“What things? Did he do something to piss you off?”
“No. Nothing like that. Esther invited us to a housewarming after they get back from their honeymoon, and then Finn made friends with some people in the wedding party who invited us to the lake next weekend for a barbecue.”
Honor smiled. “That all sounds fun.”
“Except that all those people think we’re engaged.”
“Oh.” Honor leaned back in her chair. “And you wanted it to be a temporary thing.”
“Exactly.”
“So you don’t want to hang out with Finn?”
“That’s not it. I mean, we got along great. Maybe too great. And that’s the problem.”
“You like him.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s a problem.”
“You repeating what I say isn’t helping, Honor.”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to understand where the dilemma is here. You and Finn hung out together for four days. Based on all the flirting and closeness I saw between the two of you, I’d say you really liked him.” She shrugged. “I guess I don’t see the problem.”
Brenna leaned forward to emphasize her point. “The problem is . . .” And then nothing came out of her mouth.
Honor offered up a tilted smile. “Yes?”
She opened up her mouth to speak again. And, again . . . nothing.
“Dammit.” There was a definite problem with her and Finn, she just couldn’t articulate what a serious issue it was at the moment.
“You want to know what I think?” Honor asked.
“Not particularly, but I doubt that’ll stop you.”
“I think you not only like Finn, you desperately like him. Like the so-much-smoking-hot-chemistry-that-you-wish-you-were-over-at-his-place-right-now, naked-and-having-sex kind of like him.”
Brenna lifted her chin, wishing her mind wasn’t conjuring up those images in her head. “Do not.”
Again that smug smile from Honor. “Liar. It’s written all over your face, and your body language whenever you were around him this weekend said otherwise.”
“What body language?”
“You leaned into him like you wanted a lot more of what he was offering.”
“I did not do that.” Did she? She couldn’t remember. “Besides, it was all playacting for the benefit of Allison and Mitchell.”
Honor shook her head. “There’s acting a role and really getting into the part. You are into that man. And what’s wrong with that? Finn is great.”
“He’s all wrong for me.”
Honor laughed. “On what level is Finn wrong for you?”
“Well, first, he works here.”
Honor lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Bren. Everyone loves him. That’s a benefit right there. You already have Mom and Dad’s approval.”
“It’s not just that. Say we start dating for real and it doesn’t work out. He still works and lives on the property. How awkward would that be until the end of time?”
“I imagine you’d both be adults about it. Why don’t you do something totally unexpected for you and actually go for it with Finn? Have some fun. Sex. Romance. See what happens instead of picking things apart with a guy before they even get started.”
“I never do that.”
Honor laughed. “You do it all the time. With every guy you go out with. You zero in on the tiniest fault and end the relationship before it ever gets off the ground.”
She lifted her chin. “I have high standards. There’s nothing wrong with that. After my disastrous marriage with Mitchell, I don’t ever want to settle again.”
Honor leaned forward and grabbed Brenna’s hand. “And you don’t have to marry every man you go on a date with. Aren’t you entitled to have some fun, too?”
Her sister had a point. “You’re right. Maybe I have been overly picky. I just don’t want to get hurt again.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt again, either. You and Mitchell were not right for each other. But you and Finn? Now that has potential. Why don’t you see where it could go and instead of worrying about next month or next year, just live in the moment with him.”
“Well, we are engaged, you know.”
Honor laughed. “Plan a very long engagement with him. In the meantime, how about just dating him?”
“It’s a plan. That is if he’s still speaking to me.”
“Uh-oh. What did you do?”
“I might have in a roundabout way vacillated about all these upcoming events, giving him the impression that I might not be interested? I don’t know. I was confused and not communicating well. And I’m sure he’s angry with me for getting close to him, then backing off. It was juvenile behavior.”
Those mixed signals? Bad, Brenna. So bad.
“Oh, Brenna. You need to go fix things with him.”
“I know. I will. Tomorrow.”
Honor stood and grabbed Brenna’s other hand, hauling her out of the chair. “No. Fix it tonight. Go over to his place and apologize, then make your intentions clear to him.”
She frowned. “You’re mean. And bossy. I thought Erin was the bossy one.”
“You’d like to think that.” She pointed her sister toward the door. “Go.”
“Okay, I’m going.”
She went upstairs, slipped on her sandals, swiped her hair into some semblance of order and sucked in several breaths of self-encouragement as she came downstairs and walked out the door.
He was probably still mad at her, she thought as she made her way along the path in the dark. She’d been rude and confusing instead of excited about the prospect of the two of them spending more time together. She wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to talk to her.
She batted away mosquitoes as she wound the corner to Finn’s house, then immediately started scratching her arms. She was going to be eaten alive before she ever got there, swarmed by these bloodsucking bastards. They’d find her body in the morning, bumpy and unrecognizable after the mosquitoes feasted on her flesh all night long. And she’d have never had the chance to tell Finn she was sorry.
Or maybe she was making up this revolting death story in her head because she was afraid of facing him.
“Woman up, Brenna. You can do this.”