Sweet Little Lies: Heartbreaker Bay Book 1 Read online

  “You okay?” he asked. “You just moaned.”

  Huh. Maybe she really was going to live. She dragged her back to his. His hair was tousled, his jaw beyond a five o’clock shadow, but he still looked hot.

  She hated him. “You should go,” she said knowing he either had to work or sleep.

  He shook his head and brushed his lips over her forehead at the hairline. “It’s been a couple of hours since you last got sick,” he said. “Sip some more water.”

  Her stomach was much calmer now, but her head was beating to its own drum. She could feel it pulsating.

  “You’re dehydrated,” he said. “You need the water to get rid of the fever and headache.”

  Too achy to argue, she nodded. She managed to take a few sips and then her body took over, demanding more.

  “Careful,” Finn warned, pulling it away when she started to gulp it. “Let’s see how that settles first.”

  “Thor?”

  “He’s right here, sleeping on my feet. You want him?”

  Yes. But she was in bad enough shape to hug him too tight and the last time she’d done that, he’d gotten scared and bit her. She’d stick with just Finn for now. She was pretty sure Finn only bit when naked. Or on really special occasions.

  She fell asleep on him again and woke up much later in her own bed. Willa was helping her change.

  “That man is gone over you,” Willa murmured, tucking Pru into bed.

  “It’s the damn fountain.” Pru had to hold her head on, keeping her eyes shut even when Willa had paused.

  “Fountain?” she asked.

  Maybe if Pru hadn’t been dying, she wouldn’t have answered. “I wished,” she said. “I wished for Finn to find love, but the fountain got it all wrong and gave me love instead. Stupid fountain. He’s the one who deserves it.”

  “Honey,” Willa said softly. “We all deserve love.”

  Pru wanted that to be true. God, how she wanted that . . .

  “And how do you know the fountain didn’t get it right?” Willa asked. “Maybe you’re his true love.”

  Pru drifted off on that terrifying thought.

  “You’re going to want to sip some of this.”

  It was Elle. She sat on the bed at Pru’s hip and offered a mug.

  “What is it?” Pru asked.

  “Only the best tea on the planet. Try it.”

  “I’m not thirsty—”

  “Try it,” Elle said again finally. “You’re nearly translucent, you need fluids.”

  So Pru sipped.

  “Now,” Ella said calmly. “What’s this I hear about the fountain and some wish going astray?”

  Pru choked on her sip.

  Elle rolled her eyes, leaned forward, and pounded Pru on the back.

  “Willa told you,” Pru said on a sigh.

  “Yeah. She’s cute but she can’t keep a secret. She doesn’t mean any harm, I promise. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. Mostly she’s worried about you and thought I could beat some sense into you.”

  Pru blinked.

  “Metaphorically,” Elle said. “And plus she wanted to borrow some change so she could go make a wish, seeing how it worked out so good for you.”

  “The wish was for Finn!”

  “Uh huh.”

  “It was!”

  “Well then, I’d say you got a two-fer.”

  Chapter 26

  #WaxOnWaxOff

  The next time Pru opened her eyes, the hallway light allowed her to see that someone was sprawled in the chair by her bed. That someone rose when she stirred and sat at her hip.

  “How you doing?” Finn asked.

  She blinked at the crack of dawn’s early light creeping in through the slats of her blinds, casting everything in a hazy gold glow. From outside the window came the early chatter of birds, obnoxiously loud and chipper. She moaned. “I’ve never figured out if they’re happy that it’s morning or objecting to its arrival.”

  Finn smiled. “I vote for objecting.”

  Her too. He’d changed, she couldn’t help but notice. Different jeans, a rumpled black T-shirt. Hair still tousled. Jaw still stubbled. Eyes heavy-lidded. He was without a doubt the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. Which told her one thing at least.

  She hadn’t died.

  He propped her up in her bed, tied her crazy-ass hair back and brought her toast. Cut diagonally. She just stared up at him. Was he a fevered dream? “Tell me the truth,” she murmured, her voice rough and haggard. “You’re a fevered mirage, right?”

  He frowned and leaned over her, one hand planted on the mattress, the other going to her forehead. His frown deepened and he leaned in even closer so that she caught a whiff of him.

  He smelled like heaven on earth.

  She did not smell like heaven on earth, and worse, she felt like roadkill. Like roadkill that had been run over, back upped on, and run over again. Twice.

  But not Finn. She pressed in close and plastered her face to his throat at the same moment he pressed his mouth to her forehead.

  “You don’t feel fevered,” he muttered.

  “No, that’s what happens when things are a mirage. In fact, last night never even really happened.”

  Pulling back, he met her gaze. “So I suppose you remember nothing.”

  “Nothing,” she agreed quickly. “How could I? Nothing happened.”

  His lips twitched. “Nicely done.”

  “Thank you.”

  He smiled. And then dropped the bomb. “Tell me about the fountain.”

  “On second thought,” she said. “Maybe I actually died. I’m gone and buried . . .”

  “Try again.”

  She looked into his eyes, trying to decide if he knew the truth about her wish—in which case she might have to strangle Willa and Elle—or if he was just fishing. “Well,” she said lightly. “It was built back in the days when Cow Hollow was filled with cows. And—”

  “Not the fountain’s history, smartass,” he said. “I mean why you were muttering about it in your feverish haze.”

  Huh. So maybe Elle and Willa didn’t have to be strangled after all. “I was feverish and delusional,” she said. “You need to forget everything you heard. And saw,” she added.

  “You wished for love on the fountain?” he asked with a whisper of disbelief.

  “What does it matter, you don’t believe in the myth anyway, remember?”

  “That’s not an answer,” he said.

  “I don’t believe in the myth either,” she said, and he fell quiet, letting her get away with that.

  Instead of pushing, he nudged the toast her way. “Eat. And drink. You need to hydrate.”

  “You sound like a mom.”

  “Just don’t call me grandpa.” He got up to go, but she caught his hand.

  “Hey,” she said. “You went over and above last night. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know.”

  It was hard to hold his gaze. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

  He just looked at her for a long beat. “Anytime.”

  By the next day, Pru was completely over the food poisoning and back to work, which was a good thing for several reasons. One, Jake desperately needed her.

  And two, she needed to get over throwing up in front of Finn, and short of a memory scrub, working her ass off was the only way to do it. So she buried herself, banning thoughts of Finn, needing to build up her immunity to his sexy charisma.

  This worked for two days but then her efforts to lay low failed when he showed up at the warehouse.

  He was waiting for her between two tours, propping up a pillar in the holding area where passengers hung out before and after boarding the ships.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised.

  “Need a minute with you.” He took her hand and pulled her outside. He was in low-slung jeans and a dark green henley the exact color of his eyes. His hair had been finger combed at best and he hadn’t shaved, leaving a day’s wort