I Never Let You Go (I Never 3)

“Too late, I’m sure. I’m prepared for the Spanish Inquisition when I return. Maybe it would be better for me to leave with you just to avoid her altogether.” We both laugh at my joke, but I notice his eyes darken. I need to get him out of my house before I jump into his arms and really explore those muscles.

“Take care, Lo.” He steps forward and tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I hold my breath with his closeness. I wave shyly bye as he closes the door behind him.

“So, Finn came over, huh?” Kate’s voice makes me jump when I don’t realize that she was right behind me. Shit, how long was she standing there?

I walk past her, ignoring her looks once again. “As I said, we ran into each other at the hardware store, and Finn offered to fix the clog.”

“To what, shove his snake in your drainpipe?”

I whip my head back in her direction. ”What? One, this isn’t some cheap porno, this is real life. And two, please don’t refer to my vagina as a drainpipe.” I purse my lips together and pretend to gag.

“Okay, fine, all joking aside, what the hell did I walk into?” Kate says, following me into the kitchen.

I begin cleaning up, really just anything that I can do to avoid the topic of conversation.

Kate hops up onto the counter where I had been sitting earlier, confessing my feelings to Finn, and I glance over from the corner of my eye and see her with her arms crossed. I know she won’t give up easily. I spin around and lean against the counter in defeat.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Look, I know you two have a messy past, but from where I’m standing, that boy is very much still in love with you. Anyone can see it. And you either love him too, or you don’t. Sooner or later, Lauren, he is going to stop fighting for you, so you need to ask yourself, are you going to let him walk away? Or are you going to grow a pair of lady balls and admit you still love him too.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I sat there apologizing for leaving him at the wedding and blabbing on about feelings, and he had no response. It was like he didn’t want to hurt me with what he had to say.”

Kate grips my shoulders and shakes me. “You forget, I know Finn just as well as you do.” I raise my eyebrows in question. “Okay, so maybe not as well as you do.” She winks. “But Finn was my friend too. When you hung out with him, so did I for the most part, so when I say that I noticed the shift in the air in this kitchen just moments ago and the way he was looking at you, then yes, that boy—no, man—is definitely still in love with you.”

Between Kate saying that she believed he still loves me mixed with the mess of emotions that I have flooding my mind, and throw in now two almost kisses, I’m more confused than ever. Can I risk giving him my heart again in hopes that history won’t repeat itself?

“It was like my heart and head were battling it out.”

It took everything I had not to respond to her when she was confessing why she ran away from me at the wedding. I was thankful she couldn’t see my face, and while I couldn’t see her face, I could hear it in her voice. I did that; I caused that pain. What would have happened had her heart won over her head at that moment? I could hear the desperation in her voice as she spoke that said she was just as lost as I was. Is it possible that she felt the same things I did? Could we ever get past that?

I also can’t get out of my head the way she responded to me, to my touch. If Kate hadn’t shown up and interrupted, would she and I have kissed? You could have cut the tension with a knife. As I drove back to my sister’s house, I wondered how her conversation with Kate went. Could she sense something was up?

I need to stop thinking about Lauren and focus on my meeting with the principal at Central Academy as I open the doors to the main entrance. The past few days, Kelsey and I pulled all of Dad’s files and research for this project, and I made my own revisions to it. I was grateful when Principal Estep accepted a meeting with me to discuss moving forward.

I’m going over the talking points Kelsey and I discussed over breakfast this morning, and I don’t notice the door to the main office swing open until I am slamming right into a warm body. Paperwork spills to the floor. I hold my arms out in front of me to steady the person. A familiar aroma of strawberries hits my nostrils, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

No way, this must be a dream.

“Fuck!” I hear the voice mutter as she leans down to gather the spilled paperwork off the floor. I should help her, but I’m frozen as I watch her pull the paperwork to her chest and rise to her feet, brushing off her clothes. She still hasn’t even looked up to see that it was me. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going. You could have run someone over.”

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve been…” I notice the exact moment she recognizes my voice. Her body tenses, and her eyes slowly trail my body before meeting mine, not allowing me to finish my statement.

Out of all the people I run into, literally run into, what are the odds that it’s Lauren fucking Lawson. Of course, her middle name isn’t “fucking,” it’s Elizabeth, one of the many facts I know about her.

“Are you following me?” A crinkle forms between her eyebrows, and I force my thumb into my fist to keep from smoothing it out like I used to. I would give any excuse to touch her though.

I stare at her. Her long dark hair is flowing down her shoulders in loose curls, her sunglasses perched upon her head. I allow my eyes to wander over her body, the dark gray pencil skirt hugging to her small curves, and her black button-up blouse. My mouth waters at how gorgeous she is.

“Finn?” Her voice is so soft, bringing my attention back to her face.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I asked, are you following me?” she repeats, her jaw clenching and her grip tightening on the paperwork in her hand.

“No. I have a meeting with Principal Estep. Wait, what are you doing here?”

“Umm, I work here.”