by Elise Faber
They nodded, started for the stairs then stopped. “Are you Finn Stoneman?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we get a selfie?”
“Not today, boys,” he said, “Catch me in town sometime for it, okay?”
“Okay.”
They waited.
“You can still go.”
They shook themselves. “Oh . . . yeah. Okay . . . see you around.” With that, they disappeared around the corner and she listened to their doors slam, their truck engine start up, sand in the undercarriage as they backed slowly down the street.
When it was quiet, she turned to face Finn.
“You bought my house?”
The sun was coming up, highlighting the chagrin in his expression. “I didn’t mean to,” he said quickly, setting the papers on the table and coming over to her. “I knew that I wanted to spend more time here, more time with you, and so I had my assistant buy me a house.”
There were several things wrong with that statement, but probably the biggest one was, “You bought a house without seeing it?”
His gaze dropped to his feet. “I . . . uh . . . yes?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
A beat then, “An answer.”
“Have you done this buying-a-house-without-seeing-it thing before?”
He made a face.
“Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “That’s a yes. How many times?”
A sigh. “Three? No, with this one, four.”
“Four?” And she didn’t know if she was more shocked by the fact that he had four houses or that he’d bought four houses without looking at them.
“I mean, normally I see pictures,” he said quickly. “But I liked the town so much. I liked you and Ry so much, that I told him I didn’t care about the inside or outside so long as it was on this beach.”
She shook her head. “That’s why the sign was down,” she said. “I thought Brian came to his senses, that Alberto had worked some magic with him, but of course, he didn’t. Brian’s not capable of sense and Alberto would have called me back with news if he had any.” She rubbed her temples. Fuck, what a mess. She’d have to move after all. Luckily, she didn’t think Finn would make her do it today, but—
“I’ll call today and take care of it.”
“Take care of what?” she asked.
“Selling you the house back.”
Relief before her heart sank deeper. She couldn’t afford to buy the house back, even with the check in her pocket, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to qualify for a big enough mortgage without Brian’s income on the application.
“Finn.”
“When will the divorce be final?”
“Before all this?” She was doing some mental calculations, trying to figure out if she could pull money out of her retirement in order to borrow a smaller amount. “We’d reached the settlement already, waited the processing time, were just waiting for the papers to come through, but I got the call they were ready yesterday.”
“Call your lawyer and sign them.”
She frowned, still figuring out numbers even as her gut sank with the reality that there would be absolutely no way she could afford to pay market value for her place. “I’m planning on it.”
“Do it today,” Finn said. “Cut the tie.”
Her eyes shot up. “I don’t like your tone, Finn Stoneman.”
“Just be done with your ex already. Move on. Move forward.”
“What is your problem?” she snapped, glaring at him. “You somehow bought my house without me knowing and I’m trying to figure out how I could possibly afford to buy it back. Which I don’t think is possible, so I’ll need to move anyway. And further that, you haven’t once given me orders, so I’m not going to let you start doing that today, of all days.”
He smiled. “There you are, Blue Eyes.”
Her teeth clicked together. “What?”
“I was worried there for a second.” He closed the distance between them, pulled her close. “I know you’ve had a lot of promises from the men in your life, but please believe this one.” His eyes locked with hers. “I’m not going to screw you over. This house is yours. I wouldn’t take it from you. Not now. Not ever.”
“But I can’t afford to pay market value—”
“You can’t afford the price of one batch of peanut butter milk?”
“What?”
“Or for a dollar or whatever minimum amount we need to make it legal?”
“Finn—”
“I don’t need the money. I’ll keep renting the house next door or buy another place. I don’t need this one, and I definitely don’t need market value.” He cupped her cheek. “I have enough, baby. I don’t need this, too.”
She sighed, pulled back. “Finn, I can’t let you give me this house.”
“How about you just give me you, and we’ll call it even?”
Her breath froze in her lungs.
“Sign the divorce papers,” he said. “And pick me, instead. Let me be the one in your life. Let me be the one who walks with you and Rylie to school. Let me be a part of your lives, and that’s all the payment I need.”
“Finn—”
“I’ve had the happiest days of my life here. With you and Rylie. I feel again. I know you better than any woman I’ve dated, no matter the duration, and you know me just as much. I know everything won’t be smooth sailing, and it’ll be hard when I’m filming, but I can plan my schedule for more time off.” He brushed her hair off her forehead. “I can travel less, stay out of the public eye more so the media attention drops off. I can change my life so that it fits in better with yours and Rylie’s. I—”
“I don’t want you to change.”
He blinked, worry creeping into his expression.
“I love you. I know we’ve had this ideal sequestered time here. I know things will get harder if and when the media shows up.” She took a breath. “But I also know that I know you better than I ever knew my husband. You’re sweet and funny and kind and . . . you’re everything I could have ever dreamed of in a man.” Her lips curved. “Even if you are missing those thirty pounds of muscle.”
His mouth dropped open.
She gently tipped it closed. “I’m kidding about the muscle,” she said. “But I’m not kidding about loving you. I thought I would be alone forever, and then you just came knocking on my door with a bucket of sand toys, and how could I not fall for you?”
“Blue Eyes,” he said. “What am I going to do with you?”
“What do you mean?” A spike of nerves. Was it too soon? Of course, it was too soon. She was an idiot and—
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you I love you, working it up in this big speech, so you’d hear everything else and not just that and get scared off, and then you just . . . beat me to the punch.” His lips twitched. “Now, I have to be the loser who just goes, blah, blah, blah, I love you, too.”
She grinned. “You love me?”
A nod. “I never stood a chance otherwise.” He picked up her hand, placed it on his chest so she could feel his heart thundering beneath her palm. “I love you, Shannon Torres.”
“You know,” she said softly, “I grew up watching fairy tales and princess stories but never seeing myself reflected in them. I never saw the brown girl get the blond, white hero. She was always the funny friend or the smart girl in school or the one with the strict parents who never let her do anything.” She touched his jaw with one finger. “No one ever told my story, and I certainly never saw anything close, and a part of me never believed I could find what I needed and deserved. I never believed I could find you.”
He covered her hand with his, pressing it flat to his jaw. “Yours is a story that deserves to be told. Little girls who look like you, who look like Rylie, should believe they can get the hero, or better yet, that they can be the hero.”
“And that’s why I love you.”
He kissed her briefly. “Not because I have the mon
ey and connections to get those types of stories told?”
A shrug. “Okay, only partly.”
Finn laughed and tugged her even closer. “You sign the divorce papers. I’ll sign the house papers,” he said. “And then we’ll keep building this between us. We’ll go slow—”
“What if I don’t want to go slow?”
His mouth fell open again.
She laughed. “I found my gorgeous hero,” she said. “Why would I possibly want to go slow?”
“Because I’m still missing those thirty pounds of muscle.”
Her mouth dropped open, and then they were both laughing, pressed so tightly together, she forgot, for a moment, where she ended and he began. Or maybe, that was because the laughter abruptly stopped, and Finn slanted his lips across hers, kissing her until her lungs threatened to burst.
A commotion behind them as Rylie burst out the front door and onto the deck. “You’re kissing my mom again, Mr. Finn!”
Finn pulled away on a chuckle. “I am kissing her,” he said. “But I’m also loving her.” He squatted down next to Rylie and tucked a strand of her messy bedhead hair behind her ear. “Would it be okay if I love you, too?”
Wide eyes.
Trembling lips.
Then Rylie launched herself into his arms, knocking him back onto his butt on the deck. But Finn had her, his arms wrapped tightly around Ry so she didn’t fall.
And Shan knew then that Finn would always have them.
Just as she and Ry had him right back.
“I love you, too, Finn,” Ry said, squeezing with all of her little might.
“Got room for one more?” Shan asked after a few moments.
Finn’s warm, honey eyes met hers, his face soft, his arm lifting automatically, just as she’d known it would because she was already sinking down next to the two people she loved most in the world.
Holding tight.
Being held right back.
Now that was the best part of getting the hero.
Well, that, the happy ending, and the thirty pounds of muscle.
Epilogue
Blue Eyes, Wide Eyes
Finn, Six Months Later
The noise was almost deafening inside the small kitchen.
But then again, it was Sunday, and this was his family—no, this was their family. Because, of course, his parents had loved Shannon and Rylie from their first meeting almost six months before. His sister had dished on Finn being head over heels, and his parents had taken the next plane out, and Finn had found himself temporarily transplanted from the rental into Shannon’s house. Of course, it was a temporary he’d finagled his way into making a permanent after his parents had gone home the first time, and it was one he certainly didn’t begrudge.
Him and his girls.
Who were wonderful and loving and sweet and just made his life so much more.
So, no, it wasn’t a surprise they had fit right in with his family.
All of his family. All of whom had decided to come visit at the same time, and all of whom were currently creating the nearly deafening noise in Shannon’s kitchen.
Add in his mom being a mother hen, who liked to have all of her little chicks close—biologically related to her or not—and his dad having fulfilled a fatherly role to more than a number of his and his siblings’ friends and spouses over the years, and Shannon and Rylie were tucked right into the Stoneman fold.
“Sandcastles!” Rylie yelled, running through the fray, his two nieces, Stephanie and Colby, trailing after her like the trio of Musketeers they were. There was clattering as they picked up their swords—er, shovels—from the basket on the deck then pounding footsteps as they sprinted across the wooden planks. His nephews—Max, Mike, Joey, and Teddy—were involved in a very complicated imaginary game on the sand just in front of the house that involved explosions, mobs of bad guys, and copious amounts of digging.
“I should watch them—” Shannon turned to follow the girls.
“I’ve got them,” his dad said, “these old ears need a break from the noise.”
He disappeared out the front door.
“Just saying,” Lexy said into the beat of quiet that trailed him, one that was punctuated with more cries and orders of “wet sand!” and “five turrets” and “dig faster.” Her lips twitched. “I don’t think it’s any louder in here than out there.”
“Accurate,” Phil, his younger brother, said, dipping a finger into the sauce their mom was making and earning himself a smack on the hand for his transgression.
“Fingers to yourself, buster!” she snapped, spinning back to the stove.
Lexy bit her lip. “Ooh, you got in trouble!”
His older brother, Steve, snorted, opening the door to pull out a beer, asking the room at large, “Anyone want one?”
Kathy ignored him and asked, “What, are you, six?”
“Twenty-six,” Lexy retorted.
Shannon said, “I’ll take one,” completely unperturbed that his family was crowded into her kitchen, that his mom was at her stove, that his brother was helping himself to beverages from her fridge.
Steve passed one over, grinned at her. “You’re too good for this brood.”
She started to shake her head, his woman who was bright and happy, but who still didn’t always see how wonderful she was, and Finn tugged her back against his chest, pressed a kiss to her head. “She is too good”—he nuzzled her throat—“She’s also too good to say otherwise.”
“Finn! I—” A firm shake. “No—”
“Tell me about this peanut butter milk Stephanie was waxing poetic about earlier,” Kathy said, rescuing her.
“Well . . .” She started giving away her trade secrets, because she was always generous with her time and knowledge. Finn admitted he began tuning out, letting her voice wash over him, just thrilled to be here with her, to have his family around. He’d be gone for six weeks of shooting in less than a week, and he wanted to soak up every minute.
Such a change.
Half a year ago, he’d been equal parts numb and angry, taking no joy in anything, and today he couldn’t care less about the conversation, about the food. The only thing that mattered was . . . family, love, connection.
“Marry me,” he blurted.
Of course, he’d unknowingly timed his words to come right during a lull in the conversation, where typically the statement would have been lost in the chatter. Instead, it fell directly into silence.
Shannon twisted in his arms, eyes wide.
“Um, what?” Lexy asked.
“That had better not be your actual proposal, Finn Stoneman,” his mother snapped, turning to glare at him, the large wooden spoon held aloft in her hand.
“Shh,” Kathy said. “She hasn’t answered him yet.”
He heard them, obliquely anyway. Because his eyes were on the woman in front of him, the woman whom he loved beyond measure. The woman . . . who was looking at him incredulously.
“What do you say, Blue Eyes?” he asked softly. “Will you make an honest man out of me?”
Her lips slowly curved up, and the impact of her smile was a meteor to his chest. Not a single trace of sad, just pure unadulterated happy and bright and . . . love. Her smile was filled with love. She took a step forward, their toes touching, and reached up to cup his jaw. “You sure about this?”
He scoffed. “Am I sure about the two people I love most in the world?”
“Hey!” Lexy said.
“Shh,” Steven hissed.
Shan giggled.
“I love you, baby,” he said, covering her hand with his. “But I don’t need an answer now. We can wait until this sideshow goes and we’re alone—”
“Oh no, you can’t!” his mom exclaimed.
More giggles from Shannon.
“Yes, you can,” he told her.
“I love you,” she said, drifting closer.
“I love you.”
“I will marry you”—a burst of noise from his family had her
lifting her voice—“but I have one condition.”
They quieted and Finn’s heart skipped a beat, and he hoped, sent a mental prayer out to the universe that he would be able to fulfill that condition, even as he said, “Anything, honey.”
Another smile.
This time, one with warmth and love and . . . mischief.
“I’ll marry you, but only if you . . . give me those thirty pounds.”
“Thirty pounds?” his mom exclaimed. “Thirty pounds of what?”
He burst out laughing. “I’ll get on it.”
Her chest came flush to his, her other arm wrapped around his shoulders, her lips moving very close to his. “See that you do.” And then laughing, she touched her mouth to his, her whispered, “Yes,” exhaled against his lips.
He banded his arms around her, held her tight, and forgot all about his family as he kissed the love of his life.
At least until footsteps pounded against the floor.
Until a groan came and a “Mr. Finn. Again?”
Shannon pulled away, still laughing, and squatted in front of her daughter, tugging her close and hugging her tight. “Still with the Mr. Finn, huh?”
“I like it.”
“Would you like to maybe call him Dad?” Shan asked, pulling back slightly, cupping her daughter’s cheek in her palm.
His lungs froze, his heart squeezed. “It’s okay if you don’t want—”
Wide eyes turned to his.
“You’ll stay?”
“Yes,” he said, kneeling down next to Shannon and Ry.
“Forever?”
Finn nodded. “Yes.” He was ready when she launched herself at him this time, arms catching her and bringing her close, hugging this little girl, who was wonderful in her own right, tight. “I love you, Ms. Ry.”
Her whisper just reached his ears. “I love you, Mr.—” She squeezed him back. “I love you, too, Dad.”
And kneeling there on the kitchen tile, one arm around this little girl, his other wrapped around the woman he loved, so much happy and bright and love filling him and this space surrounding them and . . .
Finn lost his heart all over again.
But that was okay.
Because his girls had him.
