"Let's see...my best friend back at home is dating my ex-boyfriend. Mind you, we just broke up the day I came here. I assume they were sleeping together before now. Things happened too fast for something to not have been up." I took a drink as my father nodded.

"Yes. I've had that done to me and I've done it to a few friends. People are dicks. It's a common trait among most of us." He took a drink to.

"Right. I'm scared shitless that after all the time and energy that I've put into my degree that I'll end up with nothing, being nothing." I took another drink. "I don't want to let you down, but I don't want to let me down either."

"I don't see that future at all for you, but I understand your fears. I've had them for my own life."

"When you were a kid?"

"No. When your mother died. I wasn't sure where to go from there, but I figured it out. You will too." He reached over and touched my cheek. "You're going to be incredible at anything you do because you’re brilliant and you’re passionate. It's a winning combination."

"I've fallen in love with someone since coming here and he broke my heart tonight." I finished the liquor and let out a growl. "It's been like nine days or something and I've never felt like this before. I don't love easily, and I've promised myself never to love deeply, and yet..."

"You can't help yourself, right?" He gave me a knowing smile.

"Right." I tapped the glass on the counter. "More."

He filled it up again and I was grateful for him being home. It was weird, but simply getting the pain off my chest left me feeling better.

"If he's the one, then you're sitting in the wrong place right now. True love doesn't give up, baby." He pushed the glass back toward me. "Your mother broke my heart a million times before we were married, but I wouldn't stop. I was relentless, and you know what?"

"What, Dad?" Tears blurred my gaze again. Finn was angry because he was hurt. There was a reason behind it. It wasn't at all what I thought it was, but somehow I was ready to throw in the towel and pretend as if I wasn't feeling the incredible pain that I was feeling over him. The pain was proof of the emotion that lay underneath it. Whether it made sense or not... I wanted him by my side. In my bed. In my life.

"The hurt faded over the years as your mother worked to show me how much she loved me. It took no time and we were completely and totally one in all things." He looked up at the ceiling and let out a painful sound. "I miss her so much."

"I know you do, but she would want you to move on. You know she would." I got up and walked into the kitchen to wrap my arms around him.

He wrapped his strong arms around me too, and I sunk into his hold, needing it so bad.

"I know she would. I'm trying, but doing it all wrong. I'll work on it. You don't give up on this boy. Deal?"

I nodded as I held back my tears. "Deal."

Chapter 18

Finn

Kari could not have shown up at a worse time.

"Did I really call Chloe a whore?" I walked back into the restaurant as sickness rolled over me. No way I'd done that. I would never insult a woman that way. Especially not someone like Chloe.

I had. Dammit.

"There you are." Kari moved up and slipped her arm through mine. "Who was that, really? I know you and you do not have female friends."

I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and laid a twenty on the table before jerking my arm out of hers.

"Kari. Stop. Shit." I looked up at her and put my wallet up. "Leave me alone. Okay?"

"Finn. We've been friends for a long time. Don't close up on me." She moved closer, but I held up my hand.

"I'm serious. Now is not the time."

"I just want to help." She puffed her bottom lip out.

"By sliding into the seat across from a girl I was with and pawing at me?" I knew my voice was getting a little too loud, but I was done with people using me. "Who were you helping? Yourself?"

She got in my face and pressed her finger to my chest. "Don't you try to get all high and mighty. You might be turning a new leaf, but you're still the same old guy. Always looking to score and break some girl's heart in the morning. We all have you figured out. That poor girl needed saving. I saved her."

I laughed sardonically and pushed her hand off my chest. "Yeah. You bitches see what you want to see. I don't care."

Turning, I moved out of the restaurant and walked to my truck. I was grateful for Chloe forcing us to take separate rides. The last thing I wanted to do was walk home after the mess I'd made between us.

I texted Brian to meet me at the bar near my place and headed that way. He lied to me or she lied to him. I needed to know which. Someone owed me a damn apology, because I wasn't going to be the only one on my knees this time. I'd been there too many times in the last twelve years and I was tired of it.

I drove like a bat out of hell as I tried to think through how to get Chloe to see me again. I just needed to apologize for how ugly I'd been. She wasn't a whore. I was. I didn't need to leave things like that with her.

Her words rang through my head again and I growled low in my chest. Had she broken up with the football guy? Was she really looking for a guy like me or did she make that shit up to cover her tracks?

The authentic hurt in her face told me that she was telling the truth, but I was terrified to play the fool. It was easier to tuck my feelings back deep down inside of me and just go around as the town dick. Better than being a broken man with nothing left to offer anyone.

I parked and walked in, slowing my stride and putting my facade in place. There was no reason to let anyone see me upset. It would just cause talk amongst the locals and leave me looking like an idiot.

"Hey." Brian lifted his hand in the air.

"Hey." I sat down and nodded to his beer as Pauly walked up. "I'll have a Budweiser too."

"You bet, Finn. Good to see you, son." He stuck out his hand and I shook it.

"You too, Pauly." I turned to Brian. "Chloe said she doesn't have a boyfriend, Brian."

"And you're surprised by this?" He chuckled and lifted his beer to his lips.

"Yeah, actually I am. Did she seem like the kind of woman that would have two men?"

"No, not at all, but it's usually women like her that you have to watch out for." He shrugged.

"What? Why?"

"She's classy, beautiful, brilliant and has the world waiting for her next move. Girls like her know how to lie, how to look the part, and it leaves us guessing. I don't like it, Finn."

"I don't care what you think she is or isn't. What I care about is whether she really told you that she's dating someone."

"Yes, Finn. I've known you my whole fucking life. I wouldn't lie to you." He turned away from me and took another drink of his beer.

"What exactly did she say? Lay it on me." I'd forced myself to calm down, not wanting to upset him. He was my best friend and there was no way he wouldn't shoot straight with me over a girl. We'd been friends for far too long and through a ton of shit.

"She said that she was glad she got to go out dancing. Her boyfriend back in California is the jealous type and never lets her get out and have a little bit of harmless fun." He rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. "It was something to that tune. She said she had a man and I was just warning you. She's lying to you, or she was lying to me."