Finally Finn (Los Rancheros #4) (13 page)

“You’re telling me, about the assistant
thing. Something weird is going on there. But what do you mean Finn
is terrifying?”

Ali leans closer and lowers her voice. “You
aren’t going to give me anything on the big part of the comment?
Come on, Sadie. I thought we were BFFs.”

I throw my head back and laugh. “I thought
you had to be their age to have BFFs?” I gesture to the paddock
where the girls are riding with Sean and Jonny.

“You’re never too old. Stop avoiding the
question.”

I huff jokingly. “Of course he is, what do
you take me for?”

“Yeah!” she says, raising her hand for a high
five. Okay, now I feel like a teenager, but it’s kind of nice.
“That man is scary. He’s all rumbly and . . .” She lowers her chin
and says in a deep voice trying to imitate Finn, “Call me Finn,
please.”

I laugh hysterically when she gets up and
starts strutting around the porch with her chest puffed out and
arms swinging like a gorilla.

“What the hell are you doing, baby?” Deklan
asks, coming outside in all of his tattooed, pierced glory.

“Hey, Dek. I was imitating Finn.” Ali
chuckles, taking her seat again.

“What’s up Sadie?”

“Hey, Deklan. I hope you don’t mind me
borrowing your employees?” I try to keep my eyes on his face. Ali
smirks like she knows where my eyes want to go, which is all over
his damn body. He’s all dark and stubbly. Makes me miss Finn.

“Nah, they love it.” He turns to his wife.
“Why are you calling Finnigan Brennick, Finn?”

Ali rolls her eyes. “Because he said I could,
and Sadie knows him so I was explaining why I think he’s scary.”
Deklan moves her out of her seat, sits in it and pulls her into his
lap. Then he eats the rest of her caprese.

“Hey, I wasn’t done,” Ali complains.

“Open up, baby.” Deklan feeds her and I avert
my eyes. “So what’s up with you and Finn?”

“What?” It takes me a second to realize he’s
talking to me. “Oh. Well, he . . .” I shrug, not knowing what to
say.

Deklan shrugs back. “I know those are his
kids. You guys living together, or what?”

I blink at him, shocked. “I . . . I don’t
think so. I don’t know. I’ve been helping out since he had a family
emergency.”

“But he’s home now,” Ali adds helpfully.

“Yes,” I say through clenched teeth. “He’s
home.”

“And you’re sleeping in his bed,” she keeps
going.

“That’s none of your business,” I tell
her.

Deklan shrugs again, looking bored. “It’s not
anybody’s business. Kids are cute, though.”

“Yeah, they grow on you.” I look toward the
backyard and watch their heads bob as they trot or whatever in a
circle.

Batty’s been home for almost a week and
hasn’t made any mention of me leaving. I take another bite of
cheese and decide to worry about it later.

~

When we get home, Aiden and an older man are
in the living room. The elder Brennick is a firecracker and I love
everything about him. “There’s my girls. Come give Poppa some
sugar,” he grumbles from the recliner, where he sits most of the
day.

As the girls stampede toward him, I yell,
“Gentle. Be gentle with Poppa.” The slow significantly and lean
over slowly to give him half hugs and a kiss. When they go to Aiden
to give him a hug, Patrick’s eyes land on me.

“I’m missing one, sweet girl. Where’s Poppa’s
sugar?”

I smile and drop my purse on the kitchen
counter. “You’re an old fox, you know that, Patty?”

“I maybe old, but I’m not dead, girl.” I kiss
his scratchy cheek and move back into the kitchen.

“Homework, girls. Come sit.” Aiden stays on
the couch, and I help the girls through their reading and math.

“What do you want for your birthday,
poppets?” Patrick yells from the living room. Homework is instantly
forgotten and I sigh. They leave me, so I switch over the laundry
and bring the clean over to the couch and plop it down next to
Aiden.

He raises his eyebrows, so I do it back.
“You’re keeping company in this house, those are the kids clothes.
Get to folding, mister.”

He shakes his head, and picks up a shirt out
of the basket.

“Can I please have a horse, Poppa?”

“Sean says we can keep it at their
house.”

“And we could go over there to feed them
before school. Aunt Sadie can take us.”

I clear my throat loudly, trying to get the
twin’s attention. Patrick is looking at me in shock, and I shake my
head lamely.

“Them?” he asks.

“Well, Bridgette would need one too. I want a
polka dot one, they’re called appaloosas, and so pretty.”

“So two horses, then?” Patrick asks as the
garage door opens. I spin around in alarm.

“Two what?” Finn asks, shutting the door
behind him.

“Smell my hand, Uncle Finn,” Hannah says,
coming at him with her hand raised.

“What the hell?” he yells, backing away.

“It still smells like Donka. I love that
smell.” Hannah brings her hand to her face and breathes deep.

“Go wash your hands. Both of you,” I order,
completely frazzled.

“What the hell did I walk into?” Finn asks,
pulling his tie off. I take it and turn to the hall.

“Nothing. I’m going to make sure the girls
use soap.” I make it two steps before Finn grabs my arm and spins
me around.

“No you don’t. Did I hear horses?”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking
about.” I swallow loudly as Patrick and Aiden start laughing.

Finn narrows his eyes and I shrug helplessly.
“They wanted to start lessons.”

“Lessons . . . in what exactly?”

“Riding,” I mumble.

“Horse riding lessons?” he clarifies
carefully as his grip gets tighter.

“Maybe.” I try to pull his fingers one by one
from my arm.

“I don’t remember having this conversation.
Did I black out somewhere?”

“Yes?” I ask desperately.

Finn tilts his head to the side. “Try
again.”

“Okay, so they said they love horses more
than anything, and wanted to learn to ride. I’m there the whole
time, and it doesn’t conflict with their other activities. It’s
actually really nice, and in the neighborhood. You know the owners
and they wear helmets. It’s at—”

“You put the kids on thousand pound animals
without asking me? Who are these people? Do you know if they’re
qualified to teach? Are they ripping you off because of who I am?
Do you have any idea if they’re going to run their mouth? Jesus
Christ, Sadie.” He drops his hand and spins around to rake his
fingers through his hair.

“It’s Deklan Thomas’s house. It’s his horses.
I sit outside with Ali and watch while his professional horse
trainers work with the girls,” I explain quietly, then walk to the
bathroom where the girls are playing in a sink full of water. The
mirror and their clothes are soaked.

It takes a minute to dry the bathroom and
change the kids’ clothes. By the time I come out, it’s dinner time,
which is nowhere near ready. Sighing, I throw my hair up in a messy
bun and clear off the worksheets from the table. It’s Friday, they
can finish it tomorrow. Who gives kids homework on a Friday,
anyway?

Making dinner for three grown men, on top of
two little girls, and myself, is vastly different and a lot more
work. I push through, deciding there’s no time to bake anything and
hand a platter full of marinated meat to Aiden and foil wrapped
corn on the cob to Finn.

They look down and up at me with blank
stares. I roll my eyes. “Go be men. Grill something.” Finn is still
in his suit so he hands Aiden his food and walks back to the hall
pulling off his cuff links as he goes.

I mop the kitchen and make the girls unload
the dishwasher so that it will be ready for after dinner dishes as
I make a macaroni salad that’s simple enough for me to not screw
up.

When the guys bring in the food from the
grill, I have the table set and we all sit down. Everyone grabs
hands and it takes me a second to realize this is part of Patrick’s
routine with them. This is the first time he’s been healthy enough
to sit at the table since he’s been home. Usually I just bring him
a plate.

“Bridgette, will you say Grace, please?” he
asks.

“Dear God, thank you for Uncle Finn, Poppa,
and Daddy. Thanks for Aunt Sadie and the food and the horses.
Thanks a lot for the horses. I love horses. Amen.”

I meet Finn’s glare over the table and pick
up something blindly.

“Corn?”

~

“All I’m saying is you should have asked
me.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

The kids are in bed and Finn and I are
climbing into his. Dinner was tense for me, but Aiden and Patrick
seemed to enjoy it well enough.

“You have to talk to me about this stuff,
Sadie.” He turns to me and I shrug.

“Aiden didn’t seem to have a problem with it
when he found out.” Wrong. So the wrong thing to say judging by the
vain in his neck that pops out.

“Aiden, huh? What else is okay with Aiden,
huh?” he demands.

“What do you mean?” I ask warily.

“He seems to be spending a lot of time here
all of a sudden. He used to pick the kids up from school on Fridays
and I never saw him because he would take them to school on Monday.
Now he’s here for fucking dinner. Is he here before dinner? Before
the kids get home from school? How long is he here in this house?”
he shoots rapidly.

I hold up my hands with my mouth hanging
open. “What the hell? Didn’t this used to be his house? Isn’t he
allowed here?”

“Do you want him here?”

“He’s the kids’ father. He should be where
they are.”

“What about when they aren’t here?”

“Finn. What’s happening? Are you jealous?
Because there’s nothing—”

He moves so fast, I’m on my back with my hair
fisted in his hand before I finish my sentence. “Fucking Finn.
Always Finn. What happened to Batty, huh? Why the change?”

“I don’t understand,” I say cautiously.
“What’s wrong with Finn?”

“I’m Batty to you,” he says through clenched
teeth. He yanks my hair and I catch my breath. “Say it.”

“Okay.” I put my hands on his chest between
us. “You’re Batty.” I pull my hands through his hair as he shudders
out a breath. He’s seriously freaking me out. “Batty, it’s
okay.”

He releases me and rolls to his back. “Don’t
do that. I don’t want you to placate me. You call me Finn all the
time now. Why did you change?”

I roll onto an elbow. “The kids call you
Uncle Finn. I can’t call you Batty to them. I guess I just started
thinking of you as Finn.”

He moves his head to look at me. “Except when
I’m inside you. You call me Batty then.”

“You’ll always be Batty then. You always have
been.” He pulls me on top of him and yanks my head down to his
lips. What just happened?

 

 

BATTY

I take her mouth savagely, without mercy, the
way I did that first night. She doesn’t get that I want to be Batty
to her. I came alive the first time she called me that corny made
up name. I saw the rainbow in a black and white world and she’s my
pot of gold.

Chapter 16

SUNDAY

“You’re sure they’re going to be okay?” Finn,
or Batty, or whoever the hell is in the mask, asks.

“Yeah. They’re really good with him.”

“Alright, I’m trusting you.”

I roll my eyes. “Got it. Thanks for that.
They’re seriously so good with him, all I do is sit against the
wall and try to disappear. You’ll see.”

We walk down the hall and he leads the kids
into the room at the end, while I turn the corner and knock on
Mara’s door.

When I walk in, there’s such a heavy feel to
the room. I swallow tightly and paste on my brightest smile.
“Hello, beautiful. I come with pretties. I’ve got a new green and
sparkly black that I think—”

“Just can it, Sadie. Go paint someone else,”
she says meanly. My eyes shoot to her mother, and she just covers
her mouth with her hand and runs from the room.

“What the hell? You like upsetting your mom
like that?” I ask, tossing my purse on the floor angrily then pull
a chair up to her bed.

Mara sighs tiredly. I know she’s tired. She’s
been tired for a long time. Her cheeks have sunken dramatically
since the last time I was here. I know with the heavy beat of my
heart that she doesn’t have long now.

“Everybody keeps telling me to fight. Why?”
she asks with tears she won’t let fall in her eyes.

I steel myself and do what I do. “You’re
better than this, Mara. You want to be grumpy and sullen, lay it on
me. Give it all to me, because that woman hasn’t given up on you
and she never will. She’s a good mom. A lot of people don’t get
that.”

“Like you, you mean?” she asks with a little
less hostility.

I shrug and pull out the nail polish. “Nah. I
hope that if I was ever in your situation she would have been
there. But she didn’t have to step up like that.”

“Tell me about her.” For the first time, it
occurs to me that she called me Sadie when I walked in.

“My mom worked a lot.” I try to wrap it
up.

“Where was your dad?”

“On the couch. He was a drunk.”

“And?” she asks, somehow knowing I’m leaving
the important part out.

“And a drunk. Happy?”

“No. I’m sorry you grew up like that, but at
least you got to grow up.”

Some things just don’t have a tidy comeback
line. So, you just have to change the subject. “What’s up with you
calling me Sadie?”

Mara rolls her eyes in her head, and with her
sunken cheeks and bald head, they look too big to come back for a
second, but they do.

“Oh, please. All I have here is a TV and the
iPod you gave me. I’ve seen the show.” For the first time her
cheeks show a little color.

“Yeah. So you figured me out.”

“Yup. Who knew that the girl who paints nails
is actually a superstar? Should I be asking for your autograph
now?”

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