Page 12 of Hound Dog
The sharp hiss of his inhale was all I needed to hear. Was I too honest? Was this too deep? Too raw?
Then he asked, “And she never saw the Northern lights?”
I shook my head no, relieved he’d seemed to move on from his shock quickly. I didn’t want Finn being weird with me. I didn’t want him walking on eggshells or coddling me like everyone else did in my life. “And she never hiked Mount Washington,” I added.
“Did she ever say why?”
Reaching down, I picked at a loose string on my shorts, tugging it until it was longer than my finger, unraveling the denim. “She neversaidanything about it at all. I found her bucket list written on a notepad that she usually used for groceries. Of the dozens and dozens of things, only four were checked off.”
With his chin still on my shoulder, I felt Finn swallow. “Maybe she got around to them, but never checked them off?” he offered.
I shook my head. “I don’t know when she would have. I can count on one hand the times we weren’t together. She’s definitely never gone on an Alaskan cruise. Or swam with the dolphins in Mexico. Hell, according to the list, she never even sang her favorite song at karaoke.”
Finn shifted so that he could see me better. “Your mom never didkaraoke?”
Reaching into my bag, I pulled free the folded bucket list I’d been carrying around for the last few weeks and held it out to Finn. “Not according to this. She was a great singer, though. We would belt out ballads together when we cleaned the house and on long car rides…and one of my earliest memories is of her singing to me while we waited at the bus stop near our house—when I was really little, before we had a car. There wasn’t a bench or anything at that stop for us to sit on, so she’d sing to me to distract me when I’d get antsy standing there.”
He took the list tenderly, like it was a relic. Some ancient scroll that needed to be treated with the utmost caution. That tiny fact made my heart crack open and for the first time in my life, I believed that maybe,maybe, love at first sight could be a real thing. Or at least, love at firstdate.
“According to this, the only things she accomplished were kayaking across Lake Erie. Hug a redwood. Sleep in a yurt. And witness a solar eclipse.”
“I was there for all four of those.” I swallowed against the dry lump in my throat. “Pretty sad, huh?”
He blinked, his eyes glossy and almost turning a bluish shade of green in the moonlight. “Sad that she didn’t finish the list. But not that you were there for some of it.”
He hopped to his feet, quickly gathering our unfinished strawberries and cheese, and shoving the blanket, unfolded back into his bag. “Come on!” he cried.
“What? Where?” I startled, jumping to my feet with him and he took my hand, guiding me back down the stairs.
“To the karaoke bar in town.”
White hot terror stabbed my lungs. “Why?”
He paused, halfway down the stairs before turning back to face me. “Because you’re going to check off another itemforher.”
Then, clutching my face, he kissed me hard. Passionately. Pushing me against the wall behind us. The handrail bit into my lower back and I didn’t even care.
When he finished the kiss, he pulled back and excitedly said, “But first, I need to find my shirt.”
11:12p.m.
Apparently, pubs are different from bars.
According to Finn, that was why I was allowed into this establishment even though I wasn’t twenty-one.
Although from the looks of this place, I couldn’t tell the difference. It looked like a bar. Smelled like a bar. Sounded like a bar. At least from my minimal experience that basically consisted of seeing bars in movies and on TV.
On the stage, a drunk guy finished his monotone rendition ofLike a Virgin, and I could barely look Finn in the eyes while he sang.
Iwas the virgin. The virgin who’d nearly jumped his bones on the roof under the stars. What the hell had come over me?
My hands trembled as I wrapped them around my sweating Coca-Cola glass.
The MC tilted the microphone stand diagonal to where he was standing and helped the stumbling man down from the stage. “Okay. Thank you, Brett! Up next, we’ve got Haylee! Haylee come on down!”
His voice echoed like we were onThe Price is Right, and the tables around us broke out into applause and whistles. I had to give it to them, they were an encouraging bunch.
Finn squeezed my knee beneath the table. “You ready?”
