He raised an eyebrow. “You could have called.”
“I wanted to see him.” Which was part of the truth. There was something I wanted to talk to Finn about, and lately, we rarely seemed to be alone. Well, except for the night in my attic studio, but not a lot of talk had happened then anyway…
I slid the back door open and let Harvey in. Finn opened his mouth to say something, and I held his gaze, challenging, and he hesitated. Finally his shoulders slumped a little as if he was giving in. “Just promise me you won’t do that when the others are home. I don’t want it to be a habit.”
“Sure,” I said. Baby steps. “What did the vet say? Did he get a clean bill of health?”
“Yep, all fine.” He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head, and I tried not to watch the play of muscles in his arms as he did. That was new. Not the muscles—my inability to look away from them.
Though, given how much I’d been fantasizing about those arms being around me again, it probably wasn’t surprising. Even when I’d been mad and barely talking to him, I’d been replaying his kisses over and over in my mind. Making up new endings. I swallowed and looked away before he guessed.
“Uh, that’s good,” I said, glancing back at Harvey.
“She checked for a microchip but couldn’t find one.”
“That’s because he’s our dog now, isn’t that right, Harvey?” I sank down to the floor and wrapped an arm around Harvey. He leaned into my side and panted happily.
“He’s not ours. If no one claims him, he’ll be your parents’ dog. And leave when they leave,” he said emphasizing each word.
I dismissed his warning with a flick of my wrist. “Details.”
“You know,” Finn said, coming over to where we were, “the vet thinks he’s faking about his foot.”
“He is not faking. Harvey wouldn’t lie, would you, boy?” I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his fur. He was so soft and smelled of my mother’s apple shampoo. We’d have to get him some dog shampoo, but his first bath had been a matter of making do with what she had.
Finn dropped onto the floor beside us, but instead of patting Harvey, he leaned his back against the wall and watched us. “The vet said he might have learned to do it to help him beg for food.”
“She was probably covering her tracks because she couldn’t find the reason it was sore.” I turned back to Harvey. “Don’t you worry, we’ll get your foot fixed.”
He watched me a moment longer before asking, “So was that really the only reason you dropped home?”
I flashed him a reluctant smile—he’d always been able to see through me with too much ease. “I was called in to see the boss this morning.”
“Problems?” he asked, suddenly more alert.
“Nope. In fact, they offered me a promotion.” It had been totally unexpected and my first thought was I needed to come home and talk it over with Finn.
“Promotion to what?”
“Personal assistant to one of the lawyers. More money. My time would be more flexible because I wouldn’t be tied to the front desk. More job security.” It had all sounded pretty good, and the two partners who’d offered it to me had seemed surprised when I told them I’d get back to them about it. They’d given me till the end of the week.
He fixed on me with a serious expression. “Why would you need security when this is a temporary job just to save up before finishing your accounting degree?”
“Well,” I said, trying to sound like the voice of reason, “as you pointed out, I’m supposed to be saving up, and there would be a pay raise.”
His eyebrows rose. “You’re actually considering this, aren’t you?”
Sighing, I snuggled back into Harvey. He let me cuddle him and licked my cheek. See, Harvey understood. Finn, on the other hand seemed to have already made up his mind.
I peeked a look at Finn from around Harvey’s fluffy neck. “It might not have been what I’d planned, but I’d be crazy not to at least give it some thought.”
“Scarlett, if you were serious about your accounting career, you wouldn’t be contemplating getting more involved in your temporary job.”
He had a point, and it was the same one that was niggling at the back of my mind. I disentangled myself from Harvey and headed for the kitchen. I came back with two small tubs of yogurt and tossed one to Finn, then passed him a spoon. When I opened my tub, Harvey waggled his ears hopefully, but didn’t beg. I liked that about him, so I held out the foil lid for him to lick. Finn gave a pained sigh but didn’t say anything.
“Here’s the thing,” I said, pointing my spoon at him. “Sometimes life throws us a curve ball but it turns out to be the best ball because it curves around to where we were supposed to be and so we should follow to where it leads.”
He blinked once, twice. “I have literally no idea what that means. You’re supposed to hit a curve ball, not follow it.”
“Work with me here, Finn. I’m saying I didn’t expect it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good thing.”
“I’m trying, but you’ve always said that you wanted to be an accountant.” His eyes were concerned. “It’s been your entire justification for not letting yourself try a career in the arts.”
Yeah, that was the kicker. I checked my watch. “I need to go. Thanks for the advice. I’ll think about it.”
As I left, Finn gave me a wave from his spot on the floor, then went back to his yogurt—watched closely by an optimistic Harvey, who was lying at his feet. I smiled as I closed the door behind me. They looked good together.
Then again, lately Finn pretty much looked good to me no matter what…
Chapter Ten
Finn
“Hey,” Scarlett said when she got home from work that day.
I looked up from the dining table and scrubbed my hands through my hair, trying to wake myself up from a studying trance. Amelia was at dance class, and Scarlett’s parents were visiting her brother, so I’d barely moved from the books all afternoon.
Perhaps it was the study-trance, but she looked like an angel standing there in front of me, her blond hair softly falling around her face, her lush mouth smiling sweetly, her white button-down top covering curves… no, wait. Those curves weren’t angelic, they were made for sin. And that sweet smile? It was knowing. And God above, what I wanted to do to that mouth.
No doubt about it, I was going to hell.
I scrubbed my hands through my hair again—this time to wake myself from a Scarlett-trance—and managed to say, “Hey.”
She went to the kitchen, talking over her shoulder. “I stopped at the store on the way home to get dog shampoo and a couple of things, and ran into your friend Rakesh.”
“Oh, right,” I said, and looked over the notes I’d been making.
“He mentioned he dropped by your office today but you weren’t there so I told him you’d worked from home so you could take your dog to the vet.”
“Harvey is not my dog,” I pointed out, but Scarlett wasn’t listening.
“Anyway, he asked me to give you a message. Said you still hadn’t bought your tickets for the departmental fundraiser this Saturday.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I’ll—”
“So I told him we’d be there and bought two tickets.” She appeared again in the archway with a smile too bright to be real. Yep, I was right—there was nothing angelic about her.
“You bought them?” I hadn’t even decided yet if I was going, and even if I did, taking Scarlett didn’t seem right.
She drew them out of her bag and handed them over. “I figured that things had stalled with Marnie, so you’d need a date. Rakesh seemed to expect it would be me, anyway.”
“I wasn’t sure I was going this time.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “If you still want to take Marnie, or someone else, that’s fine. You can pay me back later.”
“I’ll pay you back either way, but…” I let my words trail off, unsure how to put it.