Finally Finn (Los Rancheros #4)

by Brandace Morrow

  Like this, I can barely breathe I’m so full.

  “Jesus Christ. You’re perfect, Sadie.” Batty puts both palms on my ass, his fingers curling into my hips as he pulls me into him. My face slides on the sheets, my feet curl up until I get my heels into his ass and I pull him into me as he pulls me. His balls tap my clit deliciously and I smile in a haze when I feel myself climbing again.

  My inner muscles start to twitch and it spurs him on. “That’s right, baby. Give it to me,” Batty orders.

  “What do you want?” I ask in a husky voice I can’t help. Batty’s rhythm falters and he seats himself inside of me before answering.

  “Everything. I want everything, Sadie.” My eyes flood with tears, remembering the first night we had sex and I answered the same way.

  “Okay,” I whisper, then slide into ecstasy.

  ~

  “Did you figure out who opened the dressing room door?” I ask over stuffed French toast left by room service.

  Batty nods, finishing his orange juice. “Yeah. You’re not going to like it any more than I do.”

  My back straightens in my chair. “Why? Who was it?”

  Batty’s eyes meet mine over the small table, his eyes serious. “Jacque.”

  My head jerks back in confusion. “Maybe he just had to tell me something.”

  “No, babe. He didn’t open and shut the door. He leaned against the door jam and watched for a minute.”

  I shiver. “That’s weird.”

  Batty’s eyebrows rise. “Yeah. It sure as fuck is. Have you looked into him? I was going to do it when you hired him, but figured you had it handled.”

  “No. He answered a Facebook post about me wanting an assistant,” I say defensively.

  “How long after you posted it? Did you call him, did he leave a number?”

  “What? No. He . . .” Oh shit. “He was at my house. He said he found it on the Stars’ map.”

  Batty’s face shuts down as he grabs his phone and walks away.

  Fuck.

  Chapter 15

  FRIDAY

  “We’ve been watching your show. You seem to get along really well,” Ali says while taking a bite of her caprese salad.

  I nod, wiping my mouth and swallowing before answering. “We really do. I was worried for a bit, but they’re really great.”

  “Why were you worried?”

  I shrug and shift uncomfortably in my seat. “Well, you were there when we did that benefit concert. It didn’t exactly paint me in the best light.”

  Ali puts down her fork and gives me a flat look. “We saw what kind of crazy you were dealing with. If I had to be around that for any length of time I would be the same way.”

  “Still. My whole career was the definition of unprofessional.”

  Ali waves a hand. “It’s water under the bridge. You aren’t hitting people now, that’s all that matters, and who knew you had that great set of pipes hidden in there?”

  “Shut up. So many people are more talented than I am.” I brush off her comment.

  “Everyone has someone more talented than them. I can think of a dozen people more talented at tattooing than I am, but I’m still booked six months in advance. Be proud of what you’ve got and work with it. You should put out a solo album.”

  I laugh. “Now you’re talking crazy.”

  “No, I’m serious. You have a huge promoting platform with the show. Did you know all of the covers you do on the show go on iTunes. I have a few on my phone right now. They’re doing great on the charts.”

  I sit back, shocked. “What the hell? How do I not know that?”

  “I don’t know, girl. Your assistant doesn’t tell you that? Or maybe the big terrifying hunk you’re shacking up with?” she teases.

  “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 b
asket.

  “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 he
ll? 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?”

  I hold up a hand and chuckle. “Stop. No. I’m not a superstar. I’m a broke has been. A child star that got a second chance.”