Totally His

by Erin Nicholas

  She looked back at him. “What look?”

  “That wide-eyed stare that makes you look curious…and terrified at the same time.”

  She laughed lightly. But he’d nailed it. “Curious and terrified” summed it up nicely.

  So she’d stayed firmly away from Angie’s extended family. As soon as the stories had started and Angie had pulled up photos on her phone, Sophie had been out. She wouldn’t go to Angie’s house for dinner; she hadn’t attended Angie’s birthday party; she hadn’t let Angie introduce her to any member of her family. And, because she didn’t want to hurt her friend, she’d confessed to Angie early on what was behind all of that. Angie got it, and she enjoyed having the theater be her own little quiet place away from her family. It had worked for over a year now and, if not for the fire and Finn showing up like the cavalry, it would have kept working.

  “I’m not used to the big-family thing,” she said lightly. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, and my dad was an only child. And we’re…not close.”

  Finn sighed. “Only child. Sounds like heaven.”

  She could tell he was only half-joking. “You don’t love all of this?” she asked, waving her plastic fork in the direction of his family.

  “I do. Of course,” he said. “But those twenty or so people? They’re only a portion of the group that not only knows everything about me, but thinks it’s their God-given right to meddle in my life.”

  Sophie bit back the wistful sigh. Her friends were there for her, gave her advice, pep talks, whatever she needed. But they never pried. They never just showed up and burst in and took over. She should appreciate that. But instead she was jealous of Finn.

  “They care about you,” she said.

  He nodded. “They do.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “That is one word for it.”

  Sophie looked at that grin and realized that it was great he was from a big, raucous family. Because everything else about him totally did it for her.

  “So you seriously never date guys with families?”

  She fought a smile. He wasn’t officially asking her out, but she knew that he was feeling all the chemistry between them. It was important to nip this in the bud. She nodded. “They might have families, of course. But I never meet them. I like things quiet and low drama. I like it to just be the two of us. I don’t like all the meddling.”

  That wasn’t completely a lie. She thought she might actually kind of enjoy a little meddling, but she didn’t meet the families of the men she dated. She didn’t want to get close to them and then never see them again. In fact, her best relationship had been with a guy who’d been an only child and an orphan who’d grown up in the foster system. That sounded terrible, but it had worked for her not to have parents and grandparents and siblings to get attached to. She’d dated him longer than any of the other guys she’d been in relationships with. Every once in a while, a guy would decide he wanted it to go beyond the sex-only thing and have her meet his mother. That was Sophie’s cue to end things.

  She grimaced as she thought about her past boyfriends. She hated that it seemed like she’d inherited her father’s allergy to long-term commitment. But she didn’t seek out men because of what they could give her. That was the one thing saving her from stopping dating altogether.

  “Well, I get not wanting to get everyone all mingled,” Finn said. “I never introduce the girls I date to my family anymore.”

  Sophie felt her eyes widen. “Really? How do you avoid it?”

  He shook his head. “My family agrees that it’s a good plan.”

  “Really?”

  “Had a bad experience with a fiancée that got very attached to them and vice versa, and when we broke up it was…bad.”

  She could imagine. “A fiancée?”

  He nodded. “It was five years ago. But it was hard. And I realized that it’s easier to just not get everyone involved in everything.”

  “Yep. Makes sense.” She took another bite and tried to just enjoy the food. But she could admit, to herself only, that she was really interested in the woman Finn had been engaged to.

  “So you’re right that we should definitely keep it to sex only,” Finn said.

  Sophie almost swallowed macaroni down the wrong pipe. She coughed hard. “What?”

  “Well, you’ve now met this bunch of yahoos, and you already know my mom. Really well.”

  “I do know your mom,” she said with a nod. “Really well.” And she needed to remember that.

  “So we can’t date,” he summarized. “We’ll have to just—”

  “‘Whoa, oh, oh, oh…for the longest time…’”

  Sophie whipped around at the amplified sound of Billy Joel booming from the theater’s sound system.

  But not just Billy Joel. Colin was now crooning along with Billy Joel, looking completely at ease at the center of the stage. The guys had obviously found the sound booth and a microphone.

  “Boo! Somebody shut him up!” someone shouted.

  “I’m awesome, and you know it!” Colin called back.

  “You suck!” someone else yelled.

  Everyone laughed at that. Colin held out his hand to Kiera. “Come karaoke with me.”

  Sophie watched Kiera blush and decline. Emphatically. She was not the spotlight type. But Colin clearly was.

  “Thank God it’s not real karaoke!” someone said, turning the music up to cover Colin’s singing.

  Colin pulled one of his aunts onstage instead of Kiera, and they swayed and sang together as a couple of cousins came in on the background ooh oohs.

  Sophie glanced back at Finn. He was watching with resignation and a touch of amusement.

  “You sing too?” she asked.

  “Fuck no. Which is good because we’ve got plenty of attention whores in the family,” he said.

  Sophie watched Ian and Michael join Colin at center stage and couldn’t help but think of Maya’s words about selling tickets. This was almost better than watching them work. Hot guys without shirts on were great. But hot guys goofing around and unabashedly making fools of themselves in the name of fun was really even better.

  “They’re always like this?” she asked.

  “Always,” Finn confirmed. “Not one ounce of self-consciousness.”

  “They know how to have a good time,” Sophie said. “That’s great.”

  “Is it?” he asked.

  “Uh, yeah. Guys who can laugh at themselves are hot.”

  He looked at her for two heartbeats. “Well, that’s Colin. And that means he’s the first one I throw out of here on his ass.”

  She laughed. “What? Why?”

  “Because I don’t think I can handle you thinking he’s hot.”

  Sophie smiled. Colin was hot. But Finn was…more. The fun-loving type was great, but the tough-cop type was making parts of her tingle she’d almost forgotten she had.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as Finn’s phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket. He answered without even looking at the display. “Kelly.”

  He frowned and shifted in his seat, his eyes on Sophie, and she found she couldn’t look away. “Okay, I got it.” He paused, listening. Then his eyes went to the charred wall behind her and he said, “Yes, we’re helping out. Cleanup.” He paused again. “Yeah, I understand.” His gaze back on her, he said, “I can do that. Okay. Thanks.”

  He disconnected and took a deep breath.

  “Everything okay?” Sophie felt compelled to ask.

  Finn lifted a shoulder. “That was Chuck, the fire investigator.”

  Sophie frowned. “Is there a problem?”

  “He wants us to stop work on the wall and wiring for now. He’s coming back for another look.”

  Sophie felt her stomach twist. “Oh. Why?”

  “He isn’t completely confident about ruling out arson,” Finn told her. He took another deep breath and then asked, “Speaking of family, is your dad in Boston?”

  Her stomach kno
tted tighter. But no, Frank had told her he hadn’t done this. The timing and his need for money were suspicious, she could admit, but he didn’t lie. And, as he’d said, he was smart enough to have set the fire in the middle of the night rather than during a performance, when it had been detected quickly. Hell, the man had keys to the place. He wouldn’t even have had to sneak in. He could have walked right in the front door with a can of gasoline and a box of matches.

  She nodded. “He is. He’s been living in Miami, but he’s been back in Boston for a couple of weeks.”

  “Has he been here? Have you talked to him?”

  She frowned. “Yes. This morning.”

  Finn shook his head. “I’m sorry. I just…The investigator had some questions, and he heard that I was helping out down here with the other guys, and he wanted to know what I know.”

  “What you know?”

  “About you and your dad.”

  “Are we suspects?”

  Finn sat forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “You’re the only two that stand to profit from the fire.”

  In spite of the fact that he was questioning her about possible criminal activity, she could still appreciate his honesty.

  “And since they haven’t ruled out arson, of course we are,” she filled in.

  Finn met her gaze steadily. “We just have some questions.”

  We. Finn and the police department and the fire department. Sophie took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “Your dad hasn’t been living in Boston for a while?”

  She shook her head. “Four years. He was in Florida with my stepmom. He just came back to town about two weeks ago. I didn’t know he was here until this morning. He came by to…check on me and the theater after hearing about the fire.” Sophie realized she’d tripped a bit there and hoped Finn wouldn’t notice.

  But he did. “So he stopped by this morning. What did you talk about?”

  She sighed. “The insurance money,” she admitted. “And how to spend it.”

  “What did you decide to spend it on?”

  “The theater.” Sophie paused. No. She didn’t want to lie to Finn. “Actually, we argued about how to spend it. I wanted to spend it on the repairs. He…didn’t.”

  “What did he want to spend it on?”

  She knew how bad this was going to sound even before she said it. “He’s buying an RV.”

  Finn didn’t react. Clearly he’d questioned people before. “So he came by right away and wanted the money, but not to reinvest.”

  Sophie nodded. “He never has invested in the theater. He doesn’t care about it.”

  Yeah, that sounded bad too.

  “So it wouldn’t bother him if it burned down?” Finn asked.

  She shook her head grimly. “No.”

  Finn leaned in a little. “Sophie, is there any chance that your father started the fire? Or had something to do with it? I know he has a record and doesn’t stay in one place long, doesn’t have a real solid work history.”

  “Or marriage history. Or any solid history of any kind,” Sophie said. Then she sighed. “I know how it looks. I really do, Finn. But I flat-out asked him and he said that he’d had nothing to do with it.”

  That answer did get one of Finn’s eyebrows to rise. “It did occur to you then?”

  She gave a humorless laugh. “Definitely. Not much about my dad surprises me. But he didn’t do it.”

  Finn was watching her carefully. “No?”

  She shook her head. “Nope.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because he told me.”

  Finn paused. “He told you. That’s it? You believe him?”

  “I do. My dad has done a lot of stupid, selfish things, and he’s lied to a lot of people, but he’s never lied to me. It’s the one thing he’s always given me—the truth.”

  Finn didn’t really react to that, outwardly anyway, but he didn’t reply right away either.

  Sophie shifted in her seat so she was facing him more fully. “Seriously, Finn. If he’d told you that he didn’t do it, I would be skeptical. But he told me. Just me. One-on-one, to my face. He’s never lied to me like that. Not even in the midst of things being as crappy as they could possibly get.”

  “Sophie—”

  “I know how it looks. I do. I get it. And in your shoes, I’d probably think the same thing. But you can trust me. He didn’t do it.” She knew it. She couldn’t explain it. Having faith in Frank seemed so stupid. And the funny thing was, she didn’t have faith in him. Not really. She didn’t trust him with her friends; she didn’t trust him not to take money right out of the safe in the office; she didn’t trust him to not try to emotionally manipulate her into supporting him. But he’d also never promised her not to do those things. Because he couldn’t keep that promise.

  That was the thing—Frank didn’t always do what she wanted him to do, he wasn’t there for her, but he would also never make her promises he didn’t intend to keep. He’d promised that he had not set the fire, and she believed him. Every time he’d promised her it was the last night they’d be sleeping in the car, it had been true. Every time he’d promised her that she would not spend Christmas in a shelter, it had been true. Every time he’d promised her that she would definitely be able to spend the entire year in one school, it had been true. And the times when it hadn’t been true—the year she’d moved schools three times and the year she’d spent Christmas in a shelter with one single present donated by the Salvation Army—he hadn’t made the promise.

  “Sophie, I want that to be true, but—”

  “Everyone’s already here? Unbelievable.”

  The pronouncement cut off whatever Finn had been about to say. Angela Kelly had arrived, in a swirl of multicolored scarves, tinkling bracelets, and the scent of lavender.

  Sophie breathed deeply of the scent that always made her smile and felt some of the tension ease out of her body. “Hi, Angie.”

  “Hello, darling,” Angie said to Sophie. Then she turned to her son. “Finn.”

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “You just ran right over here, didn’t you?” Angie asked.

  Clearly unmoved by her irritation, Finn asked, “When have I ever said I was going to do something and then not done it?”

  Sophie blinked at Finn’s words. They were almost identical to what she’d just been thinking about her father.

  Finn shoved to his feet and faced his mom.

  “I’m serious, Finn. I’m not happy,” Angie said.

  “Okay, let’s go,” he said, starting down the row of chairs toward the far aisle.

  “Where?” Angie asked.

  “To have the conversation we’re about to have in private so that Sophie can keep believing we’re both nice and reasonable.”

  “Why would she not believe that?”

  “Because we’re about to fight over her, right?” Finn asked.

  Sophie felt her eyes widen. They were going to fight? Over her? What? “Um—” She glanced up at Angie.

  Angie didn’t look surprised by Finn’s statement. She sighed. “Dammit. We are? Already?”

  Finn nodded. “Yep.” Then he continued down the row.

  Angie looked back to Sophie. “Do you mind?” She pointed at the brownie on Sophie’s plate.

  Sophie honestly didn’t know what to say or do…or think. She lifted her plate. “All yours.”

  Angie picked up the brownie. “If I didn’t have chocolate, my family would have made me a drunk a long time ago.”

  “Uh, Angie?”

  “Yeah, sweetie?”

  “Are you and Finn really going to argue?”

  “Oh yeah. And I’m very sorry they’re all here like this,” Angie said.

  “Don’t be,” Sophie said quickly. “It’s…great.”

  “Yeah. I was afraid of that,” Angie said grimly, turning to follow her son.

  * * *

  Finn didn’t want to fight with his mother. He rarely even talked back to her. His g
oal was to make her life easier and happier. But the idea that she’d purposefully kept him and Sophie from meeting was nagging at him more than it should.

  “You tried to keep Sophie and me from meeting?” he asked, as Angie joined him at the back of the theater.

  “Yes.”

  “Because she doesn’t like guys with big families?”

  Angie sighed. “Because I saw her first.”

  He lifted a brow. “What?”

  “I already love her. So you can’t mess with her.”

  He knew it. “So this is about Sarah.”

  “Yes,” Angie said.

  Finn knew that Angie hadn’t totally forgiven him for breaking up with Sarah. She’d been the daughter of Angie’s best friend, Mary. He’d known Sarah his whole life, and when things turned romantic between them, their mothers had been thrilled. They’d had the whole wedding planned by the time he took Sarah to their first prom. They’d been together for six years. Hell, even he and Sarah had thought they were going to get married. But he hadn’t left her at the altar. He’d broken up with her at their engagement party.

  He’d seen it in her eyes when they’d been listening to her father’s toast at their party. They loved each other, but they weren’t in be-together-forever love. She’d cried when he told her he thought they should end things, but not because she was hurt or angry. In relief.

  Of course, her father had seen her tears and had punched Finn in the nose. That had gotten Finn’s cousins and Sarah’s brothers riled up, and more punches were thrown. Angie had thrown beer in Sarah’s brother’s face to get him off of Colin. That had caused Mary’s protective instincts to flare, and she’d pushed Angie, and they’d gotten into a huge argument. A couple bloody noses, black eyes, insults, and tears later, the families had also broken up.

  Angie wasn’t over it. Then again, Finn wasn’t completely over it. He was over Sarah, but not over their families’ friendship being ruined.

  “You’re afraid I’ll break her heart,” Finn said.

  “I’m afraid you’ll break my heart.”

  Right. In this scenario, Sophie wasn’t Sarah. She was Mary. The friend Angie had lost.

  “And yes, hers. She’s…had a lot of loss in her life, Finn. I don’t want you and our family to be more.”