Skin (McCullough Mountain 2) (26 page)

“Here,” he said reaching behind the seat. He
produced a gray blanket. “Let’s get out of these wet clothes.”

He peeled off his flannel and she did the
same. Even the thermal she had underneath was wet. Finn started the
truck and turned on the heat. He placed their wet clothes over the
heater vents.

She unfolded the blanket and he helped her
wrap it around her shoulders. Tucking the edges close to her neck,
he pulled her close and fit her right in the crook of his arm. They
were down to their undies, hers partially shredded, and there was
no place else she’d rather be.

The windows fogged as the scent of rain and
heat filled the air. “I can’t believe you made it to the top. I
mean I can believe it, I’m just so proud of you,” he said, brushing
a damp curl from her forehead.

“I’m proud of me too,” she admitted.

“You should be. Not just because you rang
the bell. I know you had a lot of goals when you moved here and you
haven’t reached them all yet, but you’re doing a damn fine job of
getting there, Philly. I never knew a woman with a stronger will.
You figure out what you want and you take no prisoners. I admire
that.”

Her lips trembled as his words sunk in. So
many times in her life she felt less than everyone else—or in her
case
more.
Things were different. She wasn’t perfect. She
still had a boatload of flaws, but she liked herself in a way she’d
never been able to claim before. Finn did that.

It wasn’t that she only found value in
herself through Finn, but he showed her she was valuable in a way
she couldn’t find on her own. He was like her beacon in the night.
He made her happy and made her see reasons to celebrate herself and
the little victories in life. He even got her to eat ice cream
again, small bites, but she realized she could have a little and
that was enough.

Bottom line, she loved him more than she’d
ever loved anything in the entire world. “Thank you.”

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.
She was thanking him for the sweet compliment, but also thanking
God again. Never had she imagined this sort of contentment. She was
finally at peace with herself and believed life didn’t have to be
so lonely or hard. There were good days and there were bad, but
she’d take days of bad for even a few minutes of good, especially
when the good included Finn.

* * * *

The following week was Thanksgiving. She was
a little high strung. There was a fine line between excitement
about seeing her Philly friends and vomiting all over her suitcase
from nerves. Finn had been very understanding all week. She had no
idea how he remained so patient with her when she was acting like a
complete psycho.

As he sat on her bed eating a banana, she
rummaged through her closet and tossed various pieces of clothing
around her room. She’d have to refold everything.

“Do you realize you’ve been packing for five
days? You’re only going home for four.”

They were leaving Thanksgiving morning. One,
because she didn’t like driving at night and two, because it was
widely known the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was the biggest bar
night of the year and the worst for travel.

She and Finn were leaving at six a.m. and
returning to Center County on Sunday. It was Tuesday night and she
had packed and unpacked more times than she could count. “I don’t
know what to bring. I don’t know if we’ll be going out and if we do
I don’t know what to wear.”

“Just bring two nice outfits and a bunch of
casual stuff. I’m bringing jeans.”

“All you own are jeans,” she huffed, digging
through her shoes. “These or these?” she asked, holding up two
pairs of pumps.

“Mmmm, the red ones.” She studied the shoes
and tossed the red ones back in the basket and opted for the black.
He laughed. “I’ll never understand women.”

“You don’t need to understand women. You
only need to understand me.”

“True.”

Once she had her suitcase packed with
everything but her sneakers, she carried it to the front door. She
wanted everything loaded up Wednesday night so she could run out
the door first thing Thursday morning. But she needed to run one
last time before she packed her sneakers.

“You should bring your stuff over tomorrow
so I can load the car,” she suggested.

“Hey, OCD, relax. We’ll have everything
loaded up and ready to go in time. Stop obsessing. Everything will
be fine.”

She took a deep breath, fighting the urge to
vomit again. She was ridiculously nervous. Maybe it was because she
was finally bringing home a guy. Maybe it was because she’d lost
thirty-seven pounds since leaving home six months ago. She needed
to calm down.

“Sorry. I don’t know why I’m acting like
this.”

“I think you need to get your mind off
things. How about tomorrow we go out? Braydon will be home from
college, so it should be a fun night.”

“But then we’ll be hung over.”

“I’ll drive and you don’t have to get
wasted. Let’s just go out and have fun. Then before you know it
we’ll be driving to the city and you won’t have to worry. Remember
that saying, it’s not the boom, but the anticipation of the boom?
You’re just going to keep working yourself up over nothing.”

“Okay,” she whined, leaning into him.
“Thanks for understanding I’m crazy and still loving me.”

“Hey, being around family is stressful. I
know.”

“Are you nervous to meet my parents?”

“A little.”

She laughed. They’d love him. Sure, her dad
would threaten disembowelment and castration if Finn hurt her, but
that’s only because he was an Italian father of two daughters, born
and raised in South Philly. It came with the territory. But she had
no doubt Finn would win over her mother and father in a matter of
minutes. “They’ll love you as much as I do.”

“I hope.”

* * * *

The following night, Mallory needed to run.
Her nerves were making her crazy and she couldn’t seem to settle
her stomach. She ran six miles and was feeling every ache by the
time she got into the shower. Maybe she’d skip the bar that night
and just go to bed early.

When she was drying her hair her phone
buzzed. She had a voicemail from Finn. She hit the button and
listened to the message.

“Hey, babe, it’s me. Braydon needs to take
his car into the shop and wants me to drop him off. I told him
since I’d be away all weekend he could use my truck. I’m going to
drive him into town now. Why don’t you just meet me at O’Malley’s
to save time then we’ll stay at your place tonight? Don’t worry I’m
all packed. Love you. See you soon.”

She put down her phone and sighed. She
supposed her plan to skip the bar wasn’t going to happen. Venturing
to her closet she dug out something to wear.

* * * *

Walking into O’Malley’s with Braydon was
like walking into
Cheers
with Norm. Everyone cheered when
they saw the blond McCullough son had returned home and women
flocked to him. Finn patted his brother’s shoulder and went off to
find Mallory. The lot was packed and he didn’t see her car, but
that didn’t mean she wasn’t there.

Kelly was busy at the far end of the bar,
but they had a new bartender working—Sue or Sally or something. He
approached the edge of the bar and muscled his way to the
front.

“Can I help you?”

“Can I get a draft?”

She disappeared and returned a moment later
with his beer. “Hey, you’re Kelly’s brother, right? One of the
twins?”

“Yeah. I’m Finn.”

“Finn? There was a girl here looking for you
a few minutes ago.”

He paid for his beer and left the change on
the bar. “Do you know where she went?”

“She headed in the backroom, I think.”

“Thanks.” He nudged his way through the
crowd and headed toward the back where the pool tables were. As he
ducked into the room he saw a few guys having a game and a couple
people sitting in the booths along the wall. Then he saw her.
Erin.

“There you are,” she purred, abandoning her
drink on a tall table.

Great. This was the last thing he felt like
dealing with. He scanned the room for Mallory. “Hey, Erin. Have you
seen Mallory?”

She stepped close and smiled. “Not here.
She’s pretty hard to miss.”

He grit his teeth and took a step back. She
cornered him against the pay phone. He needed to get rid of her
before Mallory showed up. “Well, it was nice seeing you.”

As he turned she snatched his beer out of
his hand and took a swig. “Wait, I was looking for you. I need to
talk to you.”

She could keep the beer. Their days of
sharing beverages were over. God only knew where her mouth had
been. “What, Erin?”

She pouted. “You never have time for me
anymore. I remember when I was all you thought about.”

“Well, those days are over.”

“Right, because you found yourself someone
new. I have to admit, she’s a whole lot more woman than I ever
was.”

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t start.”

“Sorry. You’re so touchy.” She stepped
closer. Her finger plucked at the collar of his shirt. “I couldn’t
sleep last night. Wanna know why?”

“Not really.” He caught her wrist and shoved
off her touch.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was up all night
thinking about how good it used to be with us. Remember how hot we
were?”

No. He didn’t remember. They ran lukewarm at
best. They were always fighting and Erin was the unforgiving type.
For as volatile as their relationship had been, they didn’t even
have good make up sex. She used sex to get things, like her way,
which she got a lot.

“Don’t do this, Erin. I’m not in the mood
for games.”

She lifted to her toes and whispered in his
ear. Her breath smelled like she’d already had a few drinks. “I
used to love sucking your cock. I bet she can’t do it like I
can.”

Gripping her hips to push her away, she
turned and caught her mouth with his. He jerked, but his head hit
the wall. Her arms laced around his neck and he dug his fingers
into her hips to rip her off.

* * * *

Mallory saw Finn’s truck and knew he was
there. The parking lot had cars everywhere. She’d never seen the
bar so busy. As she pushed her way inside she searched for him, but
didn’t see him. She saw Braydon, but only women surrounded him.

Heading to the bar, she found Kelly. “Hey,
Philly. What can I get you?”

“Hey, Kelly. Can I just have a ginger
ale?”

“Sure, love. You feeling all right?”

“Yeah, just sore and my stomach’s
upset.”

He used the soda gun to fill a glass. She
handed him a few dollars and he shook her off. “Don’t worry about
it.”

“Thanks. Have you seen Finn?”

“Yeah. I think he’s in the back.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later.”

Getting to the back of the bar was no easy
task. Some guy nearly spilled his drink down her front and twice
she got elbowed in the boob.
Assholes.

The back room wasn’t as crowded. She stepped
through the door and saw some people sitting around and playing at
the billiards. She scanned the room for Finn and there was a loud
shatter.

Something told her it was her glass of soda,
but she didn’t know. Her eyes were glued to her boyfriend, cozied
up at the back wall, kissing his ex.

Her chest ached as she breathed rapidly.
No. This isn’t happening!

The crash of her glass must have drawn some
attention. Everyone looked at her, including Finn, but all she
could see through the haze of betrayal was that slut’s lip-gloss
covering his mouth.

A gasp left her mouth and she shook her
head. She needed to get out of there. He pushed Erin away and
cursed. “Mallory! Wait!”

No way.
She turned and pushed her way
through the crowd. She nearly slipped on the dance floor and some
guy caught her arm. “Hey, cutie, where you rushing off to?”

“Let go of me!” she snapped, ripping her arm
out of his grip.

“Don’t let her leave!” Finn yelled over the
crowd. She turned and saw him practically climbing over the mob of
people separating them. “Mallory! It wasn’t what it looked
like!”

A sound of absolute distress left her and
she shoved her way to the door. Those were the last famous words of
every cheater.

When she reached the door her hands slammed
into the handle and she propelled herself into the parking lot. She
rushed to her car and yanked her purse over her shoulder. As she
dug for her keys the bag fell to the ground and if things fell out
she didn’t care. She saw her keys, grabbed them, scooped up her bag
and made it to her car.

The door to the bar burst open and Finn came
flying out. “Mallory, wait a minute!”

Her hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t
get the door unlocked. He grabbed her shoulder and her purse fell
again.

“Wait a damn minute, will you? It’s not what
it looked like!”

“
Fuck you, McCullough!”
She ducked
and snatched up her purse, this time not sparing a minute to repack
it. Her door unlocked and she threw all her crap inside, not caring
where it landed. She slid behind the wheel and jammed the key in
the ignition.

Finn caught the door.
“Wait!”

“
No!
Get away from me! How could
you?”

“I didn’t do anything! She kissed me! I was
shoving her away!”

“I saw you!”

“I was pushing her off. I was only back
there because I was looking for you.”

“Yeah, you were really looking hard.” Her
hand swiped under her eyes.

“I was! Damn it, Mallory, I wouldn’t cheat
on you. I fucking love you!”

“Right, until something better comes
along.”

“Wrong. There is no one better than you.
You’re all I want. What do I have to do to prove that to you?”