Chapter Sixteen
Finn
“Do you want to just pick something up and go back to my place?” Aaron asked me.
Before I could answer, I yawned again. It’d been a long-ass two days. “What if you come back to my apartment instead? My car’s there, anyway.”
“Uh… okay.”
We picked up a pizza, then I gave him directions to my place. It felt weird bringing him into my little safe haven. Not bad, just different. I was a little nervous about him seeing where I’d been living for the better part of the past eight years. I lived in an apartment, only a one-bedroom at that, and it wasn’t even half as nice as Aaron’s. I knew he wouldn’t care, but it was a little embarrassing. This place was all I could afford when we’d first opened the bakery, and it had quickly become my home. I’d painted the walls in warm colors and tried to make it homey-feeling. It had a pretty decent-sized kitchen, so it worked well for me.
“Maybe I can cook for you this weekend,” I suggested, not sure if I was getting ahead of myself or not. I mean, we’d only been back together for two days. Although he had agreed to dinner with my friends this weekend, so maybe I wasn’t getting ahead of myself.
“That would be nice,” he said with a smile.
“Let’s go eat in the living room.” I set the pizza on the coffee table and went into the kitchen. “Beer, water, soda?”
“Any kind of soda would be fine, thanks.”
I grabbed the drinks, plates, and napkins, then headed back out. After setting the drinks on the table and grabbing a slice of pizza, I sat in the corner of the couch and turned my body so I was facing Aaron. Then I said to him, “So tell me how you finished med school and everything.”
He mirrored me in the other couch corner, and after taking a bite of food, he answered, “Well, you know I went to the University of Oakford near Grass Valley, California. I stayed there for undergrad, then I moved here so I could go to Allegany Medical for med school and my residency.” He shrugged. “Now I work there.”
“Do you love it?” He’d always wanted to be a doctor, so I hoped it was everything he’d dreamed it’d be.
He smiled. “I do.” He ate a bite of food before adding, “I just wish we had a pediatric emergency unit. Usually severe cases need to be flown to Oakford Children’s Hospital.”
“I have no idea where that is.” I laughed embarrassedly at myself.
He smiled and waved me off. “It’s by the university I went to for undergrad. You remember looking at the map with me?”
I snorted. “You were obsessed with that map.”
He laughed out, “I was not.”
“Seriously? You literally carried it in your pocket for an entire year.” I pushed his knee with my toe. “Remember when we had to race back to the lake because it fell out of your pocket when it started raining? You cried because it was ruined.”
“I did not!” he yelled, looking absolutely aghast.
I started chuckling. “You thought I didn’t know because it was raining… you couldn’t stop wiping your eyes.”
He pursed his lips. “Okay, so maybe I was a little obsessed. But I wasn’t crying over it.”
I grinned widely. “You are absolutely still the worst liar I’ve ever met.”
He opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut and used his foot to knock my foot off the coffee table as he said, “Asshat.”
I was still totally laughing at him. I poked him with my toe before putting my foot back up.
He narrowed his eyes. “If you had such a problem with it, why did you buy me a new one the next day?”
I shrugged. “That was the summer we turned fourteen, remember?” He nodded. I looked away from him, focusing on the wall. “Well… I had a crush on you… well, more than just a crush… and you were crying. I knew how much that map meant to you and I… wanted to make you happy.” I shrugged again. “I always wanted to make you happy.” I licked my lips, then whispered, “Still do.”
I felt the couch shift, then my plate was taken from my hands and set on the table. A moment later, Aaron was straddling my thigh and wrapping his arms around my neck. He kissed my forehead, then tucked his head in the crook of my neck. I put my arms around him and held him tight. When he stayed that way for a few minutes, I whispered, “What’s wrong, Aar?”
He shook his head against me. “Nothing.” He paused, and I felt him take a huge breath before saying, “You’re the only person that’s ever cared.”
A lump formed in my throat, but I managed to choke out, “I’m sure that’s not true.” But I didn’t know. Growing up, we took care of each other; neither of us had anyone else. I had no clue if Aaron had someone now, though. I was lucky, I’d found my family already. They weren’t blood, but Griff and Layla were my family. I had a stronger bond with them than just being blood-related could bring. They’d become my family… much more than any blood relative had ever been.
Aaron sighed and kissed my neck, sending a little shiver through me. He shifted around, tucking his arms under mine with his head on my shoulder. We ended up lying beside each other with Aaron half on top of me, half stuffed between my body and the back of the couch. I tugged him closer so his forehead was against the side of my neck, and started running my fingers up and down his arm. We were both in short sleeves, though it had been a little chilly until he laid on me.
After a few minutes, he said quietly, “I don’t really have any friends, Finn. I guess I’ve just been,” I felt him shrug, “too busy with school and work and stuff.”
I ran my hand through his hair, basically petting him. “You have me.” He gave me an appreciative squeeze, and I kept running my fingers through his hair. His hair was so soft, I couldn’t stop playing with it. He loved having his hair played with, too, so it worked out. I smiled to myself, thinking about how grateful I was to have him back in my life. “Fate brought us back together,” I whispered.
“You still believe in that crap?” he whispered back.
“You still don’t? How do you explain us living in the same random town twelve years later?”
“Coincidence,” he said, though I could hear his smile.
“It’s fate. Our fate to be together.”
He grunted noncommittally and squeezed me tight. It didn’t surprise me that he was still questioning the whole fate thing. He’d never believed in it. But I truly believed that it was fate for us to be together. I believed it back then, and I believed it now. Fate brought us back together, and it was going to keep us together too.
We laid in companionable silence for a long time. I was happy to just soak him up, gently caressing his hair and arm while he ran his fingers over my face, neck, and under my collar. I’d never been more content.
“You make a good blanket,” I told him with a kiss on his head.
“I guess you’ll have to keep me, then.”
I smiled and laid my cheek against his hair. “I guess so.”
He hummed in agreement.
I thought back to the first time I’d ever held him like this.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a loud knock on my bedroom window.
What the hell?
I slowly made my way over and quickly yanked the curtain open, hoping to surprise whatever was out there.
“Jesus, Finn, you scared the shit out of me,” Aaron said through the window. I couldn’t really see him in the dark, but I’d heard him just fine, and I could see his outline.
“I scared you?! I thought you were a raccoon or a burglar or something!” I whisper-yelled.
“Would you keep your voice down?” he chastised. Okay, maybe I wasn’t whispering. “Are you gonna open the window or do I have to sleep outside tonight?”
I sighed and opened the window so he could climb in from the porch roof. After I closed and locked it, I turned around. “What’re you doing here?” I asked with curiosity, not with anger. I was always happy to have Aaron with me, even when he was a jerk who scared me half to death.
His back was to me. “I just… needed to get out of the house.”
I knew what that meant. Aaron’s dad had been drinking more and more over the years, which meant he became more and more cruel. A few weeks ago on Aaron’s fourteenth birthday, he’d come over and ended up staying a whole week straight because his dad didn’t want him at home.
He didn’t really like talking about it, and I noticed that he didn’t have a bag, so I asked, “Do you want some pajamas?”
“Sure.”
I grabbed some out of my drawer, and when Aaron finally turned around, I gasped. “What the hell happened to your face?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” He turned around, trying to hide it from me again.
I grabbed his arm and twisted him back to face me. He had a bruise on his right cheek with a small cut that was covered in dried blood. “It’s not fine, Aar. Did he do this to you?”
He looked down at the ground and didn’t respond. That movement was answer enough.
I let out an angry grunt, ran my hands over my face and said, “I’m gonna kill him.”
“It’s fine, Finn. Please… just leave it be.” His voice was so quiet that I instantly felt guilty.
I cleared my throat. “Let me go get you some ice. Be right back.”
By the time I got back up to my room, Aaron had turned the lights out and was under the covers in my bed. I cringed. I’d been meaning to tell him that maybe we shouldn’t share a bed anymore. I mean, I had, like, a major crush on him and I was afraid I’d do something embarrassing. But I didn’t know what I could possibly say to him about it. We’d been sharing the bed every time he’d spent the night since we were little kids. And it wasn’t like either of our parents paid any attention to us, anyway.
I held in a sigh, knowing that I probably wasn’t going to get any sleep with him lying so close to me. I didn’t think he was asleep yet, but he obviously wanted to be left alone. So I set the ice pack on my dresser and climbed into bed. I tried to leave room between us as I laid there, tense and uncomfortable.
After a few minutes, I felt the bed start to shake. It took me a moment to realize that Aaron was crying silently beside me, evidently trying to hide it. At first I didn’t know what to do. He clearly didn’t want me to know, but what was I going to do? Let him cry and do nothing about it?
I reached out a tentative hand and placed it on his shoulder. “Aar?” He tensed, but didn’t pull away. I squeezed his shoulder. “I’m right here if you need me.”
I could hear him take a deep breath, then he quickly turned to face me and put his head on my shoulder.
I froze.
What the hell was he doing?
He must’ve sensed my hesitation because he started to pull away, and that had me reacting. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in close. He breathed out a sigh of relief and relaxed into me as he sniffled a few times. He laid one hand on my chest, the other curled in front of him. I could tell he was still crying, especially when I felt the wet spot on my t-shirt, but I was afraid to say anything.
I’d dreamt of having him in my arms, of course not because he was upset and crying—that part sucked—but I still didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize this, whatever it was.
We didn’t say anything for the rest of the night. Aaron eventually fell asleep, still lying in my arms, and I snuck a small kiss to the top of his head. I couldn’t help it. His hair smelled so good and was so soft where it was lightly touching my neck.
I must’ve eventually fallen asleep because I woke up suddenly when I felt Aaron jump. He was still in my arms—apparently neither of us had moved—but he was definitely awake. I froze again, unsure of what to do or say.
“Thanks… um.” He cleared his throat. “Thanks for letting me stay here last night.” He still hadn’t moved off me.
“Anytime. You know that, Aar.”
He breathed a sigh of relief before lightly tapping my chest and sitting up. I immediately missed his warmth beside me. When he shot me a small grin over his shoulder, my breath caught. His hair was sticking up every which way and his cheek looked even worse than it had last night, but he was smiling at me and his amber eyes were shining.
It was in that very moment that I knew I had more than a simple crush on my best friend.
I was in love with Aaron Havenport.
“Aaron?” I squeezed him, trying to wake him up.
“Hmm?”
“Let’s go to bed.”
“Hm.”
“Aar, you gotta get up. I need to go to bed.”
He groaned, then looked up at me without lifting his head. “Was that your subtle way of kicking me out?”
“What? No!” I said a little too quickly, making him flinch.
“You said you needed to go to bed,” he said sleepily, though he looked worried.
“I mean we need to go to bed. I have to work in the morning.”
“Are you sure you want me to stay?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then let’s stay right here,” he suggested, settling back down.
“No.” I laughed a little. “I need my alarm clock and my phone charger. They’re in the bedroom.”
He groaned and didn’t move. “I’m only getting up if you promise I can use you as a pillow when we get there.”
I chuckled. “Absolutely.”
He hummed again, then very slowly peeled himself off me and started down the only hallway. I followed him and pointed out which door was the bedroom, and as soon as he walked in, he peeled his shirt off, and a second later, his pants. Then he climbed into the bed in only his boxer briefs.
I made a weird sound in the back of my throat, causing him to chuckle. Then I immediately followed suit, taking off my clothes and scrambling in behind him.
I didn’t think the night could’ve gotten any better, but boy, was I wrong. Aaron made love to me again, slow and sensual and amazing. Then we snuggled back into the same position we’d been on the couch, and we fell asleep, breathing one another in. It was perfect.