he’s starting to trust me when I tell him that I don’t look at him any differently. He gets into the rowboat before taking his leg off and handing it to me.
“How about I put this inside?” I suggest.
“You’ll make the dogs sad again. Didn’t you hear their screams of anguish when we left them inside? If only you’d have let me bring them.”
“Yes, because sticking an Irish wolfhound in a rickety and tiny rowboat sounds intelligent,” I say as I continue to hold Finn’s leg.
“Just toss it into the grass,” he says.
“Yes, I’m going to just toss this expensive piece of equipment into the grass.” This kid.
I rush it inside and am back within a minute, but he’s already used an oar to push the boat off the shore and out into the water.
“Marcus, come on out! You shouldn’t get your clothes wet, so you need to take them off,” he says.
I move fast enough that I don’t have to take anything off as I sit down in the boat and face my very unimpressed partner.
“That wasn’t sexy! You just pitter-pattered too fast,” he complains as I grab the oars and start rowing us out into the water.
“Shirt off! Shirt off!”
“You want me to burn?”
“It’s not even sunny! Don’t be dramatic! You’ll be fine.” He’s giving me one of those infectious grins that makes me weak.
I stop rowing as I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it over my head before tossing it on top of his head.
He laughs as he pulls the shirt off his head and whistles. “Hot damn. Look at that pale chest! It’s blinding! My eyes hurt looking at you!”
Finn shields his face as I glare at him and grab for my shirt.
“No! Don’t shield your ghost chest. I like it,” he purrs before shoving my shirt under his ass so I can’t get it without pushing him off his seat. “I would like to row.”
“You… want to row?” I’m skeptical about this, but I also know that when faced with Finn you give him anything he wants. So I let go of the oars that are hooked onto the side of the boat and let him take over.
“You don’t think I can do it, do you?” he asks. I’m now positive he’d said it as a joke and just wanted to complain when I said something or didn’t hand them over. Well… joke’s on him.
I lean back and watch him. “I said nothing like that.”
He seems a bit uncertain, but grabs the oar and starts rowing. Seeing as he only has one hand, we just start going in a circle. I’m positive he’s waiting for me to say something, but I just give him a thumbs up.
“You’re doing amazing, babe,” I say.
“Thanks!” he says as we continue circling.
I want to ask if he’s aware that we could sort of go forward if he switches the direction of the oar each time, but then I realize that if Finn wants to be obstinate, I’ll let him be obstinate.
“Are you having fun?” Finn asks.
“So much fun.”
He snorts as he stops. “Sit next to me and you grab the left oar.”
I carefully move to the seat next to him before taking the other oar. “I’m… surprised you gave in.”
“I was getting a little seasick going in a circle for so long,” he admits, which makes me laugh. “You’re not allowed to laugh. Your job is to be amazed at everything I’m doing no matter how awful I am at it.”
I raise an eyebrow as I look at him. “Hell no. I’ll tell you if you suck at something,” I say as I row. Clearly, I’m rowing faster or harder than him because we start going to the right quickly.
He doesn’t seem to mind because he leans into me. “Can we just float out here forever?”
“I think you’d get hungry.”
“You wouldn’t?” he teases.
“Well… no, I have a human I can chew on as I please.”
He grins as he pretends to bite me. “Same here. Maybe vampire is a delicacy.”
“I do like it when you nibble on me,” I say.
“Good.” He takes a deep breath and lays his head against me. “I can do this. I know… I know I was being obstinate and selfish wanting to fight against him to have the life I desire. But I know I need to just be happy with what I have. I’m alive, I’m healthy, I have a wonderful family, but most of all, I have you. And that