to believe it. Because otherwise, she might just be falling apart for no good reason. She had survived too damn much to crumble now.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BY THE TIME Rebecca walked into Lane’s Mercantile at lunchtime she had more or less convinced herself that she was in control of her emotions, her body and her feelings. Sure, she had alternately spent the night weeping and tossing and turning because she was aroused and wanted nothing more than to be touched by Gage again. Which was never going to happen, so her body needed to get over it.
She felt refreshed, and much less dire in the light of day, which was helpful.
She didn’t know why everything had felt so crazy last night. Probably all of the emotions, and the climaxes. But today she felt renewed. She felt like maybe she had finally put a demon to rest.
She felt...oh crap. Clearly she had been celebrating a little bit too soon.
Because there was Finn up on a ladder looking at light fixtures in the mercantile. Being very right there, when she would rather he weren’t at all.
“Hi, Rebecca,” Lane said, her eyes fixed on Finn.
“I came for lunch, since you said you were sampling that new cheese that you got.”
“It’s from France,” Lane said.
“We make cheese,” Finn said, his tone hard.
“And the Laughing Irish cheese is great,” Lane said, “but while local cheese is certainly a draw, I need to carry European cheeses too. So get over yourself. Your cheese is not the only cheese, Donnelly.”
Clearly, Lane was ignorant about what had transpired between herself and Finn the night before, and Finn wasn’t paying any attention to her, which was more typical than the interaction they’d had last night.
Still, seeing Finn reminded her of last night, which reminded her of everything that had happened after the two of them had parted.
All of the Gage things. The things that she was trying to be not completely psycho about.
“My cheese is the only cheese anyone would ever need, if they would just try it,” he said, descending the ladder.
“Was that some kind of weird, cheese-based euphemism?” Lane asked.
He cocked his head to the side, his expression long-suffering. “I wouldn’t waste my euphemisms on you, Lane.”
She waved a hand. “Whatever, man.”
Rebecca’s eyes clashed with Finn’s, and an electric current of awkwardness arced between them. She had a feeling that was all on her end, since Finn was infinitely more experienced with bar hookups and the like.
“Was everything okay last night?”
Finn was looking at her with far too perceptive and searching eyes.
“Yeah,” she said, looking down and walking a few steps for no particular reason except that it gave her something to do.
“Why?” Lane asked. “What happened last night?”
“Nothing,” Rebecca said.
“Some guy came and dragged her out of a bar,” Finn said at the same time.
“What?” Lane asked, sadly keying into what Finn had said.
“It wasn’t a big deal. And,” she continued, directing her words at Finn, “I’m here, so clearly I’m okay. Also, if you were so concerned maybe you shouldn’t have let him drag me out of the bar.”
“You said that everything was fine. You insisted. But, I did regret letting you leave.”
She wasn’t entirely sure what the context of that was. It made her stomach do weird things. Tighten. Turn over.
“Start at the beginning,” Lane said, her voice sharp. “What happened?”
“I was dancing with Rebecca, and some dude took issue with it.”
“That’s not the beginning,” Lane said, the color in her cheeks darkening. “You were dancing with Rebecca?”
Finn’s expression hardened. “Yeah,” he said, “I was.”
“How did that come about?” Lane asked, her tone a little bit too casual.
Oh great, now Rebecca had the feeling she had stepped in the middle of something. But, Lane was always the first person to insist that there was nothing going on between herself and Finn. Still, she was a little bit too interested now for Rebecca to believe that was entirely the case.
“I knew him,” Rebecca said. “And I wanted to dance.”
Finn arched a brow. “Yeah,” he said, not doing his part at all to sound convincing. Whatever he was doing right now, he really had to stop because she needed to preserve her own self and he didn’t seem remotely interested in that.
“Okay,” Lane said, her expression dark.
“I’m fine,” Rebecca said pointedly. “Everything is fine.” She began looking for something to busy herself. “I was promised cheese.”
“You can’t have cheese. Not until you provide me with a sufficient explanation.”
Rebecca stamped, feeling more frustrated than the situation warranted because everything