F is for Finn (Men of ALPHAbet Mountain)

I would happily have that be my wake-up routine every day. Forget my alarm clock. I just wanted to have Finn there to kiss me awake and run his fingertips along my skin to greet each morning. I rolled over onto my back with a smile on my face and stretched luxuriously. My body felt somehow both relaxed and brightly alive. I was very aware of every inch of myself and the lingering effect he had on me.

I looked over at the time and let out a sigh. I really did need to pay attention to getting Olly up in the mornings again. It wasn’t all that critical yet. After all, I wouldn’t be going back to work for a few weeks, but I didn’t want him to get so used to being able to sleep late that he wasn’t able to cope with it when we went back to our morning routine of going over to Deana’s house.

For now, I’d let him sleep just a while longer.

I decided to take advantage of the quiet morning by heading into the bathroom for a long, leisurely shower. When I got out, Olly was still sound asleep, so I made my way into the kitchen on my crutch to make breakfast. I figured the smell of bacon might jostle him awake, and it did. I heard him calling to me from his room and went in to get him out of bed.

It was harder with my broken wrist, but I was still able to scoop him up for a snuggle. After breakfast, Olly decided that just liking dogs wasn’t enough. He wanted to become one. What followed was a couple of hours of him running around through the cabin, barking and panting. Occasionally, he would stop and wag his imaginary tail back and forth.

He was adorable, and I loved his boundless energy and imagination, but there was still the nervous mother voice in the back of my head that worried about him running around like that when I couldn’t chase after him. It was a relief when the new puppy in the house turned back into a human boy, and he sat down to do some serious coloring.

I focused on handling chores around the house that were made much more difficult with a cast on one wrist, the knee brace, and the crutch. The doctors told me as my knee got better, I might be able to graduate off the crutches and into a smaller brace. I looked forward to that.

As afternoon came along, Olly ate his snack, and I got him into bed for a nap. I was feeling especially sore and was considering taking a pain pill and grabbing a nap myself when I heard someone knocking on the door.

Surprised, I found Gerry standing on my porch with a stack of books under his arm and a bag in his hand.

“Hey, Gerry,” I said, opening the door. “Come on in.”

“I hope you don’t mind me just stopping by like this. I said we’d do book studying when we had the chance,” he said.

“I don’t mind at all. I appreciate you being willing to come out of your way to help me.”

“It’s not going out of my way. I’m glad I can help.” He looked down at the bag in his hand, then held it up to me. “From Finn at the diner. We went in there for lunch, and he asked me to bring this to you when I saw you.”

I couldn’t help the grin that stretched across my face, and I took the bag.

“Thanks,” I said.

I brought it into the kitchen, and Gerry followed me.

“What’s that all about?” he asked.

I looked up at him from unloading the bag. “Since I got hurt, he’s been making sure Olly and I have plenty of food. He already brought over a ton the day I got home, but he keeps bringing more.”

I smiled again, and Gerry gave me a knowing look.

“That’s not what I meant. I see that big smile. Now, I know the onion rings up at the diner are fantastic, but I don’t think they’ve ever made me smile quite like that before. What’s about the deal?” he asked.

I wanted to keep trying to play dumb and brush it off like it was nothing, but at the same time, I was bursting. I hadn’t been able to talk about any of this with anyone. Deana was still trying to catch up with work, so with the exception of a few texts to check in on me and make sure I didn’t need anything, I hadn’t talked to her. It was driving me crazy not to be able to just spill it all out.

“Finn and I are kind of a… thing,” I said.

“Kind of a thing?”

“Well, I don’t really know what we are. It’s still really, really new.”