Those Sweet Words

by Kait Nolan

“Well, we certainly worked up an appetite. I’ll see what I can—”

  Flynn stopped dead halfway down the stairs, so fast that Pru ran into his back.

  A woman stood in the foyer. Not one of the guests. She wore a skirt and blouse, with shoes that said sensible rather than Saturday. A briefcase hung from one shoulder, and the expression on her face made it obvious she’d overheard their conversation and knew exactly how they’d been spending their afternoon.

  Shite.

  “Pru Reynolds?” Even the woman’s voice sounded pinched. It was nasal and full of disdain.

  Pru tucked in closer to his back, using him to shield her pantsless state. “Yes. May I help you?”

  Flynn had to give it to her—despite the compromising position they found themselves in, her tone was as smooth and friendly as it would be for any guest.

  “I’m Lydia Coogan, with the Department of Human Services. I’m the new social worker assigned to Ari Rosas.”

  “New social worker?” Pru’s voice went sharp with concern. “What happened to Mae?”

  “Miss Bradley is out on extended medical leave.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “I believe she’s having some kind of surgery.” Clearly, she didn’t really know her predecessor and didn’t care. Lydia’s gaze shifted from Pru to Flynn. “And you would be?”

  This woman controlled Ari’s fate. He couldn’t imagine how bad it looked for Pru to be caught sleeping with a guest, so he said the only thing he could think of. “Flynn Bohannon. Pru’s fiancé.”

  Pru’s fingers dug into his back—because of his words or because, at that moment, the front door opened, Flynn wasn’t sure. The newcomers came in on the tail end of the statement.

  Ari gave a whoop. “You finally asked her! Yay!”

  What the hell?

  Logan’s mouth dropped open as he shut the door. “Man, what’s in the water around here? First Kennedy and now Pru.”

  “I—” Pru finally moved around him on the stairs, looking like she was about to keel over. “Excuse me for just a few minutes.” She disappeared back toward her bedroom, presumably to get dressed. Realizing he still held the wad of sheets, Flynn excused himself as well, high tailing it to the laundry room and dumping them in the washer. He grabbed a t-shirt from the hamper and tugged it on, before hurrying back to do damage control.

  Lydia was giving Logan the side eye now. “And who are you?”

  “Family friend,” he said easily.

  Pru came back, dressed in her own clothes, her hair brushed and pulled back into a tail. Whatever color their afternoon of lovemaking had whipped into her cheeks was gone. “Logan, thanks for bringing Ari home.”

  “No problem.” He shot her a look that might have been an apology for the timing.

  “If you could keep the news under your hat, I would appreciate it.”

  “I can do that. Congratulations.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say thank you, then closed it again without a word. Instead, she just nodded.

  Logan shot a look at the social worker. “You need anything, just let me know.”

  “Thanks.”

  Once he was gone, Pru turned to Lydia. “Can we start over? Would you come into the living room?”

  The woman looked as if she wanted to refuse, but she followed.

  Ari caught Flynn’s eye and gave him a double thumbs up. Jesus, what had he set in motion?

  “I don’t think we need you for this just now,” he said. No doubt Pru was about to set the social worker straight. They could explain to Ari later. “Why don’t you go wash up for supper? You smell like horse.”

  “’K.” She ran up the stairs.

  Flynn hurried into the living room, joining Pru on the sofa and taking her hand in his. He expected her to jerk it away and explain to the woman that it was all a lie. Instead, she curled her fingers around his. He could feel her shaking.

  “Miss Coogan, I apologize for our introduction. I assure you, that’s not…usual.” Flynn thought for a moment she’d go on. But, really, what else was there to say?

  Lydia took out a notepad. “Well, this changes things.”

  Pru’s cheeks went impossibly paler. “What do you mean?”

  “There's nothing about Mr. Bohannon in my case records. If he's going to be a part of the household, he'll have to go through the same approval process you did before we can do the home study.”

  “But that's months more waiting!”

  Flynn had no idea what she’d already gone through to get approved thus far, but this sounded very much like starting over. A sick feeling set up in his gut. “Is there nothing else to be done? She’s already come this far.”

  “Well, you can apply for an exception.” The admission came grudgingly. “It's still sixty days, but it's quicker than all the other certification processes.”

  “Then we’ll do that,” Flynn said.

  “And if the exception isn't approved?” Pru asked.

  “Then we find Ari a new placement.” Lydia’s lips pursed with disapproval. “She shouldn’t have been in the home in the first place without all these certifications complete, but Mae seems to be rather lax about such things.”

  “She was friends with my mother for twenty-five years. And my mother took in more foster children than any other single person in all of Stone County.”

  “Rules exist for a reason,” Lydia insisted. “But we’re working with the situation we have. You’ll need to go down to the Department of Human Services to pick up the paperwork to file the exception to policy.”

  “And once that’s done?” Pru asked.

  “Get the exception filed. I’ll be in touch about the rest.” With a few more notations on her pad, she shoved it into her briefcase. “I’ll see myself out.”

  Chapter Seven

  SHOCK KEPT PRU IMMOBILE as Lydia Coogan left the room. There was probably something she should have said, but she had no idea what. There was no proper protocol for this situation, no Emily Post guide to the right way to handle being caught with your lover by your foster child’s social worker. The only possible way it could have been worse would have been if she’d walked in on them in flagrante. Even that could have been explained. Maybe. It wasn’t as if celibacy was a mandatory requirement for fostering and adoption. But this?

  As the front door shut, Pru found the strength to pull away and round on Flynn. “What the hell were you thinking? Engaged?”

  He ran a hand through his hair—still mussed from her fingers. Jesus. And Ari had seen her standing in his shirt.

  “I panicked. I was trying to protect your reputation—sleeping with your fiancé certainly seemed better than sleeping with a guest.”

  His panic response was to invent a proposal? Pru shoved up from the couch to pace. “Okay, maybe, under any other circumstance that would make some measure of sense. But that woman controls whether the adoption goes through. You heard her. By making this announcement, you’re now a part of this. And what’s it going to look like when my brand new fiancé up and hits the road in a couple of weeks? This is a disaster! I’m going to lose her.” Fear rose up and gripped her by the throat. “Oh God, I’m going to lose her, all because I was foolish enough to think I could have something for myself.”

  Pru covered her mouth to hold back the sob. What had she done? She’d made Ari a promise, and because of her selfish desire to do something else, be something more, she’d jeopardized that promise and the family the girl had come to trust.

  Flynn crossed to her in two strides, wrapping strong arms around her. “You won’t lose Ari. You won’t. It will be all right, mo mhuirnín.”

  “How?” she demanded, wanting to shove away, yet needing the support. How the hell had she come to depend on him so fast?

  “I’ll stay.” The simple words fell between them with all the gravity of stone, sure and solid as a foundation, and so much what she wanted she could hardly breathe. “I’ll fill out the paperwork, submit to the background check, do whatever’s
necessary to make this happen.”

  Pru could only stare at him, looking into the blue eyes so steady on hers. She didn’t dare believe what she was hearing. “You’re seriously willing to stick around for possibly months, faking an engagement to me, to make this work? Because that’s what this will be. Months. In one place. You haven’t stayed put that long anywhere since you were eighteen.”

  If he felt an iota of panic over the idea of it, he didn’t show it. Instead, he framed her face in gentle hands. “I got you into this mess. I’ll get you out. I won’t let your involvement with me damage what you’ve built for that child.”

  The heart that had been opening to him from the moment they’d met simply rolled over and exposed its tender underbelly. That he’d be willing to do this—change his whole life, whatever plans he’d made for the next several months—for her, for Ari—simply undid her. Still, good intentions aside, she had to make him see what he was really getting into.

  “Think about what you’re saying, Flynn. We have to convince everyone that we’re really engaged.”

  “That’s not exactly a hardship, Pru. I like you. I respect you. And God knows, I’m attracted to you. Hell, the guests already think we’re married.”

  A fact which had given her pause more than once, but she hadn’t seen the point in correcting people who wouldn’t be around longer than a few days. “The guests aren’t who she’ll be interviewing. This whole process means your life gets put under a microscope. She’ll be talking with your friends, your family, and all of mine. How are we going to explain this? None of those people knows we’re involved. None of them can shed light on our history together because we don’t have one. And it doesn’t look any better to be engaged to a man I’ve known two weeks.”

  “We create a backstory.” He pulled her back to the sofa to sit, keeping her hands in his. “You came to Ireland to visit Kennedy two years ago. We met then and have been carrying on a long-distance relationship ever since.”

  She frowned at him. “You thought of that awfully fast.”

  He stroked a finger along her cheek. “I was thinking it was a shame we didn’t meet when you came over on that trip. And that a week or two wouldn’t have been enough. I still don’t think it’s enough. So, yes, I’ll do this. I’ll stay.”

  Pru wanted so desperately to believe him. He meant it—or thought he did, at least. But how long would that last? How long before he grew to resent her and the situation she’d inadvertently trapped him in? Faced with the alternative of losing Ari, she was too terrified not to go through with this lunatic scheme. But she couldn’t help but feel that the end result of the whole thing would be either disaster or heartbreak or both.

  “Then I guess we have a lot of details to figure out.”

  “We’ll get through this,” he promised.

  She could only pray that he was right.

  “What will you tell your sisters?”

  At the thought of having to tell them anything—truth or lie—Pru wanted to curl up into a ball. “I have no idea. Kennedy will know the backstory is bullshit, as I was with her the whole time on that trip. Maggie will disapprove of this whole thing, whether she gets the truth or the lie. And Athena is the loose cannon.”

  “We’ve got most of a week to figure out what to say to Kennedy.”

  “We’ll need some story in place before then. Logan will probably keep quiet because I asked him to, but I don’t know who this Coogan woman may know locally. Once anybody catches wind of it, the whole town will know by nightfall. We’ve got to be ready to answer questions when they come.”

  “And we will be.”

  As the whole thing rolled through her mind again, Pru zeroed in on a detail she hadn’t processed at the time. “Why did my child say that you’d ‘finally’ asked me? What have you been saying to her?”

  “Nothing. She knows I like you and that it’s definitely not the sister or friend vibe I feel for Kennedy. It seemed pointless to deny the truth when she brought it up. But I swear the conversation didn’t go any further.”

  Pru didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse. But it highlighted another prospective pitfall of this plan. “Ari has a sweet, romantic heart. She was highly entertained by Kennedy and Xander getting back together, and with their wedding and all, I’m sure she’s imagining everybody paired off with somebody. She likes you. She lights up around you.”

  “Likewise. She’s a great kid.” He meant it. She’d seen the genuine pleasure he took in hanging out with her.

  “She is. But if we do this, I think we have to tell her the truth. The alternative is her getting comfortable with the idea of you being around permanently, of you being her father. She’s had far too much disappointment and lost far too many people she cared about to put her through that again when you go.” Pru closed her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m about to ask her to lie about this.”

  Mom of the year, here I come.

  “I’m on board with the plan.” Ari popped in from the hallway.

  Pru just sighed. Of course, she’d probably heard everything. “What did we say about eavesdropping?”

  “I couldn’t just bust up in the middle of all that. You needed to finish that conversation.”

  Pru opened her mouth, closed it again. No sense in chastising her right now. Better to talk directly about the situation they found themselves in. “Do you understand what’s going on?”

  “New social worker disapproves of you having an adult relationship, so Flynn tried to cover, and it’s easier to go with it than try to explain the lie.”

  Flynn made a sort of choking cough that might have been comical under other circumstances. “That’s a remarkably succinct description.”

  Ari flopped into a chair, draping her legs over the arm. “Really, it feels a bit like living in a soap opera.”

  “This is a lot more serious than a soap opera,” Pru said. “I’d never agree to something like this under normal circumstances. But these aren’t normal circumstances. That woman can take you away from me if she deems me unfit.”

  “Not gonna happen,” Flynn insisted. “You’re an amazing mother, and it won’t take her long to figure that out.”

  Ari pointed at him. “And that is why everybody will believe he’s the real deal. Also, he’s not wrong. You’re an awesome mom. You being human doesn’t change that.”

  Emotion welled in the back of Pru’s throat. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

  Ari swung around in the chair, propping her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. “Now, tell me the proposal story. You’ll need a good one.”

  “You do have a romantic streak,” Flynn observed.

  Ari just grinned. “Takes one to know one, boy-o.”

  ~*~

  Given the mobile nature of Flynn’s lifestyle, he hadn’t attended church services with any particular regularity since he’d left home. It had been more of the occasional yen than a priority. But Sunday morning found him settling into a pew of the First United Methodist Church of Eden’s Ridge. Pru sat beside him, with Ari on her other side. They garnered a few curious looks from other attendees. No doubt, they were wondering who exactly he was. Flynn offered up a polite smile and nod as he took Pru’s hand in his and turned his attention to Reverend Hodgson, who’d officiated Kennedy and Xander’s wedding.

  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

  The congregation replied, “And also with you.”

  As the service rolled on, Flynn stood when the others stood, sang when the others sang, sat when they sat. But the content barely registered. He was too busy mulling over the situation they were in. Thinking about the implications of what he’d agreed to. He was the one who’d started this, and now the three of them were caught up in a monumental lie. He was grateful this wasn’t a Catholic church because he was feeling the need to confess. How many Hail Marys and Our Fathers would it take to make up for this? More, probably, than he could say in a lifetime. Father Doyle, the priest fr
om his childhood parish, would skin him alive. But Flynn had made Pru a promise, and he intended to keep it.

  Exhaustion dragged at him. He and Pru had been up half the night going through an intensive Get To Know You session, filling in the gaps and small details in their knowledge of each other. The more he learned, the more fascinated he became. She had so much heart, and it floored him how much she gave of herself. Family came first for her, always. Except for the decision to get involved with him.

  And look where that got her.

  She was trusting him. Trusting that he’d follow through on the promise he’d made. But Flynn knew, deep down, she didn’t really believe he’d stay. She’d had their end in mind from the beginning. And why shouldn’t she? He had nearly half a lifetime that painted him as the gypsy she believed him to be. That image had never bothered him before her. He wanted to be more for her. He wanted to be more with her. But a woman like that would believe actions instead of words.

  Flynn looked down at the hand he held, seeing the naked ring finger. He’d do right by her. He’d do right by her and Ari both.

  At the end of the service, they joined the line of people exiting the church. As they reached Reverend Hodgson, he took Flynn’s hand in a warm shake. “Mr. Bohannon. I didn’t expect to see you still here. Enjoying the hospitality of our little town?”

  “I am.” Flynn resisted the urge to look at Pru. “Actually, I wondered if you could use me for some music next Sunday.”

  “An offertory? That’d be splendid! You played so well at the wedding.”

  “I’ll be in touch in a day or so about what you’d like me to play.” Maybe it would count for a Hail Mary or two.

  “Sounds great! And Pru, how are things at the inn with your sister off on her honeymoon?”

  “Oh, they’re going fine. Ari’s been a great help.” Pru wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Flynn, too.”

  “Good to hear. Good to hear.”

  Sensing Pru’s discomfort, Flynn pressed a hand to the small of her back, and they began to edge away.

  “See you next week!” Ari called.