“Thought you’d like it,” he said, a smile rising inside him. “He seems nice.”
“Vincent?”
“Tom,” he said, laughing. She could make him laugh around the blade in his heart.
She looked away. “Yeah, he’s nice.” She then returned her gaze to him. “I have to go.”
“Gogh for it.” He stressed the otherwise silent gh.
She huffed a little chuckle. “Merry Christmas, Finn.”
“Merry Christmas, Jane.”
He watched her leave. He didn’t suspect that he wouldn’t see her for another five years until he’d kick down the boundary that kept him from her and enter the bakeshop on the town’s fair day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Parking his car in the first space he could find, Finn left it behind and crossed the street. The remnants of twilight were helped by the multitude of lights oozing from front yards that were decorated for the holiday, and trees that were covered in fairy light strings. He loved that about Riviera View—in its quaint, modest way, it was beautiful.
Her house. It almost hadn’t changed. Those yellow shingles and white window frames. That mailbox that used to be his confidante every year on November eleventh. One floor, two bedrooms, and the stretch of lawn that separated it from the street were once, for a short while, his haven. The front door was tucked away on a porch that had flowerpots hanging around it.
He knocked, almost feeling her presence inside. Every nerve ending in his body, every cell that made up that thing he called his heart was stirred.
The porch shielded them from view when she opened the door and stood frozen in the doorway. Her hair was long enough to graze her shoulders. Her eyes looked huge, and her body lean under the long dress she wore.
“Finn.” She looked like she needed a moment to gather herself. He saw the tendons in her neck flex. “You developed a problem with boundaries?”
“Only when it comes to you,” he gruffed. He took a step forward, getting into her space. She didn’t budge until his chest nearly touched hers. “I don’t want to hear it, Jane.”
He took another step, and she stepped back in synch. He could see that she had known this moment would come. He could practically read the inevitability of it that flitted across her face.
He caught her waist and pulled her to him as soon as they were past the threshold. Jesus, the feel of her under his touch. If agony would come later, it’d be well worth it.
“I don’t want to hear anything except what and how you want it, and my name on your lips.”
He stepped forward, his knee getting between hers. He closed the door behind them. “I love you, and I know you love me. I love you so fucking much, and I don’t intend regretting more time without you than I already have.”
He brought his other hand up and put it on the side of her neck, his eyes never leaving hers. He traced his palm over her nape until his fingers drowned in her hair, pushing it up, clutching it in his fist. He then crashed his mouth on hers and devoured her like a man ready to wreck and shatter anything that would come between them.