Cabin Fever With My First Flame (Sweet Christmas Kisses)

6. Finn

Chapter six

Finn

Bailey offers to make breakfast while Micah and I go through an intense workout in the basement. Between lacrosse and being a junior firefighter, Micah is all about fitness and keeping his body in shape.

We’re halfway into our second set of bicep curls when Micah blurts out, “So, what’s the deal with you and Bailey? I can’t tell whether you want to throw her out into the blizzard or kiss her until you both pass out from lack of oxygen.”

“I’m sorry, what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Micah grins like the Cheshire cat. “Yeah, sure you don’t! There is clearly a history between the two of you. I see the way you look at her when you think no one is looking. It’s a lot like this.” Micah looks off in the distance wistfully and sighs deeply.

I throw my towel at his head. “I do not stare at Bailey like that. We barely know each other.” Then, under my breath, I add, “anymore.”

Micah starts his last set of reps, huffing and puffing with every curl. “That’s not…what…Ella…said. She said…that you…were…high school…sweethearts.”

Micah blows out a breath as he replaces the dumbbells on the rack. “Is what Ella told me true?”

I use the bench to do my first set of dips, working the triceps and my core. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, Micah, and you shouldn’t be gossiping.”

He comes over and joins me, but instead of doing dips, Micah sits on the floor and stretches out his legs. “You didn’t answer me, which is telling in and of itself. Is. It. True?”

“Why does it matter?” I ask.

“Why won’t you answer?” Micah snaps back. “Was she the one who got away? Was Bailey the woman that mom always referred to as ‘She who shall not be named?’”

I guess our workout is over, and it’s time for “guy talk.” I grab two bottles of water from the mini fridge and toss one to Micah before sitting down on the floor next to him. “Bailey is the one who got away, but that’s because I let her go. She broke my heart and is the reason I didn’t return to Lake George.”

Micah furrows his eyebrows and stares at a small tear in the gym mat. “But Bailey is so tiny and cute. She seems so nice. What happened?”

“It’s really not important, Micah. It happened a long time ago, and we’ve both moved on.”

Micah laughs at that. “Have you? You’re a perpetual bachelor, Finn. Sure, you’ve gone on a few dates, but you don’t let anyone get close. It’s like you held those women to a standard you’ve set, knowing they’ll never measure up.”

“I don’t have any standards,” I retort.

Micah reaches for his toes, bringing his nose to his knees. In a muffled voice, he says, “That’s what every teenage boy wants to hear from their male role model.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I don’t hold women to any set standard, Micah. I let them be who they are. They just weren’t meant for me. It’s not some secret conspiracy I’ve concocted to stay single.”

“I need some cardio to burn off this energy from being cooped up in the house, not more weightlifting.” Micah walks over and hops on the elliptical, leaving me a choice between the treadmill and the stationary bike.

No sooner than I get on the bike and start pedaling, the teenager-turned-therapist picks up right where he left off. “You have to ask yourself why those women were never meant for you.”

“Okay, Dr. Ruth. That’s enough. Bailey and I didn’t work out. It’s not that complicated. Let’s leave it at that, okay?”

Micah bellows out a laugh. “First off, I have no idea who Dr. Ruth is. Secondly, I’m not leaving it at that. Those women you dated never worked out because you measured them against the ‘Bailey Bar’—a bar that was much too high for them to reach. Bailey is upstairs right now, and if anyone can reach that bar, it’s the person who set it in the first place. You have an opportunity for a second chance, Finn. Don’t waste it.”

I stop pedaling and get off the bike, no longer in the mood to continue exercising. Micah takes the hint and stops as well, waiting for me to say whatever it is I’m going to say. “Look, Micah. The truth is she cheated on me with my best friend.”

Micah’s eyes widen, and he looks toward the ceiling as if he can see through it. Pointing in the general direction of where the kitchen would be, he asks, “You caught Bailey cheating on you? No way!”

“Not exactly. My best friend, Daniel, came clean three months after I left. He told me everything,” I admit.

“And what did Bailey say when you confronted her about it?” Micah asks.

I shrug and look down at my shoes. “She never admitted the truth. I called her a few times over the next few months, but every time we talked, she carried on like nothing was amiss. Eventually, I stopped calling. I did write her a letter and told her I was moving to California, but she never wrote me back.”

Micah folds his arms across his chest and taps his foot. “Wait. Let me get this straight. You never confronted Bailey about the supposed cheating? You never got her side of the story, even if it was simply to get some closure? You just packed up and left? Man, I’m 16, and I know better than that.”

“Hey! It was my best friend who told me the truth. Why would he lie to me?” I ask, annoyed that Micah is right.

He rolls his eyes. “Geeze, I don’t know, Finn. Why would your best friend cheat with your girlfriend in the first place? He sounds like a stellar guy and a trustworthy individual to me. I can totally see why you would take him at his word instead of talking to the person who presumably loved you.”

“Your sarcasm is duly noted, Micah. What’s done is done, and there’s no changing the past. Besides, Bailey married Daniel, so there must have been some truth in it.” I start cleaning up the gym, wiping down the equipment, and throwing the towels in the hamper.

Micah shakes his head. “You should really talk to Bailey, Finn, even if it hurts in the long run.”

“I know you mean well, Micah, but Bailey made her choice, and it wasn’t me. A second chance isn’t in the cards for either one of us,” I tell him as I begin trudging up the stairs.

Micah grins mischievously as he follows behind and I would bet my paycheck that I hear him mutter, “But I know how to stack the deck.”

When I get upstairs, I’m greeted by the scent of fresh blueberry muffins baking in the oven and by the sight of Bailey swaying to music I can’t hear. Bailey doesn’t notice us and starts rummaging through the refrigerator. The top of her body disappears, but her bum continues bouncing to the beat.

Micah pats me on the shoulder on his way to grab clean clothes and a shower, laughing and emitting more sarcasm from his mouth. “And to think, you want to pass up on the opportunity to see that view every day. It’s horrific!”

I scowl and push him along. “Shut it, Micah. Go get dressed and then wake up the boys.”

“What about the girls?” he asks.

“That’s up to Bailey. She’s their mom and knows their schedule.”

Bailey is still rummaging around in the fridge when I walk up behind her and tap her on her back.

There’s a loud oomph as Bailey smacks her head on the middle shelf, followed by a crash as a jar of pickles falls to the floor and shatters around her bare feet. Without a second thought, I scoop Bailey into my arms and set her down on a barstool, well out of the danger zone.

She holds up a stick of butter like a trophy as she rubs her head with her free hand. Bailey yells, “Why are you Hollister men always sneaking up on me!”

I pluck the earbuds from her ears and wave them in her face, the muted sound of Christmas music filtering out. “If you weren’t jamming to Nat King Cole, you might have heard us. We weren’t exactly being quiet.”

She holds out her hand, palm flat, silently asking for the earbuds back. “It wasn’t Nat King Cole. It was Lauren Daigle singing ‘Light of the World,’ thank you very much. I was wearing the headphones so that I wouldn’t wake everyone up.”

I return the earbuds and drop down to one knee to inspect her feet for any cuts. Bailey mock gasps and clutches her heart, “Oh, Finn. It’s too soon!”

“Are you getting married?” Isaac asks, shuffling into the kitchen area quietly and wiping away the sleep from his eyes.

“No!” Bailey and I shout in unison. When Isaac’s eyes become as wide as dinner plates from the rebuke, I calm my tone and add, “Sorry, Buddy. We didn’t mean to yell. I’m just checking Bailey’s feet for any cuts, not proposing. There’s a broken jar of pickles by the fridge, and your feet are also bare, so I need you to stay out of the kitchen until I clean up.”

Bailey smiles at Isaac. “Can you do me a huge favor, Isaac? Can you be the leader and keep everyone else from entering the kitchen? It will be up to you to keep everyone safe and prevent further injuries.”

Isaac puffs out his chest. “You can count on me, Mrs. Bailey!”

I lift Bailey’s foot and turn it to inspect it for injury, finding a small cut near her heel. “Don’t move. I’m going to grab the first aid kit and clean that up for you.”

Bailey pulls her foot from my grasp. “I’m fine, Finn. I’m more than capable of applying a bandage to a boo-boo. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, as well as three girls who rough-house and are prone to injury.”

I scowl at the idea of Bailey doing everything on her own, even though Daniel was with her. “You shouldn’t have had to, Bailey, and right now you don’t. You have a sliver of glass that is going to require tweezers to remove. So, unless you are a contortionist or a Master of Yoga, you’re going to need my help to get it out.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s see you put those EMT skills to use. I’ve got buns in the oven…” Bailey starts to say when there’s a loud shriek, and Ella makes her presence known.

“Mom, are you pregnant?”