Page 4 of Finn Rhodes Forever

Asshole.

Sadie yawned and her eyes watered.

“Go home,” I told her, grateful to end this conversation.

She shook her head. “I’m good,” she warbled through another jaw-breaking yawn.

Holden glared at me and I threw my hands up. “I told her to go home.”

“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t hear you,” Sadie said, walking around the counter to sit beside Holden. She was only two months along, not even showing yet. His arm automatically came around her waist, and when she smiled at him, the corner of his mouth ticked up.

Before Sadie, some people would call Holdengrumpy. Now? I saw him smile at least once a day.

“Stop,” I told them.

Sadie laughed. “What?”

I gestured between them. “Gazing. Quit it.”

Holden turned back to the game on the TV above the bar with a little smile on his face, his hand lingering on her knee, and Sadie shook her head, still grinning.

It was sweet how much they loved each other, but sometimes being around people who were madly in love got old.

When they headed out moments later, I waved goodbye then I closed up the tabs on my other tables.

Something weird rolled in my stomach. I was happy for my friends. They’d fallen for each other in this very bar last year, right in front of me. Sadie was one of my best friends, and I was relieved she chose to make Queen’s Cove her home. She moved here almost two years ago when she inherited her aunt’s inn. She and Holden had had this weird arrangement for her to find him a wife, but it turned out differently than they expected.

Well, differently thansheexpected. Holden always had a thing for her. It was only a matter of time.

I was just stuck after the call with my advisor. Twenty-nine years old and in the same place as five years ago, while all my friends fell in love, progressed in their careers, and started families.

My last tables finished up and left, and I headed to the front door to lock up after them.

He’s moving back, Sadie had said.

I dragged in a deep breath to calm myself down. No, he wasn’t. What the hell would Finn want here?

Besides, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care about Finn Rhodes anymore.

3

Olivia

My hiking bootscrunched on the forest floor as I made my way down the side of the mountain, surrounded by towering emerald trees. Sunset was in two hours, and it had been pouring since noon. My boots were still dry, my raincoat had held up, and the wet forest smelled earthy and fresh and incredible, but my hands were frozen and all I could think about was sinking into a hot bath as soon as I got home.

Another day in the forest with no trace of the flower. Disappointment rose up my throat but I shoved it down. I paused for a break, pulling my map out of my pack. While I sipped water, I studied the route back to my car. Another hour of hiking. I traced my thumb over the route—down the mountainside, over a creek, through a sloped, rocky area, and then around the base of the mountain to where I had parked at the end of the old logging road.

At the top right corner of my map, I had taped an image of the flower. My stomach twinged as I stared at it, and I remembered what my advisor had said yesterday.

I had the whole summer to find it, I told myself.

I made my way down the side of the mountain, balancing against a nearby tree on a slippery section.

An entire summer out here, hiking among the trees, breathing in the fresh air with blue sky stretching overhead. The corners of my mouth ticked up, picturing the family of beavers I had spotted last year. Maybe they’d return to the same spot. Even though I worked for my dad’s bar back in town, the forest was where I belonged. It was where I spent most of my free time as a kid and teenager, and now that I was wrapping up my PhD, it was where I’d spend my career.

I hiked around a group of big trees and picked my way down the side of a hill that led to the creek, but the second it came into view, I stopped short.

“Shit,” I muttered, brows creasing.

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