Free While We Waited (The Reed Brothers #8) by Tammy Falkner

His fingertips tickle a slow path over my shoulder and I shiver.
    “I’ve had worse.”
    “I’m sure you have.”
    I look up at him. He wets a paper towel and wipes away the sticky ooze that has seeped from the small wound.
    “It didn’t go very deep,” he says.
    I snort. “That’s what she said.”
    His cheeks redden, but a smile tugs at the corners of his lips. “Why do you do that?” he asks, shaking his head.
    “Do what?”
    “Deflect with humor when someone tries to care for you.”
    “Dude, you’ve known me for half a second,” I remind him, my ire rising.
    “Tell it to someone who has never been inside you,” he says slowly, looking into my eyes.
    My heart lurches. “I’m ready to go home.”
    He reaches past me to throw the damp paper towel away. His arm grazes my boob and he freezes. “Sorry,” he says, blushing.
    “You totally just did the boob graze. That’s, like, the oldest trick in the book.”
    He laughs. “Yet I’ve never done it before.”
    “Liar.”
    He arches his brow and looks down at me. “I have never grazed a boob that no one asked me to graze.”
    “So I get to be your first.”
    Heat creeps up his cheeks again. He’s not a virgin. He has a kid, for Christ’s sake. Not to mention that he fucked the shit out of me that night.
    We walk quietly toward the exit, and a few of the residents call out thanks for the flowers. I wave at them and keep walking.
    When we get out on the street, I wince and ask him, “You won’t tell my sisters about what happened today, will you?”
    He looks confused. “Why don’t you want them to know?”
    I shrug. “They worry.”
    “They should . She could have hurt you, really hurt you.”
    I nod. It’s not anything I’m not used to.
    “Let’s make a deal, okay?” He looks at me, his gaze hopeful. “If you’ll bring me with you when you come visit, I won’t tell anyone.”
    I roll my eyes. “I told you I don’t need a chaperone.”
    “I don’t have to hang out with you,” he counters. “I can go visit the other residents. I like talking to people.” He shrugs.
    “That’s all it is? You’re not trying to be a macho save-the-damsel bullshit-slinger?”
    He puffs out his chest. “Macho, yes. Crap-slinger? Not right this second.” He nudges my shoulder with his. “Bring me with you. Please.” He puts his hands together like he’s praying.
    “Fine.” But a grin tips the corners of my mouth. “Does this mean we have a date?” I nudge his shoulder this time.
    “Do you want it to be a date?”
    Do I? Two hours ago, I would have said fuck no . But today…after what he did for me with my mom? And after?
    “Maybe,” I say quietly.
    “Then it’s a date.”
    My skin feels too tight and my heart trips a beat. “I’ll think about it,” I whisper.

Tag
    Fin and I get back to the apartment and I find Benji asleep in his portable crib. Wren borrowed it from Peck, who also has a new baby. I didn’t have more than a pack of diapers, some formula, and a few pieces of clothing that the nurse passed over in one of those giveaway diaper bags.
    And no money to buy anything. I am going to have to find a job. Quickly. But in order to find a job, I’ll also have to find someone to care for Benji.
    I have to make a lot of plans and figure out what I’m going to do going forward.
    I go into the bathroom, turn on the shower, and think.
    Benji.
    Job.
    Money.
    Babysitter.
    …Finch.
    I stop, brace my hands on the counter, and stare at my reflection.
    Finch is a problem I didn’t anticipate.
    Before Finny, I’d only slept with one woman my whole life. There had never been another for me, so it surprised the heck out of me when just looking at Finch took my breath. I can still feel her wrapped around me. Then when I held her at the assisted living facility… The sixty seconds I held her in my arms lasted for the duration of an eye-blink, it seemed.
    An eye-blink that rocked my world.
    I knew there was something powerful between us. I