Chapter 8
Finally, the words were flowing. Sweet cupcakes, the words were flowing like a faucet opened full bore. Nina had written over thirty pages in the past twenty-four hours, with barely five hours of sleep. Then she woke up and knocked out another ten pages even as Finn worked in the other room.
Life was good.
As she paused to pop a watermelon candy in her mouth before stretching her neck and back, she caught a glimpse of her housemate out the window. She wouldn’t give him all the credit for her progress, but after their dinner two nights ago, something shook loose, so he got a little credit.
Looking back, she realized she’d basically ignored him since then. Not on purpose, though. When she was in the zone, everything else faded away. And to his credit, he’d let her be, other than offering a coffee refill here and there.
Take a break, her inner voice suddenly whispered. You deserve one. You need one.
She drew in a deep breath and held it to a count of four as she took in the scene through the window. The sun was shining, the snow sparkling, and it was warm enough for the roof line icicles to be dripping to the ground. Finn sat on a bench in the backyard, strapping snowshoes to his boots. Kismet waited nearby, her tail swishing back and forth with excitement.
A glance at the clock confirmed he’d quit work almost two hours early, and Nina got up to step over and rap her knuckles on the window. Finn looked up, his gaze unerringly finding hers through the glass. She searched for the latch and raised the window, then bent to lean out.
“You probably don’t have another pair of those, do you?”
“Actually, there are some in the basement.”
“Awesome.” She straightened to close the window, then bobbed back down. “That is, if you don’t mind some company?”
“Not at all.” His wide grin lit a fuse on her pulse. “The ones with the blue straps should fit you. Grab some ski poles, too.”
Nina shut the window before hurrying to locate the snowshoes, put her winter gear on, and meet him outside. When she breathlessly sat on the bench a few minutes later, Finn knelt at her feet to help her strap the shoes to her boots.
His head was bent right in front of her, and he wasn’t wearing a hat. His hair looked so soft and shiny in the sunlight. She fisted her hands in her lap to keep from yanking her mitten off to run her fingers through the dark strands.
“You ever been snowshoeing before?” he asked.
“Many years ago. I suppose you do all the time?”
“I haven’t gone for a few years, so with my leg, this could be a short walk,” he warned, using the bench to push to his feet before leaning to grab their ski poles.
She tried out the snowshoes and discovered once she remembered to widen her stance to keep from stepping on the opposite foot, it was as easy as she remembered. At least where it was flat.
Kismet took the lead, dashing ahead a dozen yards or so, doubling back, then darting ahead once more.
“Any little bit of a break is nice,” Nina said.
“I believe it. You’ve been a little, ah, intense the past two days.”
She fell into step behind him on their way into the woods behind Peyton’s house. The afternoon sun cast shadows from the bare trees overhead, but exertion warmed her up real quick. “That’s a nice way to put it. I’m sorry if I’ve been rude. I don’t mean to be, but when the words are coming, I have to get them down.”
“You don’t have to apologize for doing what you came here to do.” He paused and swiveled to give her a grin. “Though, it has been fun watching you work.”
Her pulse skipped as she raised her eyebrows. “You’ve been watching me?”
A bit of color brightened his cheeks as he laughed. “Not in a creepy stare-at-you-all-day kind of way. I just glance into the room in passing, or when I bring you more coffee.”
“Thanks for that, by the way.”
“You already thanked me.”
“Good. I wasn’t sure.”
“It was totally automatic, but you did say the words.”
She grimaced. “I can get a little engrossed.”
“It’s cool. And I get it. It might not be exactly the same, but I’d get that same type of hyper-focus when we were on patrol. Everything else fades except the mission and doing everything possible to get us all back to base in one piece.”
The everything else fades was an echo of her thoughts a moment ago, and yet—“That’s not even close to being the same, Finn.”
“You know what I mean.”
She did, but still, there was no comparison.
After a few minutes of silence—which weren’t really silent with their already increased breathing, the birds singing in the trees, and Kismet tearing back and forth—she asked the question she’d wanted to ask that first day.
“How long ago where you injured?”
“Just over eight months ago. I’ve been home for six.”
“And you’ve been working part time for Eric Riley?”
“Yeah. I like the carpentry work. Building things and seeing results.”
“Or tearing things down and seeing results?” she teased, referring to the demo he was doing on the house.
“That, too. Though, I will get to see everything when it’s redone.”
“How long were you in the military? Peyton never said anything about you joining.” Oh, crap. That made it sound like they used to talk about him. They had, but she hadn’t planned to reveal that fact.
“I went to college first. Just for a year, though. I was so sick of school by then, I wanted to do something that didn’t require reading stuff and writing papers and taking tests for another three years.”
“So you joined the Army.” That was the last thing she’d have ever expected of the Finn Regan she knew back then.
“Yes, I joined the Army—where I had to read stuff and train and take field tests up the wazoo.”
She laughed at his dry words, yet caught a wistful note in his voice. “You miss it, don’t you?”
“Sometimes I do, but it’s getting better. I was in for eight years. The travelling was cool—I was stationed in Italy for two years and traveled around Europe whenever I could get leave. Mostly, I miss the guys, though. Being on a team where we had each other’s backs.”
“At least your family’s here. Don’t you have like three or four brothers and sisters?”
“There’s six kids including me, and my mom and dad. And yes, they all got my back.”
“Is everyone still in Pulaski?”
“Close enough. Zoe’s over at Stevens Point for college, but she comes home each summer and holidays. She’s twenty now, in her sophomore year. Niall is twenty-three, and is still at home while going to community college in Green Bay. Asher’s twenty-five, Kenna just turned twenty-seven, and Devon is thirty-one. Those three are graduated from college and live in Green Bay and Suamico.”
“That makes you twenty-eight since you were a year ahead of me in school?”
“Yep.”
“Any of your brothers and sisters married yet?”
“Not yet. Devon’s been dating his girlfriend Michelle for a while, but I don’t get the impression they’re that serious. But who knows.”
The next question made her stomach flip a few times, but she asked it anyway. “How about you? Would you like to get married?”
He stopped abruptly and turned. Her heart leapt up into her throat when his smiling blue gaze met hers.
“Are you proposing, or just asking the question in general? Because if you’re proposing, it would be more romantic if you got down on one knee.”
“In general, of course.” She pointed one of her poles at him. “Besides, if anyone proposed, it would be you to me, and that isn’t happening when you haven’t even kissed me yet.”
Oh, there you go. It’s all fun and games until you say something like that.
“I can remedy that real quick if you’d like.”
He was smiling, and yet his eyes had shifted to that steely gray color as he stared at her lips. The gray was as compelling as the blue, and made her long to say, Pretty please with you on top.
Just the idea sent delicious heat curling through her body.
Which reminded her how dangerous it was to play with matches. Where Finn was concerned, one strike and things were liable to flare out of control.
She took an instinctive step backwards.
Disappointment darkened his expression. “I’m just teasing, Nina. Don’t worry about it. Come on. I want to show you something.”
He turned away and continued along the trail. Kismet had lain in the snow to wait them out, but now she jumped up and ran ahead again, leaving Nina to follow them both. The only thing she worried about was wanting his remedy too much. But it didn’t matter now, the moment had passed, leaving her own regret in its wake.
A few minutes later, they stood at the edge of a rise overlooking a shallow valley full of snow covered evergreen trees and rolling winter fields beyond. She hadn’t even realized they were high enough to see so far. The setting sun cast a tinge of yellow across the snowy landscape.
“Oh wow, this is gorgeous.” She drew in a deep breath of crisp, cold air and let it out again. “I certainly don’t get views like this in California.”
“I don’t always get them in Wisconsin, either,” he murmured.
She felt his gaze on her face and swallowed nervously. Refusing to look in his direction, she asked, “This is the Baxter Christmas Tree farm, isn’t it?”
“It used to be.”
Now she couldn’t help a sideways glance. “What do you mean?”
“I bought it. The Baxters are moving to New Mexico at the end of next month.”
“Really?” She shifted her gaze from one side of the valley to the other, then back to him. “All this is yours?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to sell Christmas trees?” she asked in surprise.
“I am.” The definitive answer was contradicted by his pensive expression as he stared at the trees, as if he wasn’t so sure about the decision.
Her natural inclination was to ask how he could afford all the land, and could he really make money selling trees a month or two out of the year, and what were his back-up plans? But…that was none of her business. He seemed like a smart guy. He would’ve weighed the pros and cons before making such an investment.
And if he hadn’t, that was his problem, not hers.
Assuming he had, then if he was happy doing it and could make a decent living, who was she to cast doubt? Shoving her foot in her mouth like when she’d asked about his limp wasn’t a move she wanted to repeat.
Turning back to the field of green and white, she banished all practical thoughts and grinned at the possibilities before them. “That’s pretty awesome.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw him angle toward her. “You really think so?”
“I do.” And he looked so good out here amongst the trees. Manly, and rugged, and totally in his element.
“Thanks.”
The tone of his voice said her opinion mattered, and she was glad she’d offered support instead of questions.
Finn pointed behind them to a fallen tree. “Do you mind if we sit so I can rest my leg before heading back?”
“Sure. I could use a rest, too,” she said truthfully. “I’m not used to this kind of hiking.”
They brushed the snow off the log and took a seat. Kismet joined them for some attention and Nina stroked her head when the dog sat with her back leaning against her leg.
“I know you said you stayed in touch with Peyton, but how did you end up as her assistant?” Finn asked.
“We moved to L.A. together after high school with the grand plan to both become famous together. I was the first one to get a couple of commercials and a few small movie roles, but it didn’t take long to realize I didn’t want to play the games that are played in Hollywood. Not for myself, anyway. Besides, I was much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, so I quit and supported Peyton becoming the star instead. She’s a natural. It suits her so much better than me.”
As she spoke, she noticed he’d removed his glove to massage his right thigh. A glance up at his face caught a flicker of a pained grimace, but he quickly masked it with a smile.
“What movies were you in?”
“Nothing big. I doubt you saw them.”
“You might as well tell me. It’s not like I can’t look them up when we get back.”
True—and he would, too.
She rolled her eyes in resignation. “Well, don’t laugh at the first one, I already know it’s a total cliché for a new actress.”
“Must be good.”
“Banshee High.”
He laughed anyway. “Let me guess—horror?”
“My character was killed about halfway through,” she confirmed with a grin. “The other one was Third Time’s the Charm. It’s a witchy romantic comedy that did pretty well, but more so on DVD than in the theaters. I played the heroine’s best friend.”
“My sisters loved that movie when it came out.”
“And you?”
“Total chick flick. Never saw it.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“That’s fine. It was definitely more for girls.”
“What about the commercials? Maybe I saw one of them?”
She shook her head. “One was for a local mattress company, and another one for toothpaste.” Impulsively, she gave him goofy, toothy grin.
“Nice. Very white.” He shifted a bit on the log to stretch his leg out, his snowshoe sticking up in the air. “And now you’re working for Peyton and writing screenplays.”
“Yes.”
“How many have you written?”
“Two so far. I even had a bit of interest for one of them last year, but nothing has panned out yet. I pitched the one I’m writing now to a producer friend of ours one night after a dinner party a few months ago. He wants first chance at it when I’m finished.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“As long as I get it written, yeah. I’m excited about my progress the past two days.” A small part of her wanted to tell Finn right now that if she could sell a couple screenplays, her ultimate goal was to write full-time. But she hadn’t even told Peyton that little secret, because realistically, that dream would likely take years to bear fruition.
“Then we should probably get back so you can keep at it.”
“I guess we should.”
What she should do is sound more enthusiastic. And while she did have the excitement of a good writing spell pulling at her to get back to her laptop, not even a guaranteed option on the screenplay would convince her to give up the past hour with Finn.
There you go. Doing exactly what you swore you wouldn’t do.
She set her jaw against the voice, ignoring the inner, guarded Nina shaking her head in frustrated warning.
Finn stood, then turned to offer a hand to pull her to her feet. She shifted her foot to adjust her balance, and her snowshoe came down on his at the same time he stepped backwards. Thrown off balance, he tightened his grip, and Nina held on until they both steadied.
They shared a smile, then he led back the way they’d come, pausing every little bit to scoop up a handful of snow, ball it up, and toss it for his dog. The shepherd tore after each snowball, leaping to catch them in mid-air.
“Do you want to get married?” he asked out of the blue after lobbing another snowball. He twisted at the waist to grin at her as he clarified, “In general, I mean.”
It dawned on her he hadn’t actually answered when she’d asked him before. Figuring it’d probably freaked him out, she gave him the answer that was sure to send him running in the opposite direction and keep her heart safe.
“Definitely. And have kids.”