Page 93 of Finn Rhodes Forever

“Where’s your tent?”Liv asked as we loaded our gear into her car a week later. The sun was rising, washing shades of pink across the sky.

I straightened up and closed the trunk, holding her gaze. “I didn’t bring one.”

Silence stretched as we stared at each other. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, and the corner of my mouth hitched.

This past week had been different. She was different. Lighter. Less guarded. At the bar, she had actually smiled at me a few times.

In public.

She still rolled her eyes at me, gave me that long stare when I irritated her, but now, she did it with a playful smile on her lips, like she was enjoying it.

“That okay with you?” I asked, keeping my voice low and my eyes on her.

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, eyes glittering. “Fine.”

I took a step toward her, smiling down at her. “I take my role of keeping you warmveryseriously.”

She suppressed a grin. “Good.” Her tone was soft but bossy.

I dropped a quick kiss onto her lips, stepping away before she could pull me closer. “Let’s go. If we start fooling around, we’ll never leave.”

She huffed a laugh, and I knew I was right.

* * *

“We can spreadout more if you want,” I said to her that afternoon as we made our way down a hillside to a creek Liv had flagged on her map. I arched a brow at her as she leaned a hand on a nearby tree for balance and stepped over a log. “Cover more ground.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay.”

I glanced over at her, pink hair swept up in a ponytail, bangs fluttering around her face. “Worried you’ll get lost?”

She snorted. “Fuck you.”

I smiled down at the ground as I stepped over a gnarled tree root. It was happening, things with Liv and me. Behind the warm pulse in my chest, panic dripped into my blood, one drop at a time, barely detectable, and I heard the same voice I’d heard years ago.

The last thing Olivia needs is a guy like you dragging her down.

My gut boiled. Where it mattered, I wasn’t that guy anymore. So I had a few speeding tickets. So I ran my bike over Miri Yang’s roses when I was sixteen. Even the stuff the kids in that class dug up, the picture of me smoking weed and the night in the drunk tank—none of that mattered. That was the old version of me.

I cocked a smug grin at her, the one that she both hated and loved. “It’s okay, baby. Stick close to me, I’ll protect you.”

She tried to give me a cold glare but her mouth turned up. “This cocky thing isn’t working for you.”

I winced. “I think it is.”

Being there for Liv, supporting her in her career, making her dreams come true, cooking her dinner at night. Those were the important things. Everything else was in the past.

“Whatever.” Twin flushes appeared on her cheeks and she rolled her eyes. “Have fun sleeping on the ground tonight.”

I crowed with laughter and she grinned, eyes glittering in the clear forest light.

* * *

That evening after dinner,we sat by the fire, roasting marshmallows. The sky was an inky blanket above us, punctured by an infinite number of stars, and beside me, Liv wore my hoodie. I smiled down at her.

Her wearing my hoodie sent a ripple of possessive pride through me.

“What?” She gave me a strange look. There was a little piece of marshmallow at the corner of her mouth so I lowered my head and licked it off. Her breath shuddered out of her.

---