he okay?”
She slipped the food into the fridge, and when she turned around there was Finn, dripping wet with a towel hanging low over his hips.
“Oh. You were in the shower.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry. When I knocked you didn’t answer the door and I hadn’t seen you all day and I thought maybe you were sick so I let myself in to check. Should I leave?”
He stared at her for a few extremely long seconds while she stood frozen, afraid to move at all.
“No. Give me a minute.”
He turned and she couldn’t help but admire his broad tanned back as he walked away from her. She curled her fingers into her palms, both nervous and helplessly turned on at the sight of an almost naked Finn, wishing she hadn’t caused this rift between them. Because right now they could be out somewhere having dinner together, or even better, enjoying a night in together. Instead, she was going to have to apologize for going off on him like she had.
Rather than just standing there like a frozen statue, she moved over to the sofa and took a seat. Murphy followed her and curled up by her feet.
Wait. Maybe he wouldn’t want to sit next to her. She didn’t want to assume, so she got up and took the chair instead.
Murphy followed.
She tapped her feet and studied the furniture. Then again, he might think she was the one who wanted distance. That was bad, so she got up and moved back to the sofa, taking a spot on the far corner. Murphy got up again, followed her, then looked up at her, his head cocked to the side, no doubt wondering when she was going to make her next move.
Even the dog thought she was crazy.
“Playing musical chairs with my dog?”
“Oh. Uh. No.” Why was Finn the only guy to ever make her feel nervous? Maybe because she’d only made colossal mistakes with him? “I was . . . uh . . . trying out your furniture.”
He walked into the room, wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, smelling fresh and clean. And then he sat right next to her and she wanted to lick him all over and kiss him and do anything but have this conversation.
“You hungry?” he asked.
She tilted her head. “What?”
“You. Hungry. I’m hungry. I was going to make dinner.”
“Oh. Louise made dinner and I had her put a couple of servings in containers for us. Or for you, in case you didn’t want to eat with me.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to eat with you?”
“Because of the things I said yesterday.” She shifted to look directly at him. “I’m sorry, Finn. Sometimes I blurt without thinking. I was upset about the whiskey equipment, which I shouldn’t have been. I should have checked out what you were doing a long time ago, and I’m sorry for that, too. You’ve done remarkable things and I’m proud of you. Happy for you, actually. You have an amazing talent and instead of supporting you, I accused you of coming between my father and me, which was childish and petty. It was hurtful and uncalled for and I’m really sorry.”
His lips curved. “As apologies go, that was a damn good one, Brenna. You’re forgiven.”
She hadn’t realized how tight her chest was until she let go of a breath. “Thank you.”
“Now I need to ask you for something.”
“Okay.”
“When we have an argument—about anything—I need you to stay so we can talk it out, instead of walking away from me.”
She winced. “I do have a tendency to do that, don’t I?”
“You do.”
“I blame my first marriage on my tendency to bail. Mitchell and I would get into the worst arguments, and every time I tried to explain how I felt, he’d refuse to listen to my point of view. You can’t argue with someone who won’t hear your side of things. He’d drone on and on about his point of view, not at all willing to listen to mine. It got to be so unbearable that whenever we had a disagreement I’d just walk away.”
Finn picked up her hand. “The whole point of having an argument is so that both sides can air their grievances. That means you both listen, and then come to some sort of understanding. It shouldn’t be one person getting to air their side and refusing to listen to the other person. That’s not fair.”
She was so relieved that he understood. “No, it’s not fair. But that’s how it was. And it was tiresome.”
“No