He’s acting like this is an actual transaction and we’re doing business instead of arguing my free will.
“If we have a home game, you have to be there.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I guess you get a new running buddy.”
I press the tip of my tongue to the swell of my mouth. “Where did you learn to negotiate?”
“You don’t grow up with a dad like ours and not learn a thing or two,” he fires back, not missing a beat.
I stare him down, long and hard, hoping he’ll break, but he never does. Finn as serious about this as I am about running alone. The certainty he holds in this one look shoots straight through me.
I angle a skeptical brow. “And if I agree, you’ll let me start and finish on my own? No sneaking up on me halfway through or trailing me without my knowledge?”
I can’t believe I’m actually considering this. That’s how desperate I am right now.
Finn’s head snaps back at the same time his hand splays out over his heart. Having the straight-up audacity to look offended.
“I’m a gentleman, lil sis. I always let the lady finish.” He winks and I shudder. Disgusting.
He extends his hand. “We have a deal?”
Unease pricks at my neck, telling me I’m going to regret this but do it anyway. Yanking at his arm and shaking it.
“It’s a deal,” I agree.
The satisfied, jolted reaction I expect next never comes. A heaviness sets over his lids instead.
“Great, I’m going back to bed,” he notes through a yawn, climbing back upstairs.
My charged frown disguises the flutter of something that isn’t irritation in my gut. Waiting until he’s fully disappeared down the hall before I head out.
That perturbed feeling never leaves the entire run. Deducing that in Finn’s archaic, deluded mind, he’s worried I can leave again.
Which is why I do one of two things. One, I stick to the grounds. Two, I flick him across the nose. Waking him to let him know I’m back an hour later.
The sleepy lopsided grin he gives me is fast replaced with him threatening to buy a truckload of glitter and sprinkle it all over my room. Daring me to defy him and see what happens if I ever wake him up before his alarm again.
That being all the answer I need. My gut had been right.
…Still.
Yelping, I charge out of the room after he sits up. Throwing a pillow at my retreating form after I thump him again, only this time with more force for threatening me.
It only serves him right.
twelve
Cole
Whyisitthatthe ones we always want the most are the hardest to get their attention? Right, because I fucked up.
If I thought she despised me before, imagine that but on steroids. Now she has legit reasons to want to cut off my balls and feed them to the wolves.
I mean, I loved my little swimmers as much as the next guy but at this point, I’d be willing to drop one if it meant a little eye contact.
That’s how desperate she’s making me feel.She has me considering catastrophic nuclear disfigurement.