Page 58 of What About Us
“The next day or two,” he says, straightening up and folding his arms over his chest. “Is that too soon?”
I’m surprised at how quickly I shake my head. “We only have two guests right now, and they’ll both be checked out by eleven tomorrow morning. So long as no one books in the next day or two, we could make it work.” I hate to turn customers away, but if we can get the marriage license tomorrow and have the ceremony the next day, it would keep me from having to ask someone to watch the B&B while Skye, Allie, Hudson, and I are out at the lake.
“Can you turn off online booking for a day or two?” Hudson asks.
“I’d have to call Ginger, but I’m sure it can be done. I’ll just tell her I need to close for something if she questions me, which I doubt she will.”
I hear a car pull up into the gravel drive outside the open front door. It’s probably Allie coming for her night shift.
He nods, his lips tipping up at the corners just a fraction. “So, we get the marriage license tomorrow and do this thing Saturday then?”
Excitement and nerves buzz through me as I watch him. Are we seriously doing this? God, this is so weird. But in a good way. My skin flushes and I break out in goosebumps.
I bite my lip and nod, smiling a little. “Saturday.”
Chapter 19
Hudson
“I don’t want togo to the ranch today,” Paige whines, crossing her arms over her chest and pushing out her lip in a dramatic pout. She’s sitting crisscross on the floor of the living room, while Finn sits on the couch behind her to work her hair into two Dutch braids.
“You’ve been talking about making cookies and watching movies with Grammy and Pop-Pop for months,” I say.
Page doesn’t answer. I wiggle the knot in my tie back and forth in the mirror by the door, and I catch Finn watching me in the reflection. I throw her a wink and then run my hand down the beige and cream-colored, diagonally striped tie, before shrugging into my slim-fit, beige linen vest. It’s hot today, so I’ll forgo a jacket.
Finn looks around on the couch, while holding the end of one of Paige’s braids. “Shoot. Huddy, do you have a hair tie? I lost the little elastic.”
Paige frowns. “Those are yours.”
Finn casts a glance down at Paige, while I pull a hair tie off my wrist and hold it out to her.
“What are mine?” Finn asks.
“The hair ties Daddy keeps on his wrist,” she says, her eyes still fixed on the tv. “He has packs of them in his drawer.”
My stomach tightens, waiting for her reaction. How the hell did Paige know about those? I keep them clear in the back of a drawer under my wool winter socks.
Finn looks puzzled before her eyes sweep over to me. It’s a slow perusal from my feet up, almost like she’s questioning what she’ll find. When she finally makes eye contact with me, she tilts her head a little, as if she’s realizing the truth of Paige’s statement.
I hold the hair tie out to her, and I can’t help the corners of my mouth tugging up just a bit. Hutch is right; if even my six-year-old knows the hair ties I keep are for Finn, I’m not fooling anyone. Maybe after seventeen years, it’s finally time she knows, too.
Something akin to pleasure lights her eyes and she holds my gaze for a few beats before she takes the hair tie from my fingers.
“Thank you,” she whispers. Then, she bites her lip and ducks her head. The faintest blush of pink dusts her cheeks, and I catch the little dimple that hints at the beginning of a smile.
“It’s too big,” Paige whines. “It’s gonna look funny.”
Finn stares down at the braid she wrapped the hair tie around. “I’ll go grab another elastic,” she says.
“I’ve got it.” I take the stairs two at a time up to the bathroom in the hallway. My ears are ringing and my skin buzzes with anticipation the entire way.
How does she feel knowing I’ve been keeping a hair tie for her on my wrist for as long as I can remember? It started as far back as senior year. Maybe she never questioned it because I had sisters, and then I had a wife and a daughter. But it was always for her.
Once I’m back downstairs, I hand the tiny, clear elastic to Finn, and she swaps them out. Then, she looks up at me, that tiny smile playing on her lips.
“You want this back?” she asks, lifting a playful brow at me. The look hits me right in the chest.
I nod and my voice comes out raw and deep. “Yep.”
