Page 8 of Finn Rhodes Forever

He raised an eyebrow, glancing between me and the door. “So,” he prompted.

I let out a long breath. “Yeah.”

“I guess that didn’t go as expected.”

I didn’t knowwhatI had expected. Liv sure as shit wasn’t going to jump into my arms and cover me in kisses. The thought made me huff a laugh and rake a hand back through my hair.

“Nope,” I told him with a lopsided grin, ignoring my sinking stomach. “No, it did not.”

He said goodbye and left, and I sat there in the empty room, hearing Liv’s mom Jen’s words from years ago in my head. The same words that had been playing over and over for years.

I wasn’t that guy anymore. Doubt rose up inside me but I shoved it away. If I wanted Olivia back, Icouldn’tbe that guy anymore. I had to prove her and everyone else wrong.

Olivia hated me, but this summer, I was going to change that.

5

Finn

The next evening,I caught a flash of her pink hair as I slipped into the back of the meeting room at town hall, nodding hello at the people around me before I took my seat. Town hall meetings weren’t my thing but the conversation I’d heard at the fire hall this morning stuck in my mind all day like a thorn.

At the front of the room, my oldest brother, Emmett, took his seat among the rest of the town council.

He gave everyone a friendly, confident smile. “Let’s start, shall we?”

Emmett looked good up there. Natural, like he was in his element. He had always been a leader, but seeing him as mayor felt right. Back in school, he was class president, captain of the soccer team, and Mr. Popular. The guy had an MBA in finance, and he and Holden had built a successful construction company here in Queen’s Cove from the ground up.

On the other side of the room, Holden sat with Sadie. Holden was theresponsiblebrother. The guy took care of everyone in his life. I usually stayed at his place if I was in town for only a weekend, mostly because before Sadie, he was a grumpy asshole and I loved to get on his nerves.

Beside them sat Wyatt and Hannah. Wyatt was a professional surfer. Part of Queen’s Cove’s appeal as a tourist destination was the cold-water surfing off our coast, and growing up, Wyatt spent most of his free time out on the ocean. He and Hannah had a one-year-old daughter, Cora, the cutest kid I’d ever known. Although he had slowed down since Cora came along, Wyatt still competed, winning tournaments and sponsorships.

And then there was me, the youngest Rhodes brother. The troublemaker. I held the record for number of trips to the principal’s office at both the elementary and high school in town. My own mom joked that I was the devil.

Self-doubt crept up my throat, but I shoved it away.

Emmett started talking about the next town festival—raccoon-themed, this season—as I watched Liv. Her pink hair glowed and there was something about her in that soft-looking plaid shirt that was so fucking cute.

“Next up,” Emmett continued, scanning his notes. “Chief Bell with the Queen’s Cove Fire Department has a concern. Chief Bell, you have the floor.”

Chief Bell, my boss, was in her early fifties and had the most intensedon’t fuck with meenergy of anyone I’d ever met. She gestured to Miri Yang, who nodded and woke up the computer. The projector lit up and a PowerPoint slide appeared on the wall.

Olivia Morgan: Misuse of Search and Rescue Funds

In the front row, Liv sat up taller. I couldn’t see her expression from the back of the room.

“Are you serious?” she hissed at the council.

Chief Bell nodded to Miri, who clicked to the next slide. The projector flipped to a picture of Liv being helped into a helicopter. It had been taken when she was mid-blink, looking over her shoulder.

“September 18, last year. Olivia Morgan twisted her ankle and limped down the mountain until she had cell service. This was her first Search and Rescue call.”

Liv’s ears were turning pink.

“By the time we picked her up,” my firefighter colleague, Jay, added from a few rows back, “her ankle was the size of a grapefruit.”

Liv turned and glared at him. He withered in his seat, not making eye contact.

“Thank you, Jay,” Chief Bell added before nodding to Miri, who flipped to the next slide, a picture of Liv with her arms crossed in the hospital waiting room, scowling at the camera.

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