Page 111 of Found in Wild Sage

“Love you,” I whisper, right before our waiter arrives.

Simple as that. We’re both grateful, blessed, and dreaming together. We’re both home.

Thank you for reading! Need another little moment with Evie and Dec? Check out their bonus epilogue: found-in-wild-sage-bonus-epi.subscribepage.io

Also, don’t miss the bonus epilogue featuring Finn and Clementine when you turn the page, and catch their romance in Longing For Sunrise.

BONUS EPILOGUE

Finn

It’s twilight when I knock on the car window.

A body moves under the pile of blankets, but there’s no answer, so I knock again.

“Come on, Clementine. I know you’re in there.” I’m out of patience with this girl.

Her head pops up and she tugs the blanket down, then gives me a look like, “what?”

As though I’m the weirdo for knocking on her door versus the person sleeping in their car in late October.

“Why are you sleeping in your car?”

“Why is it any of your business?” she snaps back.

Lord, give me patience. I may have been in love with her for well over half my life, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t infuriate me with her attitude.

“I’m a citizen of this town and I can’t walk by a car where a person is sleeping if I think they’re going to freeze overnight.” I shrug a shoulder like it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s her or that the thought of her out here is literally killing me. “Can’t have that on my conscience.”

Her shoulders move up and down and she turns away from me. “Just go, Finn.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” Doesn’t she realize that?

“Yes, you are.” She’s still not giving me her face.

I am a needy bastard when it comes to her, and despite the fact that she broke my heart when I left for the Army and she left for college, I don’t know that I’ll ever stop being that with her.

“Will you look at me?”

I want to yank the door open, but it’s literally freezing out here and we’re due for a dusting of snow. Until I know she’s coming with me, I’m not going to make her surrender whatever heat is stored up in this tiny POS car.

Slowly, her golden brown hair slips out of her face when she raises her head. “What?”

My gut clenches when I see it—the way she has her lips pressed together and chin firmed. She’s seconds away from crying and she will not want me to see that.

Then let me help you.

“You can’t sleep out here. It’s too cold.”

“I can and I will. Plus, it’s none of your business.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I’m sorry, but no. I’m none of your business.”

I nearly stomp my foot. “You’ll always be my business, Clementine McClain. Now get your butt into my car.”

“Never.”

I am not nearly as stubborn as any one of my other brothers, but I am a Ryan man, so I am equal parts bossy and stubborn, especially when it comes to the people I care about.

“You are going to freeze out here.”

She raises her chin, maybe the most stubborn person I’ve ever met outside of my siblings.

And that’s when I remember… I’m not this idiot anymore. I’m not eighteen and pissed at the world because the girl I loved chose someone else and blindsided me.

With a deep breath, I press my hand to the frigid glass of her back passenger window.

“Please. I can’t live with myself knowing you’re out here in this.” Small shimmering flakes of snow have started as if on my cue.

But she’s already shaking her head, though she does lean forward and open the door. Frosty air gusts out when she speaks. “I can’t.”

And that’s when I pull the door wide open, grab her forearm, and yank her out right as I dip low. She’s out and over my shoulder, me striding toward my running truck before she can even protest.

“You’re coming with me. I’ll sleep on the couch. You’re not dying out here because you’re stubborn.”