep ourselves busy.
And the new bench was surrounded by flowers.
“I have to admit, I had a little help from Meryl triangulating this bus stop to get it exactly right.”
“Get what right?”
He gently tugged me closer as we crossed the street.
There, mounted on the backrest of the bench, was a plaque.
Come sit while you wait for your bus. Singing helps pass the time.
