Thoreau was already walking up the stairs to join him. “He has a point.”
“War has made him wise,” Wyatt muttered, following the two men into his old place and wondering where the hell Fiona had run to this time.
***
Fiona
What am I doing? she wondered as she pulled up to Seamus and Bellamy’s house. She couldn’t go to the bar, she knew. That would be the first place Thoreau would look. She didn’t want to go to the airport. Not yet. But after the things Thoreau had said to her, she hadn’t been able to stay.
He was right about all of it. She’d lied. How could they trust her? They loved her and she’d done the one thing she’d been trying to avoid—she’d hurt them both.
For some reason, it wasn’t JD or Jake she wanted to see right now. She needed a parent. Someone who might understand what she was going through. And the best parent she knew lived in this house. The first Finn she’d ever met the day she was hired at the pub.
Seamus.
Penny and Wes’ mother, Presley, was unstable, just like Fiona’s parents had been. She was in a home because she couldn’t be trusted with her kids, so he knew firsthand what it was like to fear for the safety of his children. He would get why she’d been so afraid to think about this, too afraid to tell Wyatt. She knew he would.
Who are you trying to convince?
“Are you planning to sit in that hot car all day, Fiona?”
“Mr. Finn?” Fiona unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of Wyatt’s truck as his Uncle Shawn walked toward her from the big house. The older man was wearing flip-flops, shorts and a pub t-shirt. He was holding a water bottle and his hair was suspiciously wet. “Were you swimming?”
“Caught me.” Shawn grinned and Fiona felt her anxiety start to ease in an instant. He had a way about him. They all did, but Shawn Finn was the original. “The siren song of the indoor pool. Can’t resist it. Plus, my anniversary is coming up. I want to get in shape so I can surprise Ellen with a new move or two.”
Fiona covered her mouth, surprised she could laugh so soon after feeling her heart break. “That sounds wonderful. I was looking for Seamus.”
Shawn looked at her suitcase in the backseat before sending her a sideways glance. “He went to see Noah. Bell’s visiting his mother and the kids are all out doing some activity or another. Penny’s got a dance recital. Wes is at the movies. Little Sean is at his girlfriend’s house.”
“He has a girlfriend already?” He was barely seven.
Shawn winked. “He says she is. Her mother thinks it’s cute and lets them play in her yard. Little does she know.”
“And where’s Jake?”
He looked back toward the house. “He’s not really in a good place for company right now. I think he had a fight with his friend. Someone named Shelley? I heard him yelling from downstairs, which is saying something with a house this size.”
Shelley Wayne? Fiona frowned, but then Shawn was taking her hand and sliding her arm through his. “There’s a beautiful side garden Bellamy made for Penny, back when she still believed in fairies. It has a shaded gazebo where we can sit for a while and catch up on things. I haven’t seen you in months.”
His silver hair was drying over a face lined with life but still incredibly handsome. This man and his loving wife had raised four children of their own. He was a hero to his nephews, an attentive grandfather and, judging by his reaction to his family’s life choices, an incredibly open-minded individual He understood loss, too. His twin brother had cut ties with him long before he died, and Shawn had discovered things about him along the way that had broken his heart.
But you wanted to talk to Seamus.
Shawn had gotten her into the gazebo and seated before she could even think about declining his invitation. He groaned a little as he lowered himself beside her, slapping his hands on his thighs before studying the garden. “Have you decided whether or not I’m a good enough substitute yet?”
Fiona sat up straighter, startled. “What do you— How did you know what I was doing?”
One side of his mouth kicked up in a half smile. “I used to own the pub you work in now. I opened the place, and a good bartender’s instincts never really die. Would you be here wanting to talk to Seamus about his cousin, Wyatt? Or his business partner, that handsome young Thoreau Wayne? Or both?”
God, he was good. But he didn’t know everything. No one did.
You have to talk to someone.
“I wanted to talk to him about Presley. And my parents. I wanted someone to tell me it was okay that I lied about being pregnant, and that I’m not a horrible person who actually managed to ruin the best thing that ever happened to me by being crazy like my mother.”