“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said quietly, before getting up from the table to check on him. Here I was, swimming in self-pity without any thought to how this entire topic of conversation might be affecting Finn. What if we’d inadvertently triggered him with all our talk about having a place to live? I stopped outside my bedroom when I heard his voice coming from inside the closed room.

“Probably another couple of hours. I’ll call if it’s not too late.” His voice grew louder, then softer, then louder again, as I imagined him pacing the room.

I pressed a finger to my lips. What was I doing eavesdropping on his call? This was not the way to gather information. That was what the car ride home was for. I started to turn back.

“A woman at work.” Silence. “Not just me. A bunch of us are here.”

I frowned. Was he talking about me? Was I supposed to be the woman at work? Who was he talking to, and why was he lying? My brain whirred with questions. Was it his dad? Or was it one of Finn’s other hookups and he was covering his ass? My heart drummed in my chest.

“I should get back.” The door opened a crack. “I’ll call you later.”

I sprang into the bathroom like there were ants in my shoes and closed the door behind me. I leaned over the sink to regain my bearings and tried to make sense of what I’d overheard.

Who was Finn talking to, and why had he lied about who I was? Normally, I’d be all over him until I got answers, but Finn wasn’t a story. I’d been so desperate for him to confide in me, but it was becoming clear unearthing his secrets wouldn’t change what we meant to each other, which was nothing. Even if I hadn’t imagined the fond way he looked at me—even if he did really like me, as he’d professed—what good were the feelings if he lacked the intention to back them up with action?

Inviting him to dinner had been a mistake. Leo, whom I’d casually dated for almost a year, had never made an appearance at a holiday celebration, so why had I asked Finn, who I’d stopped sleeping with and would never see again once I left Pleasant Hollow? Why was I trying so hard to learn about a man to whom I meant so little he passed me off as a colleague…not even a friend?

And if it was another woman on the end of that call…screw that! He didn’t matter. The people who did matter were waiting for me at the dinner table. Before my prolonged absence raised suspicion, I left the bathroom and joined them.