Page 13 of Finley

As he finally unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed the door of his car open, he took a fortifying breath. Then he slammed the door shut and leaned back against it, clutching the bottle of wine he’d brought in a death grip.

I can do this. I can walk in there, greet Camille, and then look for her son, the man I?—

“Evening, professor.”

He looked up and saw Katrina walking down the path toward him. She was wearing a red sundress, and her dark curls were piled atop her head in a messy updo.

When she stopped in front of him, she joked, “I didn’t think you owned a pair of shorts,” as she looked down at his legs, which prompted him to do the same. “You’re not going to stand out here all night, are you?”

“No, no,” he said, before spouting off a blatant lie. “I just got here.”Yeah, fifteen minutes ago.

“Ahh, okay. I’m just heading out to get more alcohol for the natives. Everyone is out back. Just head through the front door and down the hall. Well, you know where it is.”

As she walked away, he was close to asking if she needed help. But then she looked over her shoulder and smiled.

“Finn’s waiting for you.”

Before he could try to formulate any kind of reply to that, she jogged across the street to the silver car parked by the curb.

After she had driven away, he headed up the sidewalk. People were chatting and milling about on the front porch, and as several of them stopped to say hello when he passed by, he reminded himself to breathe.

When he stepped inside, he became hyperaware of his surroundings. The first thing his eyes landed on was the photo on the table in the foyer. It was of Daniel in his college graduation cap and gown, his arm around his sister. The fresh-faced young man he hadn’t seen in years.

He wasn’t sure why, but the thought of seeing Daniel again had him more nervous than he’d anticipated. He’d always thought he would be excited about their reunion, and he definitely was, but there was also some underlying apprehension he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Knowing that he needed to get this first meeting over with, he ordered himself to start acting like the adult he was. So he steeled his nerves and walked down the hall to the back of the house. It was time to find the man who’d come home to him.

DANIEL HAD BEEN keepingclose surveillance of the sliding doors ever since people had started to arrive an hour ago, and with every person who stepped outside that wasn’t Brantley, his anxiety rose a notch.

He was trying to play it cool as he stood with Derek at the bottom of the stairs by one of the tiki torches his mother had had him shove into the sand earlier. But he was positive he was failing.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d be offended that you haven’t been paying shit-all attention to me compared to every othernon-important person who’s walked through your back door tonight.”

He arched an eyebrow when he turned toward his friend. “Offended, huh? IfIdidn’t know better, I’d think you missed my pretty face, Pearson,” he said, raising the Crown and Coke he’d switched to in an attempt to calm his nerves.

When Derek said nothing and brought his always-present cigarette to his lips for a drag, Daniel chuckled. “That’s kind of…sweet.”

“You’re a dick. You know that, right?” Derek laughed.

“I might’ve been told that a time or three.”

“Oh yeah? By who? Friends of yours up north?”

The two men who sprang to mind certainly weren’t his friends by any means. They would, however, agree with Derek’s assessment that he was a dick.

“Nah, not friends.”

“Fuck buddies, then?”

Daniel winced at the memory of trying for just that and then shook his head to dispel the thought. “Definitely not.”

Derek eyed him for a second, and then his lips split into an arrogant smile. “Ohh…I see. You weredenied.Ouch. Was that a first for you, Danny boy?”

“Stop fantasizing about my sex life, would you? Plus, my mother’s just over there.”

As if on cue, his mom turned their way and waved, just as she had at an afternoon barbecue or one of his birthday parties when they had been boys.

Derek raised a hand and waved back as he said under his breath, “I’m not the one standing here having fuck fantasies about his former professor. She has no idea you’re waiting for him to arrive so you can drive the poor bastard crazy, does she?”