I Never Let You Go (I Never 3)

Please say one of those is for me.

When I nod at her, she enters the office. “You know, when I agreed to let you stay in my guest room, I assumed that you might actually sleep there, but this morning when I went to check on you, all I found were stacks of unpacked boxes still and an empty bed.”

“Yeah, I’ll get around to it, eventually,” I say, graciously accepting the coffee cup she hands me. It’s not a total lie, just the same excuse I tell her every time she brings it up.

She rolls her eyes as she takes a seat across from me. I’m not sure I believe me either. It’s been almost a month since I moved back to the East Coast from Seattle. Nothing like being thirty-two living in your baby sister’s guest room. It was only supposed to be temporary while I find a place of my own. But I enjoy being there to help her and her husband, Chase, with my new nephew, Liam.

When our father passed away almost three months ago, I decided to move back home to take over his company, Reynolds Contracting. Kelsey already worked for the company as head of accounting, and even though this isn’t architecture, I grew up around it. I watched my father build this company from scratch. It’s what led me to architecture and design. It’s my father’s legacy, and it’s my job to continue it.

“Numbers are my thing, Finn, business is yours,” Kelsey had said when I told her she should take it over. I knew as a new mom, she didn’t want to run it by herself, so here we are.

“So,” Kelsey says, settling a little farther into the chair, “do you want to talk about it?”

I take a sip of the piping hot liquid and welcome the caffeine running through my veins. Hmm, do I want to talk about it? Not in the slightest.

For the second time in ten years, Lauren left me alone without an explanation as to why she left. It’s not that I was expecting a romantic reunion of two lovers where we ended up having slutty wedding sex in the bathroom of the venue. To be honest, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I sure as hell didn’t expect her to run. I left not long after she did, giving my mother an excuse that I hadn’t felt well, but I’m sure she saw right through my bullshit. She always did.

I tossed and turned for a few hours before I came into the office to get my mind off Lauren.

Did it help? No, not at all. Lauren is still heavily present in my mind like she always is, and what’s worse this time is that I can still feel her soft touch, the way she fit in my arms, and even though I showered, I can still smell her. Was seeing me so horrible that she had to leave her own brother’s wedding? I know Lauren felt it too. The way she settled against my body, the tension eased off her. Our breathing was synced. It was if all those years hadn’t passed with us apart.

But, in my effort to focus, I did manage to get through a lot of the files on my father’s desk organized.

“Nope,” I respond, settling back in my dad’s chair. Shit, my chair. This is all mine now. I feel a slight pang in my heart. Will that ever get easier?

I stare down at the coffee lid—anything to avoid eye contact with her. But I don’t need to look at her to know that she is watching me. I can feel the intensity of her stare as if she were trying to read right through me.

My brown eyes finally meet her hazel ones. She has a look of defiance on her face, and she’s waiting for the right moment, but I refuse to budge. “You know, Mom says she saw you two dancing.”

Of course my mother and sister already spent time gossiping. “Did she now?” I quirk an eyebrow in her direction.

My sister hides behind her coffee, but I can tell by the height of her cheekbones that she is smiling on the other side. “Uh-huh.”

“Well, Mom has a big mouth.” I roll my eyes, but there’s a light-heartedness to it. My mother takes every opportunity she can to gossip, and if it has to do with my life, it makes her even happier. A part of me wishes she wouldn’t do it though, but I can’t help but smirk that for just a moment, she was back to her old self before Dad died.

My sister tips her coffee toward me and winks. “Touché.”

I chuckle and take another swig of my coffee just as my assistant, Natasha, enters my office with a bright smile on her face. “Good morning, Mr. Reynolds.”

“Good morning, Natasha,” my sister comments with a snarky tone after Natasha ignored her in the room.

Natasha jumps, clutching her chest dramatically, “Oh hi, Kelsey, I didn’t see you sitting there,” she says, before turning back to me. I look to Kels, confused as to how she didn’t notice her right there in front of us.

“Here is your schedule for the day, Mr. Reynolds.” She holds out a stack of papers, and I accept them.

“Thank you, Natasha, and I told you that you could call me Finn.”

Her smile widens, exposing her perfectly aligned white teeth, and she nods. “Of course, Finn. Anything else I can get you this morning? Coffee?”

I hold up the coffee cup in my hand. “Thanks, I’m all set.” And with that, she spins around and leaves the office. As I look over the papers, I catch the back of my sister’s head as she watches Natasha leave the room. She then turns back around, shaking her head. Did I miss something?

“Could she be any more obvious?”

“Obvious about what?” I set the papers down on the desk and rest on my elbows.

Kelsey’s eyes nearly jump out of her head. “She wants you—bad. You didn’t notice the way she leaned over your desk with her tits on display when she gave you those papers or the extra sway in her hips as she left the room? Finn, she’s totally flirting with you.”

What? I’ve never noticed that before.