My girl.

I was downright giddy when I excused myself to go inside to grab the pie I’d baked. When I came back out onto the deck the three old friends were laughing about some memory from their childhood and although I had no idea what they were talking about I smiled and laughed right along with them. I couldn’t remember ever having this much fun during a meal.

Miller was still talking as he put a pink pill on the table and started crushing it with the back of his spoon before using a rolled-up dollar bill to snort the powder up his nose.

Finn looked unaffected by his behavior, like he’d seen it a thousand times before, while the look on Josh’s face was that of disapproval and annoyance as she glared down at Miller who was snorting lines off the table.

“What?” Miller asked when he noticed Josh was watching him.

Finn chuckled and squeezed my knee.

She waved a hand over the powder on the table.

“Oh that?” Miller asked. “It’s just Ritalin. It’s for my ADHD,” he nodded at his own statement and snorted another line with his eyes defiantly glued to Josh’s.

Josh snatched the pill bottle from Miller’s pocket. She tapped a nail against the label. “Oh yeah, it says right here to crush three tablets twice a day and snort with food,” she said sarcastically. “Can you at least pretend you have respect for the fact that I’m a cop.”

“Yes, as soon as you can show some respect for my chosen profession,” Miller said, with his powder covered nose in the air.

“Your profession?” Josh questioned.

“Yes, well, one of them anyway.”

“Drug dealer?” Josh chimed in. “You mean that one?”

“I like to consider myself more of a sommelier of narcotics.” He sniffled. “I don’t see you giving Finn shit about smoking weed.”

“Because it’s WEED you moron. It’s legal in some states. And please. Remember one thing, I’m giving you SHIT about it. I’m not arresting you for it.”

“Well, that is a good thing because…” Miller started.

“YET,” she interrupted, pinning him to the back of his chair with her hardened glare.

“You wouldn’t,” Miller whispered dramatically, drawing out the words slowly as he leaned away from Josh.

“Try me.”

I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t laugh.

“If you arrest me I’ll take that to mean we aren’t getting married and having babies,” Miller said.

“You talk a big game, but you do realize you’ve never so much as asked me out,” Josh announced suddenly, stunning everyone at the table including Miller who looked downright offended.

“I have too!” Miller argued.

Josh rolled her eyes. “Oh please, inviting me for tacos, tequila, and anal isn’t asking me out.”

Miller’s jaw dropped. He held a hand over his chest. “I think it sounds like a perfectly romantic way to spend an evening. You’re just too picky.”

“Maybe I am,” she shrugged.

“Well then maybe you should just stick with pussy,” Miller groaned.

Josh stood from the chair and narrowed her gaze at him, holding her stare until he looked up and jumped when he found her standing directly above him. “What?” he asked, shifting in his chair.

“Maybe you should stop BEING a pussy,” Josh spat. And with that, she was gone, across the clearing, heading for Finn’s shack.

Miller looked back and forth between Finn and then me. “What the fuck just happened?” Miller asked.

“I think you just got rejected. AGAIN,” Finn said, cracking open a beer.

“Fuccckkkk…I already offered tacos, sushi, and anal. What else is there?” Miller asked dropping his head to his hands.

“No, that’s not it at all. She didn’t reject you,” I interjected.

“She didn’t?” both Miller and Finn asked at the same time.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Then…what DID happen?” Miller asked. Both him and Finn leaned forward in their chairs.

I took a sip of my beer and smiled. “I think she just told you to bring your A game.”

Miller growled something inaudible and followed Josh over to Finn’s cabin.

“Thank you for all this,” I said, once we were alone. “You didn’t have to buy me a house just to get me to like you. I liked you right from the beginning, even when I thought I didn’t.”

“I didn’t do it to get you to like me. I did it because I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to make you feel good,” Finn said.

“Why?”

“Because,” he turned his chair toward mine so our knees were touching. “I’ve learned that when I make you feel good it makes me feel good too.”

I swallowed hard. “It does?”

“In fact, I’ll show you…”

He leaned in. Our lips were only a hair’s breadth apart when a bang broke through the space between us and echoed across the clearing.

“Was that…a gunshot?” I called out to Finn who was already racing across to the shack.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered as I followed him.

Finn cast me a worried side glance as we reached the porch of the shack. “I sure as hell hope not.”