I Never Let You Go (I Never 3)

As I turn into the parking lot of the bar, a familiar piano key begins to play. I slowly bring my gaze to Finn, and he is staring intently at the stereo as if he’s lost in the same memory.

Kate and I were laughing with friends at our table when strong arms wrapped around my shoulders.

“Hey, beautiful,” he whispered in my ear. I spun in his arms to look up at him. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

I shook my head. He had been chatting with some of his football buddies, so I had joined Kate back at our table.

“Come on, let’s dance.” Finn led me out to the center of the dance floor as the music switched from a fast-paced song to a slow song. I wrapped my arms around Finn’s neck, and he pulled me closer, his hands sitting just above my ass.

“Have I told you much I love that dress?” Finn glanced down, and I followed his gaze. With my arms like this, my boobs had pushed together at the low v neckline. I felt my cheeks and chest flush.

“You know you clean up pretty nice yourself.” I ran my hands over his purple tie that matched the color of my dress.

He pinched his thumb and forefinger under my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Lo,” he began. There was an intensity in the air that surrounded us. We stopped dancing so that he could say whatever he needed to say. “I love you.”

My eyes widened and jaw dropped. “You—you love me?”

“Yeah. I think maybe I’ve kind of loved you since we met, but I didn’t know it yet,” Finn admitted honestly. “I get it if you don’t feel—”

I quickly unhooked my hands from the back of his neck and grabbed his face in my hands. I smashed my lips against him, and his shock gave me the perfect opening to slip my tongue in his mouth. After a few moments of getting lost in our kiss, I pulled back, realizing I still needed to say it back. Not because I felt pressured to, but because I did. And maybe he was right—I had always felt something for him, but I knew now that that feeling was love. He leaned down, resting his forehead against mine.

“I love you too.” Just saying those three words to him made me feel different. It was like nothing could break us apart. A stampede could have run through the spring formal right now, and we would still have each other.

His face lit up as he processed my words and kissed me again—this time, just a brief peck before he pulled me even closer to him. With my head now pressed against his chest and Hoobastank’s “The Reason” playing in the background, Finn held me in his arms in the middle of the dance floor, and I didn’t stop smiling the rest of the night.

We sit there listening to the entire song, lost in memories. The car is so thick with tension that we should roll the windows down to air it out. Did someone turn the heat on in the car? It feels like it just got hotter in here all of a sudden.

When the song changes, Finn clears his throat and reaches for the door handle, but he doesn’t leave just yet. Our eyes meet, and I see that same look in his eyes I had the night of the spring formal. It’s as if he wants to say something but is too nervous about the outcome.

“Thank you.”

That’s all he says before exiting the vehicle and walking over to his truck. I stare at him for a moment, watching the way his jeans fit snugly around his firm butt before I pull off. I don’t know what he was thanking me for: not kicking him out, taking care of him, listening to him talk, or even just the ride home. It could be for any one of those reasons. As I head back home, I know that things have shifted for us at that moment.

After I dropped Finn off at his truck, I busied myself for the rest of the weekend. It flew by, and it’s already Monday. I can’t get our conversations out of my head, and it’s beginning to mess with me. Is being friends with Finn a good idea? We were friends once before all those years ago, but could we be friends now after everything we’ve been through? I, at least, wanted to try.

There’s a knock at my classroom door. I look up from my desk, expecting to see my boss or another teacher but find a deliveryman hol

ding a vase full of flowers.

“Umm, hi, I have a delivery for a Ms. Lauren Lawson,” the delivery guy says, looking down at his clipboard. “The main office directed me here.”

I rise from my chair and look around my classroom, thankful that the kids are in gym class. “I’m Lauren.” Who is sending me flowers?

He points to where I need to sign, and I accept the vase. I bring the array of pink roses, my favorite, to my nose and inhale their sweet scent.

“Wow, those are beautiful.” I look up to find my sister-in-law standing in the doorway the delivery guy just exited. “Who are they from?”

“I don’t know. They were just delivered, from someone who knows I prefer pink roses to red.” I walk back over to my desk and set them down in search of the card. I open the envelope and pull the card out. My mouth flies to cover my mouth as I recognize Finn’s sloppy chicken scratch handwriting.

“Lo, it’s not a rose bush, but it’s a start. Thank you for everything the other day. - Finn.” I chuckle and feel Dani’s presence reading over my shoulder.

“Thank you for everything the other day, huh?” she questions, leaning against my desk with my arms crossed and her eyebrow quirked.

“It was nothing.”

“Nothing that prompted him not only having flowers delivered but—” She snatches the card out of my hands and faces it toward me. “—he handwrote the card, so he didn’t just order them online.”

I change the subject even though I know she has more questions.