by Holley Trent
Finch snorted. “Actually, my sofa is rather vacant most of the time.”
Lisa’s smile ebbed as quickly as it’d come. Her stare was direct but soft and searching. “Yeah. Mine, too.”
“I could…perhaps change that for—”
The outer door of the building creaked, and then slammed, stoppering Finch’s voice.
Both women were startled into fully erect posture and wore the creased brows of anticipation until that familiar voice boomed through the lodge.
“Lis, you up? My phone charger called it quits. You got a spare in lost and found?”
How the fuck does he do that?
It was like she’d done a summoning spell without knowing it. Was it the arrangement of the cheese on her plate? Had she grunted in sounds that resembled Latin?
Finch loosened her grip on the wineglass, fearing she’d snap the stem.
Without fail, every single time she got Lisa alone, Joey showed up.
Maybe she’d summoned him there by thinking uncharitable thoughts about him.
She scoffed as Lisa made her way to the office door.
That couldn’t be it. If people could really make people pop in simply by evoking their scummy natures, her mother would have had a nonstop stream of guests at the Alice house.
“I’m up, Joey,” Lisa called out. “I don’t know if there’s a cord, but feel free to look.”
“Well, then,” Finch muttered into her wineglass. She tried to order her rapid breathing as she turned her back to the door.
Damn him.
His arrival may have been another clue that she should leave Joey and Lisa to their devices, but she’d already figured out that those stupid clues were just red herrings.
There was no Joey and Lisa. They’d broken up because they didn’t work, and they were in the awkward aftermath of their separation. Having six siblings, she’d witnessed the breakup process a dozen times or more. The pattern was almost always the same.
Was Finch’s timing poor?
Absolutely. As a younger woman, she would have never dreamed of being so indelicate.
But after spending a lifetime being too slow and missing out, she was going to be the first person lined up for a change. If she had to keep pushing Joey out of the way, fine.
She took a sip of wine and pretended not to hear his begrudging greeting of “Finch.”
But when he said, “I’m starting to think you’re stalking me,” she whipped around without spilling a single drop of wine and flicked him off, just like her mother would have.
And like her mother, she wasn’t going to confess that particular sin to her priest, either.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lisa would have laughed if Finch’s expression hadn’t been so stony.
It was actually sexy how much one mild-mannered woman could annoy a man who was used to always getting his way.
Finch lowered her finger and resumed her perusal of cheese.
“I’ve seen you more times today than I saw you all last month,” Lisa told him.
“You make that sound like the worst possible thing.” Joey knelt in front of the box containing satellite dish receiver cords and various electronics odds and ends, and rummaged.
“I don’t make it sound like anything at all. I neutrally stated a fact.”
And it wasn’t the worst possible thing. It was just that he had a knack for always showing up when she was otherwise distracted and rendering her unable to think about anything else.
That instant was no exception. The combination of sweatpants and gray hoodie were just doing something for her.
Could have sworn I stole that hoodie.
“Well, I won’t promise that you’ll see less of me tomorrow,” he said, droll as always.
Lisa sighed.
She didn’t know what kind of soap opera was playing out in her life, but she definitely didn’t want to be in the middle of some kind of misguided feud between Finch and Joey. She liked them both too much, which was itself unfathomable. One of them, she was actively trying to get rid of. The other, she shouldn’t even have been giving the time of day to so soon after breaking things off with Joey.
Am I this reckless? No, right? Maybe it’s stress.
“I’m gonna wrap gifts over there,” she said to them and pointed to the corner she was retreating to. “Rummage all you’d like, Joey. Finch, don’t let him run you off. Eat until your heart and belly are content.”
She retreated to her wrapping project and tugged her headphones out of her phone jack. The work was tedious, and the music would keep her going, but she didn’t want to be rude and cover her ears again.
As she pulled heavy-duty wrapping paper around the box of locally blown pint glasses she’d picked up for Stacia, she swayed to the beat of a Top 40 tune, accentuating the refrain with a bit of hip-thrusting action.
“Tease,” Joey muttered.
“Oh, you know better than that. I always follow through.”
“All things considered—”
“Hush.”
He laughed and held up a mangled white cord. “Looks like the right model. Not sure if it’s alive.”
“Try it and see.”
“If I get electrocuted, can I count on you to dial 9-1-1?”
“I mean, I guess. It’d be bad for business for you to have a preventable injury on the premises and for me to not do anything to fix things. Definitely bad for my insurance premium.”
Grimacing, Joey plugged the cord into a nearby outlet and then quickly pressed the other end into his phone. He tossed the whole kit and caboodle onto the shelf and stood back. “Let’s see what happens when it powers up.”
“You ran your phone down to zero percent?” Finch asked.
Joey shrugged. “Haven’t had a chance to charge it today. Didn’t realize my cord was fried until I plugged my phone in and there was no charge an hour later.”
“I always have a backup and a backup for the backup.”
“That sounds a hair excessive,” Lisa said.
Finch’s cheeks immediately streaked with red.
Lisa somehow managed to swallow back her laughter. Finch was so adorable when she was nervous, and maybe Lisa wasn’t being entirely fair. She could be a little more chill. Contrary to what many people thought, she knew that she overwhelmed people. Her mother had once told her that she was the living embodiment of hot pink—loud and intense. Like wasabi, a little bit of Lisa could go a long way.
She’d have to be completely oblivious to not notice the way Finch looked at her, and she knew what those looks meant.
And she wanted Finch to know that she could see her, too…even if Finch wasn’t hot pink.
Gray could be just as stunning, but most people didn’t know how to look at it.
Lisa did. She saw both the awkwardness and the captivating elegance of her and was becoming a little obsessed with witnessing the duality. If not for the fact she would use the same word to describe Joey, she’d say Finch was magnetic, though certainly much differently.
Joey was full of crackling energy that revved her up and made her feel euphoric at times.
Finch’s pull was careful and quiet. It felt safe—a rest from exhausting excitement.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Lisa said. “It just sounds like a lot to be carrying around.”
Finch’s shoulders relaxed a bit. She picked up her wine glass and a plate fully loaded with cheese, fruit, and crackers, and carried it all to the longer sofa. “I can’t help it. It’s a habit now. My first cell phone was for emergency use only. My father bought one for my sisters and me to use whenever we were going out on our own or with friends. We’d have to call home every hour to prove we were still alive. Fortunately, he doesn’t make me do that anymore, but I’ll never forget how crazed my father was that time I didn’t call because the battery had died. He had half the town combing Marshfield for my body.”
She let out one of those little laughs that suggested that she forgot that people were liste
ning.
Lisa cut Joey a look, but he wasn’t looking at her.
He was looking at Finch and wearing his patented, “What in the actual hell?” face he wore whenever he was missing critical details from a story.
“Well?” Lisa said when Finch didn’t continue.
“Oh.” Finch studied the end of a grape and turned it this way and that, almost meditatively. “Well, it’d only been two hours.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Joey asked.
Finch shrugged. “You’d have to understand my parents. They’re very protective. My mother always joked that none of us could ever go missing because she was too old to manufacture replacements.”
That was definitely a joke. The beats were right. The punchline came at exactly the right place, but Lisa didn’t consider it the kind of joke she could laugh at.
Apparently, Joey didn’t, either.
“I felt bad about the mess.” Finch finally ate the grape and chewed contemplatively.
She nestled against the sofa arm and snugged the plate against her lap. “I probably would feel less guilty now if I’d actually been where I said I would be. Hard to call home when you’re on your back pretending not to be a virgin.”
That one, Joey did laugh at, but not in an overt way. It was more like his mouth opened and a chuckle found its way out. “I hope it was worth it.”
“Is it ever worth it? Anyway, it got the job done. That was all that mattered.”
“I suspect I’ll regret asking this, but what do you mean, is it ever worth it?” Lisa asked. “The deflowering part or the sex part?”
“Mostly the deflowering.”
“Mostly,” Joey intoned.
“I assume you have a penis, so you probably don’t understand. You could probably find an orgasm by wearing your shorts too tight.”
Seeing as how she was still in love with the man, Lisa certainly didn’t want to laugh at Joey’s expense, but she couldn’t stop herself.
The best she could do was to turn her back to the room, cover her face, and try not to offend him.
Finch didn’t know how right she was. Joey was probably the easiest lay Lisa had ever been with. He may have been needy, but he wasn’t particularly demanding. Everything felt good to him.
“I won’t dignify that with a response,” Joey said. There was no hostility in his tone, which pleased Lisa.
The conversation could have quickly taken a sharp turn, and she was actually enjoying the banter. There was a certain intimacy in a three-way conversation she would never have expected. It should have felt like she was juggling too many plates all at once, but perhaps it was in her wiring to keep picking up one more dish, anyway. “Too much” had always felt good for her.
“Anyhow, the cord seems to be functional,” Joey said, looking at his phone. “I don’t hear anything frying, so I’ll just take it with me. I’ll bring it back when we check out.”
“It’s been here for months.” Lisa turned back to her gift-wrapping chore. There were three more boxes to take care of, and then she could leave the rest for another day. “You may as well keep it. If anyone was missing it, they would have called or emailed by now.”
“Good to know.” Joey strode over and dusted off his hands. “Any of this for me?”
“I thought I warned you this morning. What makes you think you’re getting a gift this year?”
“Because you’d feel like shit if I gave you one and you didn’t give me one back.”
“What’d you get me? I hope it wasn’t expensive.”
Actually, she hoped it was. She’d gotten to the point in her life where she’d stopped feeling bad about occasionally wanting nice things. She could say a lot of critical things about Joey, but she couldn’t ever say that he was a stingy gift-giver. His nieces and nephews went without nothing.
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see,” Joey said. “Am I allowed to give it to you in person or will a third-party courier be necessary?”
“Let me chew on that one, hmm? I don’t even know where I’m going to be on Christmas day. I’m supposed to drive down to see my parents, but I don’t know. Margo may not be able to make the trip. She’s getting up there in years. Harder to travel with her.”
“I can book a flight for you and the dog.”
“No. I don’t want you dangling that over my head.”
“When have I ever done that?”
“Never. All the same, I don’t want to give you any impetus.”
Finch was doing an admirable job of pretending she wasn’t listening, but Lisa knew the room wasn’t that big. Sound carried.
She leaned in closer to Joey and whispered, “If you want to spend a lot of money on something? Fine. Just don’t spend it on attachment jewelry or anything having to do with my family obligations.”
“I’m…I’m not like your ex, Lisa,” with barely restrained anger. “I’ve never held anything over you. Why do you insist that I’m so unreasonable all the fucking time?”
“Because I always seem to be the one on the receiving end of the shit pile when things go wrong. After a while, you can’t help but expect it.”
If he had a response to that, he didn’t speak it. Grinding his teeth, he just held down the overlap of wrapping paper against the box while she taped it.
That was them in a nutshell—they could be so pissed at each other but that would just be a temporary high temperature they’d both endure, and then they moved on to whatever because they were grownups, and that was what grownups did when they loved each other too much to stay away.
She’d very nearly gotten used to that with him before—him doing what needed to be done without being asked and without expectation of gratitude.
They worked well together as a team. She’d always thought that.
But being on a team meant sacrifice. She’d been willing to make some on her end so she could keep him, but that effort hadn’t been completely reciprocated.
“Did you know Lisa has a sea of suitors who gift her with gourmet food items?” Finch asked in that quiet voice that Lisa was coming to understand was far from small. Her tone was soft, but the intentionality behind the words most certainly wasn’t.
Joey gave Lisa a speaking stare.
When she finished taping up the box, he folded his arms across his chest.
“Don’t get it twisted, Novak.” Lisa set a box of fine towels for her younger cousin on top of a fresh sheet of wrapping paper. “Being desired doesn’t necessarily mean I’m doing anything to incite it. You’re cute when you’re jealous, though.”
“Why’d you feel the need to bring that to my attention?” he asked Finch.
Finch held up a cheese wedge. “Price tag on the bottom of that tray says it cost a hundred and twenty dollars. Just thought you’d like to know what people think a few moments of her attention is worth.”
“Why are you like this?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s similar to that effect my brothers have on me whenever we’re in the same room. They forget that they’re not kings put here on Earth to lord over whatever corner they’re skulking in at any given moment.”
Joey gritted his teeth. “So, I have to buy you cheese now?”
“For fuck’s sake, no, you don’t have to buy me cheese,” Lisa said, frustrated. “No one has to buy me cheese or any goddamned thing at all. Got it?”
Finch did an if you say so shrug. Her gaze was on Joey, and it was a little mean—a little ominous, actually. At that moment, she wasn’t gray, but whatever color warnings came in. Orange or red.
There was fire in her. She probably used most of her energy to put it out before people noticed the smoke.
“What is this?” Lisa mused, not taking her eyes off the blaze with the cheese.
“What it is is obvious,” Joey said. “She’s a pretty little buzzard circling around waiting for the bigger predator to go away so she can have a taste.”
“Hardly,” Finch snapped. “You should really be more careful with your
choice of words, Joey. You work in publishing. You’re…” She set her wineglass on the table and made air quotes. “Senior Director of Publicity, is that right? You should be more precise. I’m not interested in scavenging scraps. I’ll have the entire feast, and I don’t have to wait until you’re done. You already are.”
Holy shit.
Agog, Lisa was practically thrumming with overwhelm. She hadn’t felt like that since writing the check from her grandmother’s inheritance to buy the old run-down camp. But on that day, she’d known exactly what she’d be getting herself into.
This was different.
Apparently, she’d started a war.
CHAPTER NINE
It seemed a bit callous for Lisa to keep fussing with wrapping paper when she had two extremely focused individuals boring holes into her face with their gazes.
Uncertain how to even begin processing the situation, she cracked her knuckles one at a time.
Oh. Fuck.
Of course she’d had rebound relationships before.
Rebounds were basically like refreshing showers after losing long and physically arduous games. Her heart and body weren’t completely healed, but at least she felt a little bit more optimistic about getting back out there in the next game.
Never before, though, had she ever had someone step up to offer to be that buffer before.
That was what Finch was doing. She was saying, “Pick me next,” and normally, Lisa might have said, “Absolutely, come on.” Finch seemed to have all the right ingredients to be something more to Lisa than just a lovely distraction. The rapid rapport between the two of them would only get stronger with time.
But then there was Joey. Lisa was still connected to him, and not in the way like cobwebs attached to people who accidentally walked through them.
She’d probably never be completely free of him because he was just…so good for what she was—he was so good for hot pink.
Most of the time.
She was chained to him and when the cuffs were clasped, neither had thought that perhaps they should hold onto the key—just in case.
“You know,” she said, looking at the ceiling that needed painting and choosing her words carefully. “I’m usually the person people call for advice about complicated relationship issues. Who am I supposed to call?”