Page 19 of A Hard Fit (Falling Hard #2)

Hearts

Jackson didn’t call, Rory grew more and more miserable and it ate at Finn until his skin felt two sizes too small.

“Since you planned New Year’s, can I plan Valentine’s Day?” Finn asked one night while they were making dinner.

“Sure,” Rory said, staring morosely into the stew as they stirred.

“Great, here’s my plan.” Finn took their wrist and spun them around, pressing them up against the counter with his hips.

Rory looked up at him, lips parted.

“I’m going to make dinner for you”—Finn rumbled, with a kiss to their neck—“and feed you every bite”—he kissed the other side—“then I’m going to devour you .” Finn nibbled at Rory’s earlobe, then whispered exactly what his lips and teeth and tongue would do to Rory for his Valentine’s Day meal.

“That, uh…” Rory stammered, cheeks pink. “That sounds good.”

Finn grinned. “I thought so.”

* * * *

If Rory was struggling, though, Luka was the picture of misery. They had a staff meeting on Valentine’s Day for an update on the Sartini campaign. Luka was literally dressed all in black and spent the entire meeting staring at the bowls of pink and red heart-shaped chocolates Tawney had placed along the center of the table.

“Before we finish up here,” Ilona said once they had all checked in, “I have some news.” She paused until she had everyone’s full attention. “Aleandro has extended our contract for another four months! Congratulations, everyone. You should be proud of your exceptional work.”

Finn’s attention went straight to Luka, of course, whose head had snapped over to stare at Thomas. Luka’s face was aglow, like a dying man given new life. Thomas was looking at his hands, a slow smile spreading across his face.

A wave of claps and small cheers swept through the room.

“Aw, yeah!” Finn crowed as he high-fived Rory. He was celebrating for Luka, of course, although the Sartini thing was nice too.

“Does this mean Thomas is staying?” Rory asked.

Thomas nodded. He looked up at Luka instead of Rory. And, oh, the way they fucking smiled at each other.

* * * *

Finn slapped Luka on the back as they left the conference room. “Congrats, boys. You guys crushed it.”

“We all crushed it,” Luka corrected him, bouncing on his toes. “We need to celebrate! Who’s free for a drink after work?”

Finn laughed. “Sorry, Moreno. Valentine’s Day, remember? We’ve got plans.” Finn looked at Rory, thoughts of all the things he planned to do to them flashing through his mind. Rory clearly had the same thoughts, because they blushed furiously.

“Oh. Right. Well, I don’t have any plans.” Luka looked at Thomas. “Do you?”

Thomas shook his head. “No.”

“Okay, this might be crazy, but…do you want to grab a drink anyway?”

Finn rolled his eyes behind Thomas’ back, but he was actually proud of Luka for doing something .

“Uh…” Thomas looked a little panicked.

“Just to Exchange or something,” Luka said, voice climbing.

Thomas nodded. “Sure.”

“You two have fun on your date,” Finn said, waggling his eyebrows.

“Thanks, Finn,” Luka said through his teeth.

“Oh, those two,” Finn said, once Luka and Thomas were safely out of earshot.

He started to say more, but Rory pushed him up against the wall and gave him a kiss that made him forget all about Luka and Thomas.

* * * *

As soon as they got home, Finn started putting together the dinner he had planned. With the spring rolls in the oven, he turned to offer Rory some wine. They were scowling at their phone.

“What’s up?” Finn asked.

“My mom,” Rory muttered. Their gaze dropped to Finn’s socked feet. “Doesn’t that bother you?” they asked.

Finn looked down. “Doesn’t what bother me?”

“Your socks don’t match.”

“They don’t?” Finn frowned and wiggled his toes. “Eh, close enough. They’re both black.”

“Yeah, but one has stripes around the ankle and one doesn’t.”

Finn laughed. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Does it bother you?”

“No,” they said in a way that sounded very much like ‘yes.’

“Okay. Do y—”

“Bailey’s birthday is coming up.” The words tumbled from Rory’s lips, their eyes still down.

“Oh.” Finn leaned back against the counter. “ Oh .”

“Yeah.”

“So…” Finn’s heart scrunched into a ball. “You want to go.”

“Yes.” It was a short, hollow sound.

“Even though Jackson never called,” Finn said, needing to say it out loud.

Rory’s eyes snapped up to meet Finn’s, two pools of emotion. “I have to, Finn. It’s killing me.”

“I know,” Finn said softly. The kitchen was silent around them as they stared at each other. “Do you also get why I can’t go?”

“I don’t want to go without you, though.”

Finn sighed. “I can’t, Rory.”

“Finn…Jackson is my brother. My brother, okay?” Rory sat up straighter, voice filling the room. “He’s in my life forever. I know you’ve cut off your entire family—”

Finn recoiled like he’d been slapped. “That’s not fair.”

“Oh no?” Rory spread their arms wide and looked around. “What happened to your New Year’s Resolution? Where are they? Where are Cali and Bryson? Your sister? Your mom?”

Acid rose up Finn’s throat. He stared at Rory, at a loss for words. “Yeah. I, uh…”

Rory sighed. “Finn—”

“No, you’re right. Clearly, I don’t get how families work. Listen, I’m not very hungry. The spring rolls will be done in about twenty minutes and there’s lemon chicken in the fridge. I’m going to…go for a walk.”

Rory didn’t stop him on his way out of the door.

* * * *

Finn wandered the darkened streets of his neighborhood a while, imagining every glowing window containing a happy couple enjoying their Valentine's Day. And here he was. Alone. Like an idiot.

He pulled out his phone.

His sister answered right away. “Finn? What—? Are you okay?”

“Hi, Liz. I’m fine.”

“Pardon the language…but why the fuck are you calling?”

“Yeah, uh… Sorry to bother you on Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh, yes, I’m in the middle of some big romantic plans—helping Cali with her math homework while I make chicken noodle soup for Bryson ’cause he’s got strep throat.”

“Sorry to hear that. I hope he feels better soon.”

“Yeah.” Her sigh whooshed over Finn like she was standing right next to him. “Same.”

“So.” Finn pushed his hair behind an ear. “The reason I’m calling…”

“Please. Tell me.”

“Well… I was thinking about—er, hoping, that is…”

“Finn. Just say it.”

“…Hoping that we could figure something out… Well, I’d like to see your kids.”

The two seconds of silence nearly killed him.

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be great.” The note of surprise in Liz’s voice was hard to ignore. “They would love that.”

“I could come visit? Or would you want to—”

“They would love to come to Oakport. They’ve never been.”

Now it was Finn’s turn to sigh in a whoosh, shoulders sagging in relief. They talked about a few possible weekends coming up and agreed to check their schedules and connect again tomorrow. Finn hung up and took a steadying breath. He had done it. It was happening. Then he looked around. Where the fuck was he? It took him a second but he’d ended up at a small park not too far from his house. He could take Cali and Bryson here to play. He smiled and turned around to head back.

When he got home, dinner had been cleaned up and the house was dark.

Finn crept to the bedroom. The bed was empty. “Rory?” he called toward the bathroom. Not there either. They weren’t anywhere. He went back to the kitchen and found a note on the table. Went home for the night. Let’s talk tomorrow. Rory.

Finn fell into a kitchen chair, chest hollow. Rory…left. Rory left?

He replayed their conversation—fight?—in his mind. All he said was he couldn’t go to dinner with Jackson, and Rory left. That was how important their family was to them.

Finn had known all along this was a losing battle. So why did it hurt so much when the inevitable happened?

* * * *

Alarm silenced, Finn rolled over and reached for Rory. Rory was not there. He listened for shower or breakfast noises for about eight seconds before he remembered.

Rory left.

He checked his phone. No texts from Rory.

There was one waiting from Luka, though.

Help, I think I just went on a date with Thomas.

You think? Finn replied.

Luka’s next message came right away.

I didn’t mean for it to be a date!

Okay, but…you asked him for a drink on Valentine’s Day.

I’m such an idiot.

A cute idiot though. Did you guys have a good time?

Yes. Fuck. And please do not tell me to hook up with him again.

Finn sent the zipper-mouth emoji

How was your night? Luka asked, with the sly emoji.

Finn tapped the edges of his phone with his thumbs. He didn’t want to lie to Luka, but he also didn’t want to tell him he spent the night wandering the streets of his neighborhood while Rory abandoned him. Another zipper-mouth emoji would have to do it.

Luka sent a winky face. Gotcha. See you at work.

Work. Fuck . He thought about calling in sick to avoid seeing Rory for a hot second, but his inbox was also busting with things he had to do for Sartini and Thrill Island, and taking a day off to feel sorry for himself at home was not really an option. Besides, it was Rory. He shouldn’t have to hide from them.

Right?

His heart was not convinced, and by the time he got to work, it was threatening to punch through his ribcage. Despite the nerves, his feet took him straight to Rory’s office, because he couldn’t imagine sitting in his office working while Rory sat in theirs.

And there they were…typing. Finn knocked on the doorframe.

Rory’s face crumpled when they saw Finn. “Hi.”

“Hey. Can we talk?” Finn asked.

Rory pushed back from their keyboard. “Of course.”

Finn shut the door behind him. “So…you left.”

“No…” Rory frowned. “ You left.”

Well…Finn hadn’t considered that. “I—I guess I did. I came back though.”

Rory shrugged and ran their fingers along the edge of their desk. “I thought you didn’t want me there anymore.”

“Of course I want you there.” Finn resisted the urge to scoop Rory into his arms.

Rory looked up, lower lip trembling. “But you won’t go to Bailey’s birthday with me?”

And here we are again. “What about Jackson?”

“Things are not done with Jackson, trust me, but I can’t punish Bailey for that. She’s already been through so much.”

“Of course, and I want to support her, too. But I can’t go to her party, Rory. I’m not wanted there.”

“But—” Rory was interrupted by a sharp rap on the door. “Come in?” they said, blinking rapidly.

The door opened and Ilona’s raven head popped into the room. “Finn, Rory, just who I wanted to talk to. I saw the latest email from Markos and the park is looking amazing!”

“Yeah,” Finn said, doing his best to ignore the two deep black pools of emotion on Rory’s face and flip his brain into work mode. “We’re a little behind now since we added the VR ride, but I think the rest of the remodel is about done. Just a few finishing touches.”

“Excellent. How about the app, Rory?”

“It’s great. I’m scheduling our testing now. I think we should have the user experience team go through the registration flow one more time, and get a group from QA to start some bug testing. I’m still waiting to hear back about API integration with their POS but they gave me a data dump of available fields to put in staging.”

Damn, it’s hot when they talk like that, Finn’s groin observed, despite the turmoil that his heart was in.

The two of them answered a few more of Ilona’s questions, then she requested an update in a few days and clacked off down the hall.

They stared at each other, recognizing they had made exactly zero progress. “I should send my notes to Markos,” Finn said, chest aching.

“Yup. And I should”—Rory waved a hand at the screen—“do all the things I said.”

Finn had to ask though. “Are you…are you going to come home with me tonight?”

Rory’s eyes watered with fresh tears. “If you want me to.”

“Of course, I do.” Never had four words felt so inadequate. Please or I’ll die was more like it.

“Then yes.”

“Chinese and Godstrike ?”

“Chinese and Godstrike .”

* * * *

Finn and Rory talked about not much of anything on their way home, but once they were in the kitchen hanging up coats and dropping bags, the words fell from Finn’s lips. “I called Liz.”

Rory whirled to face him. “You did?”

“Yeah. Last night while I…while I was out on my walk. Then we texted a bit more today. The kids are going to come stay here for the weekend in March.”

Rory launched their lithe body at Finn and threw their arms around him. “That’s great, Finn. I’m so proud of you. And look, last night, when I said—”

Finn cut them off. “It’s okay. You were right.”

Then they were kissing, quickly moving from soft and tentative to urgent and needy. Finn picked up Rory and their legs closed around his waist. “Oh, that’s right,” Finn murmured into Rory’s ear. “We had plans last night, didn’t we?”

“I believe you were going to devour me?” Rory said, holding Finn even tighter.

“Like I haven’t eaten in years,” Finn said. He carried Rory down the hall to their bedroom and feasted.

That didn’t actually solve any of their problems, though.