by Roxie Rivera
Before I could even make sense of what was happening, Finn had sat up, turning his back so that he was between me and the open window, and had gathered me close to his chest. He had dragged me into the corner, kicking over a sofa with the boot encasing his prosthetic foot, and huddled over me until the police came.
I had been shaking so badly. He had gently clasped my face and tugged the ear buds of my iPod out of my ears. I hadn't wanted to cry or show weakness, but I hadn't been able to stop the tears. Finn had tucked me against his chest and rubbed my back in slow circles, all the while murmuring gently to me, "You're all right, girl. No one will hurt you, not while I'm breathing."
Other than my father, no man had ever sworn to protect me. Finn had kept his promise. We had both been taken to the closest emergency room. Somehow I had managed to escape without a single scrape. Finn, on the other hand, had deep gouges in his forearms and back from all that glass. He hadn't seemed to mind. The whole time they had been patching him together he had kept a protective watch over me.
Until Daddy had shown up and all hell had broken loose, that is. I grimaced at the memory of the way my father had thrown his name around and threatened to have Finn arrested. For what, I hadn't the slightest idea. Honestly, I don't think Daddy knew either at the time. I think he had been scared and had lashed out at the only target he could find.
"I meant to come by the arts center that next morning," Finn said, "to check on you and see how you were doing, but your Dad—"
"I am so sorry about that, Finn," I interjected quickly. "He can be crazy over-protective sometimes."
"He's your father. That's his job." He sounded as if he respected my father for his overblown reaction. It made me think about Finn's family. My other best friend, Bee, dated Kelly, Finn's younger brother. I had heard all about their alcoholic, gambling addict father. Something told me Finn's father had never shown even a tenth of the concern mine had.
"Regardless, he shouldn't have yelled at you like that or threatened you."
"It's all right," he assured me. "It's in the past. Listen, uh, about that double date you're going on tonight with Mattie and Ellie?"
"What about it?" I had agreed to chaperone a date between Mattie and Ellie, two of the special needs students in one of my evening art courses. Over the course of a few weeks, I had watched the pair exchange smiles and glances. Their mutual interest hadn't escaped me. Mattie had finally worked up the courage to ask Ellie out for dinner, and she had accepted, with her mother's only condition that it be a double date. Ellie had asked me to come with her, and I had happily agreed to go. Mattie had asked Detective Eric Santos, a longtime friend of his, to drive.
"So, I know the original plan was that Eric Santos was going to come with Mattie, but he's got a case that's keeping him late. Mattie asked if I'd come, but I wanted to make sure it was all right with you."
"Of course it's okay with me." My heart fluttered in my chest, but it wasn't a bad valve and an arrhythmia making it go crazy this time. No, it was the prospect of sitting next to dangerously handsome Finn Connolly at some cozy little restaurant table.
"Great." The hint of a smile filled his voice. "Am I picking you ladies up at Ellie's place?"
"Yes." I gave him the address. "We'll see you there around seven?"
"Yes."
"Um. Okay. Well. I guess I'll see you later."
He laughed softly. "Yes, later. Bye, Hadley."
"Bye, Finn."
The call ended, and my music started playing right where it had been muted. After the depressing and unnerving visit with Dr. Rae, the unexpected phone call from Finn had lifted my spirits. Before he had saved me that crazy evening in front of the arts center, Finn and I had shared only one short but promising conversation. There had been an undeniable spark between us. I wanted to explore where that might lead.
As I backed out of the parking spot and reconsidered the outfit I had chosen for the night, I ignored the irritating voice in the back of my head that warned me against getting entangled in anything romantic. My broken heart wasn't going to stop me from having a good time tonight.
*
Leaning against the counter of the gym's laundry room, Finn held his phone to his ear a moment longer than necessary. The sweet sound of Hadley Rivera's voice played on a loop in his head. He lowered his phone and placed it on the stack of towels he had been folding. His gaze dropped to the pink origami frog she had given him that day he had met her at the arts center while escorting Abby and Mattie.
In a moment of weakness, he ran his fingertip along the silver scrawl of her name and number. The frog had been crushed during the fall they had both taken when he had saved her life, but he had carefully managed to get it back into the right shape. With a tiny bit of pressure, he flicked the funny little paper contraption and made it hop.
"You get tonight sorted out?" Jack, his older brother, peered at him through the open doorway of the laundry room. Wiping sweat from his forehead and the back of his neck, he leaned against the door frame and waited for his answer.
"Yeah."
Jack motioned to his own buzzed hair. "You might think about a visit to the barbershop. Shave that scruff on your face and trim up that hair. You're starting to look like a hippie."
Finn snorted. His hair barely curled around his ears and dusted his shoulders, but coming from a long line of Marines who favored the traditional high-and-tight haircut, he looked like a shaggy dog. "I'll think about it."
"Think hard." Jack swung the towel in a slow circle. "Is your friend still planning to drop by tomorrow?"
"Conn called me at lunch to let me know his flight times. Pop said he'd finish up Kelly's room today. Conn says he'll only be staying a week."
"He can stay as long as he likes. Conn saved your life, man. The least we can do is let him sleep in a bedroom that isn't be used by anyone." He paused and seemed to be considering his words carefully. "Look, speaking of house guests, we've got to do something about Pop."
Finn had been expecting this discussion for a while now. "He's getting back on his feet, Jack. We can't put him out on the streets when he's finally getting sober and staying away from the gambling dens and bookies."
"He's a grown man. Let him find his own way." The harsh edge to Jack's voice warned Finn not to push too hard on the matter. The house belonged to Jack, and truthfully, his older brother had been more than gracious when it came to housing and supporting their abusive, alcoholic father after he had been shot trying to protect their youngest brother's girlfriend from a crazed stalker.
"Give me two weeks," Finn negotiated. "I'll get him out of the house and into a safe place."
"You don't have to babysit him. He's sixty-two years old."
"He's a recovering alcoholic and a gambling addict who is hanging on by a thread." Finn glared at his brother. "He's making progress. He needs support."
"We needed support when we were kids, Finn. Our mother needed support when she was dying. That old bastard gave us nothing but pain and grief. We've done more than enough to help him." Shaking his head, Jack pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek and seemed to be fighting for control. "Two weeks, Finn, and then I throw his shit out of the den and onto the front yard myself."
"All right." It wasn't much, but he would take it.
Changing the subject, Jack asked after their brother who was gallivanting around the world with his wunderkind tech goddess girlfriend. "Did you talk to Kelly today?"
"Yeah, I caught him on Skype early this morning. He and Bee are headed for Hong Kong. He said he'll touch base tomorrow." Not sure how Jack would react to the news, he carefully added, "Kelly told me he spoke to Dimitri last night and let him know that he's not coming back to Lone Star. He's hanging up the bodyguard uniform."
"Like hell," Jack said with a knowing chuckle. "He's just traded one boss for another."
"Bee's prettier. Pays better, I'm sure."
"Oh, I bet it's the benefits package that interests him most."
&n
bsp; Chuckling, Finn went back to folding the freshly laundered towels. "We need to get more detergent."
"All ready?" Jack came into the laundry room and dropped his dirty towel in the first open washer. He picked up one of the hampers Finn had dragged in from the locker room and dumped it in the machine. "We may need to look into signing up with a vendor for deliveries instead of relying on monthly trips to a warehouse store."
"If you're about to start bitching about pennies, you're not going to like what I'm about to tell you."
Jack finished loading the machine and closed the lid. "Just lay it on me, Finn."
"I heard Gabe growling about these classes you've got him teaching the Lone Star guys. He's grumbling about his pay rate. Seems he found out what Dimitri Stepanov is paying the gym on that contract we secured to train his bodyguards and bouncers. He seems to think you're pocketing a tidy profit. Of course, he has no idea about silly little things like overhead, health insurance, equipment…"
His older brother's growling sound didn't bode well for anyone. He snarled a few choice words. "I'll deal with it."
Finn's mouth slanted with a knowing smile. "I'm sure you will."
Taking an armful of towels out of the dryer, Jack remarked, "Looks like Mattie might need a helper to keep up with his duties now that he's going to class three mornings a week."
"It's this rush of sign-ups we've had since the latest wave of college kids returned to the city," Finn said. "Half of them will probably drop their memberships once we hit October. They'll have to choose between beer money, rent and the gym. We're going to lose that battle every time. Maybe we should hold off until then to decide whether we want to look for more help."
Jack sorted the towels for the locker room from the smaller towels meant for the gym. "I can live with that. If we do add some more part-timers to the roster, we've got to do it the right way. I won't have Mattie's feelings getting hurt. We'll let him help us go through the applications and sit in on the interviews."
Finn smiled at Jack's protectiveness of his girlfriend's brother. "I like that plan. We have to make sure that any employees we hire understand that we have a zero tolerance policy for bullshit when it comes to bullying or harassment."
"Agreed," Jack said with a nod. He folded three towels before speaking again. "So, about your date tonight—"
"It's not my date," Finn cut in quickly. "It's Mattie and Ellie's date. Hadley and I are going as a buffer, just in case."
"All I'm saying is that the universe did you a huge favor by giving Eric that big case that's keeping him from going tonight. Don't waste it." Before he could protest, Jack held up one a hand to silence him. "I don't want to hear a list of reasons why it won't work."
He ignored his older brother's order. "She isn't interested in a torn up old vet like me."
"You're thirty-one years old and compared to some of the men who came back you've got nothing to complain about, Finn."
His brother's retort hit home. He thought of Conn and the horror that IED had made of his face. He remembered the dozens of other men, most of them boys fresh out of high school, he had met in the hospital and rehab who had lost so much more than a leg.
Jack reached for something behind the stack of towels he had been folding. It was the pink origami frog he placed on the stack of white cotton towels closest to Finn. "She didn't just write her name on a slip of scrap paper, bro. She made you a freaking frog. She wanted you to call her and to remember her."
Finn gingerly picked up the frog and held it on his palm. He swallowed hard as the truth hit him. Not meeting Jack's curious gaze, he said, "I haven't been interested in a woman since losing my leg and the drinking. Not…not like this," he added. "There were women." He shut his eyes as shame engulfed. "Too many women and too many empty, angry one-night-stands, but Hadley? She's different. One look, and God, Jack. I couldn't breathe."
Jack squeezed his shoulder. "I know how that goes. It was the same way for me the first time I walked into the pawn shop and spotted Abby."
"You had something to offer Abby. All I've got to offer a woman is a shit fucking ton of baggage," Finn growled with frustration.
"That's not true, and you know it." Jack's hand tightened on his shoulder. "You own this business with me. You volunteer with other addicts. You coach special needs kids and adults. You make a difference to people who know you." He gestured to the blade-like prosthesis Finn wore around the gym. "You're a war hero, Finn. You lost your leg fighting for your country. Sure, you were a mean, pathetic drunk, but you whipped that addiction's ass. Thirty-one months and one week, Finn. That's a hell of a thing to accomplish."
He wasn't surprised Jack remembered the exact day of his last drink. If it hadn't been for Jack, he would have been dead by now. A wreck, a bar fight or choking on his own vomit while passed out drunk in some fleabag motel—he would have gone out with a nasty, ugly death.
"Just go out tonight with an open mind," Jack urged. "You like this girl. Brother, you ran across a parking lot to save her from a sniper."
A vision of Hadley's striking gray eyes and warm, honey brown skin flashed before him. He would never forget the panicked glint to her strangely hued irises as the bullets snapped and clanged all around them. She had clung to him, her small hands gripping at his shoulders and arms. The scent of her, something floral and sweet, had made an impression on him even in that adrenaline-fueled moment.
Stroking her back and hair, he had tried to calm her with gentle words. He had sworn to protect her. That vow hadn't been an empty one. Later that night, he had killed the man who had tried to take out Hadley, Mattie and Abby with one clean, perfectly placed shot. Not that Hadley would ever know that. It was a secret he would take to his grave.
"Give it a chance," Jack suggested. "She might surprise you."
Glancing at the paper frog on his palm, Finn smiled. "She already has."
Double dates had never been his idea of fun, but he had a sneaking suspicion tonight was going to be a night he would never forget.
Chapter Two
With a smile I didn't even try to conceal, I watched Mattie and Ellie chatting excitedly in front of me as we slowly made our way down the busy sidewalk. The couple exchanged eager glances while discussing the musical we had watched. I had to hand it to Mattie. He had made Ellie's first date a beautiful thing.
Not wanting to collide with a passionately kissing couple obliviously veering toward me, I stepped to the left and bumped into Finn. His arm shot out to steady me, curving just above my waist and tugging me in closer to his side as another larger, more raucous group squeezed by us on the sidewalk. His fingers spanned my hip, the grip easy but firm. It was the first time he had touched me all night, and my body thrummed with an illicit buzz as the heat of his big hand seeped through the fabric of my dress.
I cast a shy look his way and caught him staring at me. The tawny flecks in his green eyes seemed to glow in an almost supernatural way. It was the castoff light from the theaters and restaurants surrounding us lending him that otherworldly quality. He had cut his hair since the last time I had seen him and shaved too.
His handsome face made my breath catch in my throat. The hard angles of his jaw were marked by faint scars. He had more rippled, ridged lines on his neck, forearms and hands. I assumed he had sustained those injuries during his tours of duty, most of them probably at the same time he had lost his leg. It occurred to me that I might have finally met a man who had more scars than me, physically and emotionally.
The pressure of his grip along my hip increased, and he gently slowed my pace. When my expression turned questioning, he gestured toward Mattie and Ellie with a lift of his chin. Lowering his face until his mouth nearly touched the shell of my ear, he murmured, "Let's give them a little space."
A wicked shiver coursed through me as his breath tickled my skin. Unable to help myself, I moved fractionally closer. Finn's cologne enticed me. He smelled of the outdoors, like pine and fresh, crisp mountain air with a hint of cedar. Ev
er so slowly, he lowered his arm and let it drop away from my waist. I mourned the loss of his touch and heat immediately but found some small comfort in the way our hands bumped together as we walked.
"I think this was a good date for them," Finn remarked, his keen eyes roving the area. It had taken me the first few minutes of dinner to realize that he wasn't being deliberately aloof or ignoring the conversation at the table when he glanced around like that. He was scanning for threats. Considering his time in the Marines as a sniper and the battles he had probably seen, I assumed it was a hard habit to break. I had wanted to tease him about it, but then I'd remembered what the hell had happened that night outside the arts center. He had every reason to be so uptight.
"Did Eric choose the restaurant?" It had been quiet and cozy with just the right amount of fancy to make the night special.
"He did, but the musical was all Mattie. Apparently, Mattie saw Ellie looking at the flyer in the lobby of the arts center. He said it made her smile, and he wanted to make her smile."
"Aw! What a sweetheart he is! God, what I'd do meet a guy who actually paid attention to the things that make me smile."
Finn cast a sidelong glance my way. "You're meeting guys in the wrong places."
"Probably," I agreed with a short laugh.
We walked in silence for a few paces before Finn piped up again. "Raspberries made you smile. I caught you swiping the ones Ellie had pushed off her dessert."
My ears felt hot. "I didn't think anyone noticed that."
"I did."
I swallowed hard. Feeling a bit brave, I asked, "What else did you notice?"
"You like your food super spicy, but it gives you heartburn because you've been touching your chest all night. You rub your thumb against your palm when you're bored. You've got sensitive ears because you winced during the loud dancing numbers during the show." His attention dropped to my foot for a second. "You've been favoring your right foot all night. You probably stubbed it while getting dressed."
