Chapter 25: 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟒

BREE

The next day, I wake up on the couch, snuggled with Finn, a blanket draped over us.

After I finally stopped laughing last night, Finn started being dramatic about the peck Rose gave me and kept ranting about it.

In the end, we ended up making out and he forgot all about the peck. Then we ate, watched random shows and I fell asleep on him.

I carefully sit up not to wake up Finn. I get up from the couch and pull the blanket over him. He makes a sleepy sound which puts a smile on my face.

This is the first time I’m seeing Finn asleep. He always wakes up before me and I always go to sleep before him.

Not being able to stop myself, I lean down and kiss his forehead. Thankfully, he doesn’t wake up.

I head to my bathroom to wash up and pull my hair into a bun.

When I step back into the living room, I find Finn sitting on the couch, awake, his hair disheveled.

“Good morning,” I say as I walk to him.

He looks up and gives me one of his sleepy smiles, “good morning, amore,”

I smile back, “it’s not fair that you look so beautiful when you wake up while I look like I went through an apocalypse,”

He chuckles, the sound making a sense of awe settle into my body.

He takes my hand and gently tugs me so I sit beside him, “you don’t know how beautiful you are, amore,” he says, a soft smile on his lips.

“Tell me.”

He stares at me with the same soft, beautiful smile of his then after a moment he says, “In un campo dove sbocciano i fiori più belli del mondo, tu li supereresti comunque tutti.”

“What does it mean?”

His smile widens, “what fun would it be if I tell you?”

“That’s not fair! I don’t know italian,”

“Too bad,” he stands up and laughs when my jaw drops in disbelief, “can I use your bathroom?”

“You don’t have to ask,”

He smiles then heads to my room. I get up from the couch, fold the blanket and head to the kitchen to make coffee.

After a moment, I hear Finn exit my bedroom then a pair of arms wrap around my waist and Finn rests his chin on my shoulder.

“Where can I find your embarrassing childhood pictures?” he asks.

I smile, “nowhere.”

“Liar. Tell me where they are.” he says and squeezes me, earning a small squeal from me which makes him laugh.

“I won’t until you show me yours,”

“You already saw mine,”

“Those weren’t embarrassing,”

“It must look like it because I am so ravishing,”

I roll my eyes and he kisses my cheeks.

“I’ll make breakfast,” he says, unwrapping his arms from me.

“I want to help,” I say as he stands beside me.

“Okay. You sit and watch,”

I give Finn a ‘are you serious?’ look, “that’s not helping,”

“Yes it is. It might help me focus on cooking and not on kissing you,”

“Well, you have to control yourself. I want to help,”

“Fine. it’s hard saying no to you,”

I grin, proudly.

Finn only lets me crack eggs and pour coffee into mugs and does everything else on his own. When I complain, he shuts me up with a peck.

We take our breakfast and sit down by the counter.

“I’m going to visit Ryan today,” I say after a few bites.

“Oh, really?”

I nod. After what Finn said four days ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Ryan and I have drifted apart and almost became strangers instead of siblings.

I would never want to drift apart from my brothers, it would break me if that happened.

“What are you going to say to him?” Finn asks.

I shrug, “I don’t know. I’m just going to pay him a visit and talk to him like old times about anything.”

“Well, best of luck, amore,”

I smile, “thank you,”

After we’re done with our breakfast, we put away our dishes.

“You know-”

My sentence gets cut off when Finn’s phone dings with a notification. He picks it up and turns on his phone to read it.

Although his expression doesn’t change, something passes through his eyes for a split second and his grip on the phone tightens.

“What’s wrong?” I ask when he shoves his phone in his pocket.

“Nothing. I have to go,”

“Wait-”

Finn cuts me off with a quick kiss, “I’m sorry. I’ll call you, I promise,”

“O-okay,”

Finn leaves the apartment in a hurry and I stay rooted in my place wondering what he read on his phone.

ᯓᡣ𐭩

“Mr Hartford is in his office. You can go in,” the nice secretary tells me with a smile.

I return the smile, thank her then head to my brother’s office.

I knock twice on the door to let him know someone’s outside then open the door and peek my head inside.

He looks up from his laptop.

“Bree?”

“Yes,” I say and step inside, closing the door behind me.

“Did you burn down someone’s house?”

I freeze and blink at him, “what? No. Why would I do that?”

He shrugs, “it’s you. No one knows what you would do when you’re angry,”

“I do not go to that extreme,”

He rests his elbow on his desk and rests his chin on his fist before he speaks, “You ‘accidently’ poured water over a girl’s project in high school because she made fun of Rose’s accent,”

“Okay, that was different. She deserved that!”

He hums, “perhaps,” he says, “may I know the reason behind your visit? Do you need to bail someone out of jail?”

Right.. The last time I talked to Ryan was when we got arrested.

That was almost three months ago..

“I just came to visit.” I say, he raises an eyebrow, “don’t look at me like that,” I make my way to his table and put down the box I brought, “I made brownies,”

Ryan looks at the box then at me then back at the box.

After two seconds, he opens the box and stares at the sweets inside.

“Are these edible?”

“Of course they’re edible!”

“I can’t remember the last you cooked and… succeeded,”

I make a face at him even though he’s not looking at me.

“Rose helped me,” I confess.

“I see,” he says and sits back, “that’s better,”

“You’re mean,”

“Thank you,”

“It’s not a compliment!-”

I flinch when the door of Ryan’s office bursts open. I turn my head to find Jack standing in the frame, grinning.

“I heard our baby sister is paying us a visit- oh, brownies!”

Jack quickly forgets about his sister, shuts the door and heads to take one the brownies.

“Who made these?” he asks.

“Bree did.” Ryan answers.

Jack freezes, glances at Ryan then taps the brownie on the cover of the box, “not rock solid, are these edible?”

“Yes, they are!”

“Geez! Okay!” Jack says then drops himself on the chair across from Ryan. He looks at Ryan, “you came into this world first so you take the first bite,”

“What makes you think I didn’t already?”

“You didn’t,” I say, getting annoyed.

Why did I come here?

Ryan picks up a brownie, Jack raises his as if giving a toast. Jack clears his throat, I sigh and drop myself on the other chair, feeling exhausted.

“To our sister, who once burned an egg while boiling it-”

“Shut up!” I yell at him.

Jack shoves the brownie in his mouth and gives me his sweet smile. I direct my annoyed glare at Ryan and he quickly takes a bite of the brownie.

“How is it?” I ask, my voice containing pure annoyance.

“Good.” Jack’s answer comes out muffled while Ryan says it properly.

I smile and sit back.

“yay.”