“ARE YOU GETTING IN?”
I blinked out of my trance and stared at Finn. He had the passenger’s side door of his car open for me. It was gorgeous. I didn’t know what kind of car it was, but I knew it screamed money. I nodded and slipped past him, murmuring a thank-you as I sank down low into the black leather seat.
It took me a moment to realize that he’d opened the door for me. I couldn’t remember a boy ever doing that.
I jerked again at the sound of the driver’s door shutting as Finn settled into his seat.
We’d walked in awkward silence to the parking spot not even thirty seconds from the school gates and I’d immediately frozen at the sight of the jet-black convertible.
“Nice car,” I murmured as he pulled out into traffic. “What is it?”
He shot me a quick look before focusing back on the road. “It’s an Aston Martin DB9 Volante.”
Whoa. Even I, who knew very little about cars, knew that an Aston Martin was hugely expensive.
“Your parents bought you an Aston Martin for your first car?” I said, not disguising my disbelief that they trusted a kid with a car like this.
He sighed. “You’re not in Arroyo Grande anymore, India.”
I looked at him sharply. That was the first time he’d ever said my name. I shrugged off the deep feeling of pressure on my chest that I seemed to get a lot around him. “I know that.”
“Do you?” he murmured.
I didn’t know what he meant by the question or his tone. “Kids at this school get hundred-thousand-dollar cars from their parents.”
Something in his smirk made my eyes grow round with disbelief. “More than a hundred thousand dollars?” I touched the black dash with its thin red piping, unable to imagine ever spending that kind of money on a car. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask exactly how much a car like this cost.
He shot me a quick look and apparently guessed my thoughts. “Don’t ask. It’s considered crass to talk about money.”
I snapped back in my seat, feeling like a chastised little girl. My cheeks were hot and I stared straight ahead, hoping he wouldn’t sense my hurt. I disliked him more than ever right then.
“I didn’t...” His voice was soft. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it as a heads-up for later. You know...when you’re at society events. People around here...they think it’s beneath them to talk openly about money.”
“Right,” I muttered.
The atmosphere between us changed from charged to wary. I peeked at him from out of the corner of my eye. He looked tense.
I shifted uneasily, hating that he hated being in my presence so much. I could have killed Franklin for putting us in this position.
And I wasn’t sure that Eloise didn’t want to kill Franklin, either.
Lunch today at school had kind of gone and ruined whatever small progress I’d made with Eloise the day before. Well, I’d kind of gone and ruined it by asking a back-to-not-talking-to-me-Finn if we were still okay to meet after school.
The group had instantly wanted to know why, and I’d felt Eloise’s narrowed eyes on me the entire time as I explained Franklin had partnered Finn and me up for the history presentation. She didn’t say anything about it; in fact, she didn’t say anything to me at all after that, and Bryce cut me a warning look that had made me regret mentioning it in front of everyone.
These girls were so freaking territorial! I’d never understand it. Never.
It suddenly occurred to me that we weren’t driving out of Boston the way Gil took us. At all. “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
I rolled my eyes at his dry tone. “I know that, but I was under the impression your place was in Weston.”
“Dover.”
“Is that near Weston?”
“About thirty minutes or so away.”
“Eloise said you guys have known each other since you were kids?”
“We have. Both of our families lived in Beacon Hill when we were little. Our parents were good friends.”
I waited for him to tell me more but he just stared straight ahead in silence. Usually, I would have allowed him his silence but not this time. I was too curious to know more about him and Eloise. “So why did you move out of Boston?”
He shot me an annoyed look but sighed before answering. “Elle’s mom died of cancer when she was thirteen. Theo wanted a fresh start so he bought the house in Weston.”
I felt more than a flicker of compassion for Eloise, knowing what it was like to miss my mom and have to move someplace unknown. “And you?”
His grip tightened on the steering wheel again. “My mom died of cancer when I was a kid. My father moved us to Dover but I hardly spend time there. I spent most of my time at Elle’s before they moved, but Josh and Gabe still live in Beacon Hill so I hang out there a lot.”
I sucked in a breath at this information I had not known.
My chest ached for him.
For them both.
And that’s when I suddenly got them—Finn and Eloise. I got them. They shared something no one else could understand.
“I’m sorry, Finn, I didn’t know.”
“It’s fine,” he said, his voice gruff.
I blew out air between my lips, trying to shift the heaviness in my chest. “What are the odds,” I murmured, so sad for them.
Finn didn’t reply and I did him a favor by not pestering him with any more questions, the answers to which were none of my business.
For most of the journey to his place, I watched the world go by me in a daze, but when we passed a pretty sign that said Welcome to Dover, Massachusetts, I sat up straight, alert. We drove through a very small, well-landscaped town.
“It’s nice here. Do you like it?”
Finn shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t spend a lot of time here so I don’t know much about it. If I’m here I’m at the house.”
I was confused. How could someone not know the town that they lived in? But as we turned off what seemed to be part of the town’s center, I began to understand.
Finn drove down a tree-lined road, taking us away from the center of town. We passed a few driveways and I caught glimpses of large homes among the treetops.
About five minutes later we turned down another road, passing a sign that said Snow’s Hill Lane, and Finn began to slow.
The Aston Martin turned sharply onto a sloping drive and I wasn’t surprised by the building in front of me.
A mammoth mansion with pale-blue wall shingles dwarfed us.
Without a word, Finn got out of the car, taking long-legged strides around the hood and to my side. I looked up at him as he opened my door for me, wondering at the flutters low in my belly as I got out of the car.
Nervous? I was nervous? No. I refused to be. I wasn’t going to let Finn’s place intimidate me any more than Theo’s did.
Confident words, India.
“Ready?” he said, sounding grim.
I furrowed my brows at his tone. “Are you planning on murdering me when I get in there?”
His lips twitched but he just shook his head and started walking toward the white double doors.
A maid opened the doors and I had to school my expression at what I saw beyond.
Finn’s place was grander than Theo’s. I was staring at an imperial staircase. An actual imperial staircase. My neck craned back as I gazed up at the massive vaulted ceiling, and then brought my eyes back down to the marble flooring underneath my feet.
“Hello, Hannah,” Finn said congenially to the maid who had let us in.
She smiled brightly at him. “Good afternoon, sir.”
His polite smile dropped as he asked quietly, “Is my father home?”
“No, sir. I believe we’re to expect him at his usual time.”
“Good.” Finn nodded and tension seemed to leave him.
I frowned at his relief to hear his father wasn’t home. What was that about?
He gestured toward the hallway. “This way.”
I followed him as he led me through the opulent home, taking me past a formal dining room, what I assumed was the kitchen from the sounds coming from behind the doors and a few closed doors. I caught sight of a swimming pool out back when we passed the open doors to a library.
Finally Finn led us into a room at the back of the house. It seemed like a much more relaxed place than the rest of the house with huge, comfortable-looking sofas and a television. Near the doorway was a large table and chairs. It wasn’t just any table, though. It was one of those dining tables that converted into a pool table.
Finn pulled out a chair at said table. “I’ll just go grab my stuff. Do you want a drink, snacks?”
I studied him for a moment. He was much more relaxed since we’d discovered his father wasn’t home. He frowned at my perusal. “What?”
“Nothing.” I pulled my bag up, pretending I couldn’t give a crap about working this boy out. “Soda, please—whatever you have.”
He left and I got up to look out of the pretty rectangular windows with their narrow white frames. The pool glimmered in the sunlight out back. It was twice as big as Theo’s pool and so was the pool house beyond it.
I shook my head and turned around to survey the room I was in.
Finn was right. This wasn’t Arroyo Grande. I thought I was used to Theo’s place by now, but the truth was I wasn’t. I still got up every morning feeling like a guest—feeling like it was temporary.
Because it probably was.
I shrugged off the feeling, the concern, wondering what would happen to Hayley when it all fell apart, and hurried back over to the table. I didn’t need those thoughts on my face and in my eyes when Finn returned.
I couldn’t, however, keep the shock off my face when Finn walked in carrying a tray with cans of soda and snacks on it. He laid it on the table in front of me and then slipped the laptop bag he’d been carrying off his shoulder.
“You went into the kitchen?” I gaped at him.
“I know how to grab a snack, India.”
I winced at his curt tone. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant your cook lets you into the kitchen?”
His eyes lit with understanding and, if I wasn’t mistaken, a little amusement. “Gretchen,” he murmured knowingly.
“So it’s not just me? She’s mean, right?”
Finn actually chuckled. Chuckled! “Our cook, Etienne, is definitely more laid-back than Gretchen.”
“What a diplomatic way to put it,” I muttered, turning back to the tray.
As I reached for a soda, my hand stopped midway at the snack Finn had put on a plate.
Toaster Strudel.
Surprised, I looked at him.
His expression totally deadpan, he said, “I have it on good authority that you’re partial to Toaster Strudel.”
A feeling, warm and lush and giddy, moved through me and I found myself throwing my head back in laughter. My giggles started to slow and when they did our eyes met. My breath almost completely escaped me because Finn was full-on grinning.
I’d never seen him smile before and it completely transformed him. His smile was boyish and a little lopsided, and completely and utterly appealing.
That warm giddiness settled in a pool of flutters in my belly and my laughter faded.
In that past minute I’d learned three things about Finn Rochester.
He definitely had a sense of humor.
He really did listen to me when I talked.
His smile could light up the world.
I’d also learned new things about me, but I didn’t even want to think about those things and what they meant for how I felt about Finn.
Smile gone now, Finn got out his laptop while I flipped to my notes from history class.
The strangest thing happened over the next hour: we actually worked well together. We were weirdly in sync from the outset. Finn had asked if I would mind if he played some music because it helped him concentrate. I didn’t mind because I needed to listen to music while I worked, too, and when the Torrents started playing, a band I happened to love, I gave him a smile to let him know I liked his music choice.
The band played quietly in the background as we worked through what each stage of the presentation would consist of.
We were coming to the end of our plan and now that I’d had a couple of glimpses of Finn as a real person I was curious to know more. I took a sip of my soda and watched him as he finalized our summary on his laptop.
It wasn’t a hardship to watch him.
Not. At. All.
Sensing my stare, he stopped typing. “What?”
“So...a photographer, huh? Is that what you want to do with your life?”
And just like that the newfound ease between us disappeared. His expression went blank. “It’s a hobby.”
The fact that he’d completely closed down on me suggested otherwise. Before I could stop myself, I said, “It’s definitely more than a hobby.”
“No, it’s not. I’m a Rochester. I’ll end up working with my father.”
Did I detect a hint of bitterness in his tone? I leaned closer. “What does your father do?”
“He’s the CEO of a corporate holdings company.”
“Sounds fancy.” And for some reason not exactly what I pictured Finn doing with his life.
He smirked, relaxing a bit at my lighthearted tone. “It is.” His eyes narrowed on my face. “And what is it you want to do?”
I guessed it was only fair I share. “I want to be a criminal prosecutor in the DA’s office.”
Finn’s eyebrows rose. “That’s pretty specific.”
“I know what I want.”
“And you’re free to take it.”
“You sound almost envious.”
Finn pushed back from the table, closing his laptop. “You know my father is friends with a professor at Harvard. I think he might be able to get us access to primary sources for this.”
It bugged me when he shut down. I knew it was more than a little hypocritical of me, but I couldn’t help how I felt. I was disappointed he refused to let me get to know him.
That was probably a warning sign.
I allowed his subject change. “That would be great.” I began packing my notes away.
“I’m free Saturday afternoon. We could work here again,” he said.
It wasn’t like I had plans. “Sure.”
“Okay.” Finn stood up and I followed suit, shaking off my strange reluctance to leave. “I’ll drive you home.”