Page 20 of Hound Dog
Her sigh was a tight huff, and she shook her head, muttering, “Unbelievable. You know, I already said I was sorry for running into you. And believe me. I amreallysorry I ran into you. So there. You got your apology. What more do you want?”
What more did I want? I wanted to hug her. I wanted to pull her in close to me and thank my luck that, after all this time, I finally got to look her in the face again.
Instead, I blew out a tight breath and ran a hand through my hair, wincing. “Can we start over? What are you doing here?”
My gaze followed the movement as she clamped her hand to her slim hip. Tight black yoga pants framed toned legs and an ass that I had the sudden, desperate urge to trace my palm over.
Dammit.Get it together, Finn. I walked away from Haylee once for good reason. And that reason hadn’t changed at all in six years. I was still a player. And she still seemed sweeter than sun-ripened strawberries.
“I told you. I came to stay with Aunt Meryl for a while. You knew she moved here.”
“Of course, I knew. By your lack of visits though, I didn’t realizeyouknew it.”
Shit. Why was I so combative with her? Was it some subconscious attempt to keep Haylee at arm’s length? Because something about the cock of her hips and the way her tight, pebbled nipples pressed against the soft cotton of her tank top told me that she may be a little more experienced now than she was when I first met her.
And that would make it a hell of a lot harder to stay away.
“Well excuse me if I had no desire to return to this town and face the guy whohumiliatedme.”
I blinked. “Humiliated?”
“Don’t play dumb, Finn. You left an eighteen-year-old girl who was mourning her mother’s death to sit alone and watch a meteor shower on the night she’d planned to lose her…virginity.” She paused before the word, looking around and then whispering it. It was fucking endearing. “You took away my choice… my autonomy—”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and squinted my eyes, deep in thought. “Let me get this straight. I was older than you. More experienced than you. I’d slept with a bunch of girls already that summer—”
She gasped, and I rolled my eyes at her reaction, not bothering to stop talking. “But the fact that I was trying to be a gentleman to you somehow makes me the bad guy? Wouldn’t it have been worse if I’d met you up there, taken your virginity the night before you were leaving town, and never seen you again?”
She glared at me with a hatred that stabbed my chest. “You know what? This isn’t really a conversation I want to have with you in a public park. Orever,for that matter.”
She hiked the rollerblades up, draping them over her shoulder. Then, giving Tyson’s leash a gentle tug, she stomped off in the direction of Meryl’s lake house.
“Fine by me!” I shouted after her.
A text chirped on my phone, and I saw my brother’s name pop up in the bubble.
Dude, break’s over. Where are you?
Dammit.
With a sigh, I took off, jogging toward the bakery, and pressed my phone to my ear, calling my friend and Hound Dog business partner, Mackenzie “Enzo” Lefferts.
“Finn?” she answered on the second ring. “What’s going on?”
I sighed into the phone. She was going to kill me.
“I’ve got a problem. I need to get a working, permitted hotdog stand.Fast.”
Chapter Three
Finn
I thinkI have anger management issues.
Because right now in the middle of our family’s very populated bakery, I had the urge to smash my fist into a dozen unicorn cupcakes.
Instead, I took a deep breath as Patty, one of our most elderly customers, finally pointed to the Cookie Monster cupcakes within the case and smiled. “I’ll take six of those, please.”
I swallowed my sigh, masking my relief that she’d finally chosen. With a quick glance at the clock, I filled a to-go box with six cupcakes and closed the lid.
