I wandered over to the group, taking my time in case Finn shot me a fuck off glare. My feelings still stung from not hearing from him the past couple of days, even though logically I knew I wouldn’t have had time to see him.
The phone works both ways, asshole.
There’d been several times since leaving his warm body the other morning when I’d pulled out my phone to message him, but I’d let doubting voices in my head get the better of me. There were a million reasons this beautiful celebrity wouldn’t want anything to do with a boring small-town sheriff, and I wasn’t quite sure I could handle catching feelings for him just in time for him to roll back out of here in his fancy sports car, never to be seen or heard from again. Not only that, but I still wasn’t sure I could trust him. I’d spent almost twenty years learning over and over again how duplicitous some of the players in LA could be. So many of them were out for themselves or all about their image. They’d do anything to get special treatment, including pretending to be someone they weren’t.
Finn’s laughter turned to an uncontrolled giggle when one of the teens said something that set everyone off. He was radiant. Even though he had a ball cap on over his stylish hair, I could see the sparkle in his bright green eyes. His lips were pink and wide with laughter, and his perfect white teeth made him look like a model. As he threw his head back, the sun snuck under his ball cap and lit up the spray of freckles over his nose, and I thought right then and there I might actually hurt when he left this town without me.
I didn’t have words for how he made me feel. Like I was a flat paper bag and he was the pop-pop-pop of corn kernels bursting inside. He made me feel warm, excited, full of… something.
I sucked in a breath. Finn turned his head at the sound and caught my eye. Was it possible for a man’s face to light up even more? Holy fuck, I was gone for him. I’d come to Aster Valley and fallen for a Hollywood star. This wasn’t the way my life was supposed to go.
I cleared my throat and held out the remaining water bottles. “I, uh…”
The teens turned to look at me. Finn took his sweet time sauntering closer. He moved like liquid sex in faded jeans and his plain T-shirt.
I felt sweat pool under my arms and behind my neck.
“Are those for me?” he asked softly.
I swallowed. How could I speak without telling him that I wanted him, that he was perfect, that he was somehow irrevocably mine?
I nodded instead.
He took the top two bottles and turned to hand them to Solo, who’d walked over to say hello. “Thanks, Sheriff Stone,” Solo said. “Acting’s hard work.”
I blinked back at Finn, who scraped his teeth over his bottom lip. “I’m, ah… working with these guys on some… stuff.” He handed out the rest of the bottles except for one, taking the final water and cracking it open. He took a big slug without ever losing eye contact with me. “What are you up to today? No uniform must mean a day off?”
I looked down at the rumpled hiking shorts I wore. My favorite T-shirt topped off the lazy-ass look with its six-year-old fundraiser logo half-gone from wear. “I look like I belong under a bridge,” I muttered.
Finn reached out and put a hand on my chest, directly over my heart. I wanted to lean into his touch and sigh with relief, but I forced myself to remain still. “You look like someone I’d like to haul under a bridge,” he said even more softly.
I glanced at him in surprise before looking around to see if we were being watched. Finn started to pull his hand away, but I quickly clapped it to my chest again and squeezed just for the briefest moment before letting it go.
There was nothing left to do but make a big, giant fool of myself. “Uh, I thought… um… uh…” Jesus Christ, how did people do this dating thing? I swallowed and tried again. “I’d like to… ah…” My heart started thundering with embarrassment. I tried to recall some of my law enforcement training. Steady on, Sheriff.
Finn’s eyelashes fluttered like they, too, were laughing at me. I didn’t blame them.
“Dec?”
“Mm?”
He leaned in and deliberately brushed his nose across my cheek until his lips touched my ear. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to remember a public park boner could get me fired. “Will you please come over tonight so I can suck your—”
“Finn!” Solo called, making me jump back and reach for my sidearm. I quickly shook it off and shot a glare at Finn for distracting me. He only grinned proudly and shot me a wink.