Page 114 of Hound Dog
Be cool, Finn. Act like you’re fine with this.
Haylee slid her arm around my back and nuzzled into my chest. “I’m hoping alotof people will love having me nearby.”
I forced a smile. Under normal circumstances, this would have been great news. Thebestnews.
But these weren’t normal circumstances. Me, a guy who’d never held a relationship longer than six months… and Haylee. A girl who’d never had a relationship for less than a couple of years.
We were complete opposites in almost every way.
“Finn?”
Haylee’s voice saying my name sounded like we were in an echo chamber. Heat rushed up my body, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to puke or pass out.
Maybe both.
“You’re really pale. Are you alright?”
Haylee’s concerned, brown eyes were the last thing I saw before it all went dark.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Haylee
I circledthe kitchen island at Finn’s apartment, brushing my fingers along the butcher’s block counter.
I hadn’t pictured him as a butcher’s block kind of guy. I’d pictured granite. Something like a dark gray with modern fixtures.
Then it struck me. In all the time Finn and I had spent together these last few weeks, I’d never been to his apartment.
Correction: he’d neverinvitedme to his apartment.
What the hell did that mean?
“Am I a bitch?” I asked Maisie quietly.
Her face twisted, any sense of calm that had been there evaporating. “I’m sorry,what?”
“Am I a bi—”
“You don’t have to repeat it,” Maisie interrupted me. “It’s such a ludicrous question, I don’t even want to acknowledge it.”
She paused and took my hand. “You, Haylee Rogers, are the least bitchy person I’ve ever met. Which begs the question, which guy is making you feel like you might be? Ben? Or Finn?”
I sighed and fell into the stool next to the island. “Two years. Ben and I had been together for two years. He came here to surprise me for my birthday. And… I mean, I know I asked him not to, but he held an open house for my home and got me several offers. Maybe he was right all along. Maybe I’ve been holding out on him.”
I hadn’t determined how I felt about Finn yet. He’d been so great these last few weeks. But his face when I said I might move to Maple Grove? You would have thought I’d told the man I was moving in with him.
And then he passed out. It very quickly ended the birthday party. Addy had to stay to work at the bar since, technically, it was still open to the public, but Enzo helped me get Finn home. And now she was in his bedroom with him.
And I was out here with Maisie… questioning everything.
The fury faded from her eyes as she sat next to me. “You’re not a bitch,” she reiterated. “And as much as I don’t like Ben, he’s not a horrible guy. He’s just a horrible guy foryou. You set boundaries. Ben crossed those boundaries. Voicing that, speaking up for yourself, and leaving a relationship that isn’t working doesn’t make you a bitch.”
She squeezed my hand before letting go and taking a sip from her water glass.
“He’s never invited me here,” I admitted.
“Ben? God, I would hope not,” Maisie joked.
