Page 30 of One Vow

Finn standing in the back of the room, in the room at all, did nothing to calm my rattled nerves. Had the opposite effect enough my hands trembled, and my vision blurred so that the room swam.

Doing a reading, especially one of my more recent books where it seemed every few pages was a love scene, wasn’t for the faint of heart on a normal day and most especially when the muse for said love scenes was standing with his arms crossed and his shoulder leaned against a shelf. I stuttered through the passage.

But I made it through, finished my obligatory public appearance, signed a bunch of books, then walked out with Sofia on one side and Finn on the other. He hadn’t spoken since we left the store, and I spent the whole ride sitting beside Sofia hoping that he’d lost his ability to comment on what I’d read.

‘You guys okay?” Sofia side-glanced me then rear-view mirrored him.

“Fine.” But I sounded like I’d just sucked in a long breath of helium.

“I’m good.” And he sounded like he’d just taken a shot to the balls.

Sofia chuckled. “Okay.” Thankfully, she switched subjects.

“No more appearances until after the holidays and only a couple until the official release in March. But then it’s a full tour.” Sofia managed my career so I was free to write whenever the urge struck without having to worry about missing appearances and social media obligations.

“A tour?”

Sofia filled him in, and I stared out the window until he laid a hand on my shoulder. Then I almost jumped out of the car because reading the scene I just read, my niche was steamy love scenes and complex storylines, and having Finn touch me had the same heart-throbbing effect on me.

“You okay?” Sofia shot me another sideways glance.

“Fine.” Nothing a few minutes alone with a vibrator…or my husband, my mind wasn’t playing fair, wouldn’t cure.

Sofia cocked her head and twisted her lips, her I’m-not-buying-your-lies look. “Okay.”

Thankfully, they chattered among themselves until we got back to my place. She didn’t cut the engine, and I almost wished she would. I was too on edge, too wound up to be alone with Finn. “You want to come in?”

I pleaded with my eyes, but she ignored me.

“Can’t. Got things to do. People to see.” Finn thanked her for the ride and climbed out, then she grabbed a fistful of my shirt and twisted, pulling until we were almost nose to nose. “You need to go in there and stake your claim on that guy. I recommend you do it naked, but…” She shrugged. “If you let him go, this time it’s your own fault.”

My mouth dropped open. “What the hell are you talking about? He’s getting married.”

She jerked me in again. “He’s already married, you moron.” She said it like moe-ron. “To you. And you two seem to be the only two people in the world who don’t get that.”

She shook her head and let me go. “Come on now, Flis, the whole time you were reading from your book, you stared at him, and he stared back. The two of you raised the temp in that room by a good fifty degrees. I was sweating, I can tell you that.” If she had one of those old-fashioned painted fans, she would’ve used it for her dramatic, always dramatic, purposes.

“Did you even know there were other people in the room?” She chuckled. “Because as someone who was most definitely watching you watch him and vice versa, it really didn’t seem like it to the rest of us.”

“Of course, I knew you were all there.” Far as I was concerned, she was losing it.

“Didn’t look like it to anybody else.” She’d been my best friend all these years, and I trusted her with my career, my friendship, with almost every detail of my life. But this time, she was wrong.

Right?

“Look, Flis, if you want him, you have to speak up. You have to tell him.” Oh, if only life was so simple.

She let me go and waited until I’d smoothed the wrinkles she’d put into my blouse before she spoke again. Softer but more impactful, “He came back for you.”

She had that wistful tone I always imagined the supporting character in every story I wrote using to get her point across.

I used the dry, you-know-nothing-main character tone. “He came back to get divorced.”

I rolled my eyes at the romantic notions in her head. Maybe she spent too much time reading my novels or maybe she should’ve been the one writing them, because real life never worked out this way. Even if I wished I could write the ending for this one.

He left me for a reason. And he’d only come back now to make the leaving permanent. Not a fact I could forget as well as Sofia could ignore.

“He could’ve handled all this with a phone call, but he’s here. And you’re going to regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t go in there and tell him how you feel.” She smiled softly as I was about to deny, deny, deny. “I want you to be happy, Felicity, and he made you happy. At least think about it.”