Cabin Fever With My First Flame (Sweet Christmas Kisses)

10. Finn

Chapter ten

Finn

I stand in the dining room and watch Bailey depart, wondering how I could have been so ignorant all of these years. I should have known that she wouldn’t have betrayed me, but then again, I didn’t think that Daniel would have either. For years, I’ve been harboring a grudge because our “friend” had manipulated Bailey and me, but I still have no idea as to why he would have done such a thing.

I don’t know how long I spend trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe and coming up short, but eventually, Micah joins me in the dining room. He waves his hand in front of my face, pulling me from wayward thoughts. “What happened between you and Bailey? Please tell me you begged her for a second chance and then kissed her!”

I put up my hands to stop him. “I did neither of those things, Micah. Bailey and I needed to work some things out first.”

Micah smirks. “Lemme guess, you confronted Bailey and found out that she never cheated on you and that your once best friend Derrick lied to you so that he could get the girl.”

“His name is Daniel.”

“Who cares what his name is? He lost the girl, and now you can swoop in and save the day! You are an elite firefighter who parachutes out of airplanes and helicopters. You run into burning buildings to pull people from the fire. Rescuing a damsel in distress is part of your job description.” Micah continues to wax poetic about princes saving the princesses from evil beasts and of star-crossed lovers finding each other because it’s their destiny.

“Seriously, Dude, what are they making you read at school?” I ask. Until now, I didn’t know that Micah had a romantic bone in his body. Then it hits me, and I turn the tables on him. “Do you have a thing for Ella?”

Micah turns several shades of pink in under a second. “No! Ella is pretty, and she’s a blast to hang out with, but she’s more ‘friend’ material at this stage in my life. I need someone older, wiser, and more mature.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Seriously, Finn. I like Avory Mills from my science class. We have chemistry together, if you get my drift.” He winks, and it looks like he has something in his eye. I’m going to have to work with him on that, especially if he wants this Avory girl to laugh with him and not at him. “Where were we? Oh, that’s right, Finn. We were discussing your lack of a love life, not mine.”

I sigh. “Micah, Bailey is here for a fresh start, not a repeat performance of the past. Now that I know the truth and that one simple question would have changed everything, I’d love a second chance with Bailey. I just don’t think she’s ready to give me one since she’s dealing with a lot at the moment. I’d settle for being friends now that we’ve cleared the air.”

“You just leave the romance to us,” Micah says. “Go with the flow, and we’ll ensure you get your do-over.”

“Um. No. Absolutely not!”

Micah rests his elbow on my shoulder, which isn’t difficult to do since he’s almost as tall as me. “Look, Finn. I know you think we’re just a bunch of kids who don’t have a clue about romance, but let’s face it, neither do you. You’re going to need our help whether you want it or not.”

I scowl at the over-confident teenager with a penchant for being happy. “I’m perfectly capable of romancing Bailey on my own.”

Micah laughs. “You’re a stud, no doubt about it. But she doesn’t want to be swept off her feet. She wants her feet rubbed . She wants to be trusted, supported, and appreciated. That’s the type of rescue Bailey needs.”

Christmas music starts blaring from the living room, and a chorus of voices singing off-key hits my ears. Instead of cringing from the noise, I find myself smiling, tapping my foot, and bobbing my head. Micah glances at my feet and grins, waiting for me to admit the truth.

“All right, Micah. You win. What do you have in mind?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” he replies, waggling his eyebrows and rubbing his hands together in excitement. “Seriously, Finn, all you need to do is be yourself. Let us handle the rest.”

“It’s what ‘the rest’ entails that has me worried,” I mumble. “Micah, don’t you have somewhere to be? Aren’t you supposed to be making cookies or something?”

He gestures in the direction of the kitchen. “Ella and I agreed that the younger kids would have more fun making the dough. It’s not as if we can all fit into the kitchen without it turning into a full-blown circus act. Besides, once Isaac and Jonah were old enough to help Mom, I was promoted to being the ‘Quality Control Specialist’ and ‘Decorating Coordinator.’ It’s my assigned position in the hierarchy in the kingdom of cookie confections.”

I chuckle. “That used to be my role and my favorite part, but that’s also because your mom knew if she didn’t keep me out of the kitchen while she was baking, the chocolate chips and other ingredients would disappear before they ever got mixed into the dough.”

I finish cleaning up the last of the dishes on the table and follow Micah toward the kitchen. I nearly drop the plates in my hand as I double over in laughter at the sight before me. Bailey knows my penchant for tidiness and has taken precautionary measures to mitigate the potential mess.

Isaac, Jonah, Mia, and Ava are all wearing black garbage bags with holes cut out for their heads and arms. The bottom of the bags are folded up and duct-taped on the sides to create makeshift pockets to catch ingredients instead of those ingredients ending up on the floor.

I sidle up next to Bailey, who is currently mixing a batch of gingerbread dough by hand. “I’ll admit, Bailey, that was an ingenious idea to use trash bags as aprons. I don’t know if I would have thought to do that.”

She doesn’t look at me, but the corner of her mouth lifts. “You wouldn’t have had to. I saw the packages of premade cookies you have in the freezer downstairs. No mess. No fuss. How very Finn-like ,” she teases.

“They taste the same,” I say, knowing full well that I’m putting my life in jeopardy with that comment.

The look of horror that crosses Bailey’s face is priceless. She stops mixing and turns to face me. “That’s blasphemous! You take that back!” she exclaims, waving the mixing spoon around in the air. “Store-bought is never better than homemade!”

“If Finn is cooking, it is,” Isaac says in all seriousness. “That’s why almost everything he makes comes from a can, bag, or box.”

Jonah nods solemnly. “If Finn tried to make something from scratch, we’d all starve.”

Bailey whips her utensil in my direction and accidentally flings a piece of dough that hits me squarely between the eyes. I’m stunned by the impact, but Bailey doesn’t register what happened as she continues her rant. “As long as I’m here, the use of pre-packaged food will be used as a last resort.”

Ella cups her hands around her mouth and shouts, “Shots fired! Take cover!”

“What? Why?” Bailey asks, not understanding the nature of Ella’s warning. Bailey finally registers what happened when she notices me wiping goop from my face. “Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry, Finn.”

“You will be,” I say in a menacing voice, but also with the corners of my mouth turned upward. I stalk toward her, and she takes a few hesitant steps backward. When I close the distance, she whispers, “Don’t you dare.”

“Oh, I dare,” I tease, snatching the cookie dough-coated spoon from her grasp and running it down the side of her face. “Now, we’re a matching pair,” I whisper back. Our gazes lock, and I use the pad of my thumb to caress her cheek, neither one of us caring that I’m smearing gingerbread all over her face.

Ignoring the world around us, she casts her eyes downward and mumbles, “You’re making a mess of things, Finn.”

“I’ll clean it up, Bailey. If you’ll allow it, I’ll make things right.”

She shakes her head and takes one more step back, causing my hand to fall by my side. Before she can get her next words out, the moment is broken by Jonah shouting, “Food fight!”

We both spin on our heels and raise our hands, shouting in unison, “NO!”

Bailey takes it one step further, “If one crumb leaves your hand, Jonah, you’ll be the one who has to clean the kitchen.” She makes eye contact with every single person in the room, including me. “That goes for all of you!”

Ella leans down and whispers something in Jonah’s ear, causing him to giggle and grin. Jonah walks over to Bailey and wraps his arms around her waist. Looking up at her, he says, “I’m sorry, Bailey. Food isn’t meant for fighting. It’s meant to show our love. We’re going to make a lot of love.”

Bailey fights back a laugh and hugs Jonah back. “Yes, we’re going to show our love through baking. Why don’t we get back to it?”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask. I don’t want to be useless, but I also don’t want to take away any joy from the kids.

Bailey points to the refrigerator. “The middle shelf still needs to be fixed, and if you have a mixer stand handy, that will save us a ton of time.”

“The shelf I can do, but you’re out of luck with a mixer stand. I’ve never had a need for one.” I open up the refrigerator and begin removing the items so that I can reattach the shelf. I flex my biceps for her and grin. “I can help stir if your arms get tired.”

Bailey wraps the bowl with plastic wrap and heads toward the front door. I ask her where she’s going, and she points toward the bowl. “There isn’t enough room to chill this in the refrigerator, and we have several more batches to make. Setting it outside for an hour or two should work like a charm.”

Before I can stop her, Bailey opens the front door and comes face-to-face with a pile of snow up to her chin. Her mouth drops open, and she just stands there in shock from the amount of fresh powder that has fallen in the past 24 hours. If that isn’t bad enough, the wind blows Bailey’s hair back and gifts her with a face full of frozen flakes.

I run over and shut the door, then take the bowl from the statue standing in front of me. I laugh as Bailey blinks rapidly, processing the magnitude of the storm outside. “You’re not supposed to eat the snow,” I joke.

Bailey shakes out her hair and wipes her face. “I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t yellow.”