Autumn Finch

Chapter 6

Leo's POV

3:25pm

I gazed out of the heavily tinted car window, safe in the knowledge that no one could see in, barely registering the scene that flashed by. I was too preoccupied with my thoughts, which were currently racing at a million miles an hour. 

I couldn't get her out of my head. Autumn Finch. 

Everything about her, from the cadence of her voice, rising and falling as she talked passionately about her favourite books, to the stunning soft brown hue of her eyes, flecked and ringed with gold. 

I couldn't stop thinking about her.

There was just something about the set of her mouth when she was angry, the way her eyes lit up and crinkled around the edges when she laughed, that tugged on my mind, like fragments of a half-remembered dream, or broken shards of a long-forgotten memory, hanging just out of reach.

And no matter how many times I lunged for the answer, no matter how close it seemed, just when I had a hold of it, it slipped through my fingers. And it was slowly, but surely, driving me insane.

"Sir, are you feeling alright?" Matt's voice startled me out of my reverie. I looked up to find him watching me through the review mirror. 

I blinked, looking down at my hands. At some point while I was thinking, I had subconsciously started chewing on my nails. An old habit, and a bad one.

I cleared my throat, hoping Matt hadn't noticed. "I'm fine," I said, giving him a weak smile. "Just... had a long day."

Matt made a noise indicating that he didn't believe that for a second, but was too preoccupied with driving to call me out on it.

Sighing again, I rubbed at my temples, wincing at the jagged edges of my nails as they dug into the skin. I would have to cut them when I got home.