by Marie Force
“Breathe.”
He took a deep breath.
“Take another.”
Holding her gaze, he continued to breathe until his heart stopped pounding and the roar in his ears lessened somewhat. But the roar had been there since the doctor in Providence had told them there were two babies in there. He still couldn’t believe that the baby they hadn’t planned to have was actually two babies.
Five.
Five children.
Breathe.
His parents had done it and survived, and they would, too. At least he hoped so. He could survive anything as long as he had Maddie by his side. “You really want to tell people?”
“I really do. Or everyone is going to think I swallowed an elephant.”
“We can’t have that.”
Her lips curled into the smile she saved just for him. That smile made his world go round. “Let’s get it over with.”
“If you insist.”
“I insist.”
Reluctantly, Mac stood, took another deep breath and then issued a sharp whistle that got everyone’s attention. “So, um, Maddie says I have to tell you guys that she didn’t actually swallow an elephant.”
“Honestly, Mac.” He could hear the amusement in her tone.
“The truth is, she’s having twins. Girls. Two of them.”
Janey was the first to snort with laughter that took everyone else down with her. Such a brat.
“Pay up,” Janey said to Joe.
Joe scowled at Mac. “You cost me fifty bucks.”
“You bet on what we were having?”
Joe used his thumb to point to his wife. “She called it weeks ago, and when I said no way you were capable of keeping a secret like that, she bet me fifty bucks, and here we are.”
Janey smiled smugly and held out her hand to Joe. “I’ll take a fifty-dollar bill, please.”
Mac’s mom, Linda, pushed her way through the family members. “Move it.” The group parted to let her through. She hugged Mac and then bent to hug Maddie, too. “I knew it. I told your father that Maddie is too round to be carrying one baby.”
Mac shook his head in amusement. “We never could keep secrets from Voodoo Mama.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“If the Voodoo fits…”
“Your mother did suggest that twins were possible,” Big Mac said. “I told her she was seeing things that weren’t there.”
Mac looked down at his mom. “You’d think by now he’d know better than to question you.”
“You would think.”
Big Mac extended his hand to his son. “Congratulations, Dad. Well done.”
Mac puffed his chest out. “It was rather exceptionally well done of me.”
“Shut up, Mac.”
Maddie’s comment made everyone laugh.
“Telling him to shut up is like telling the tide not to come in tomorrow,” Joe said.
As the others cracked up, Mac turned to Maddie. “Well, now they’re mocking me. Are you satisfied?”
“My work here is finished.” She rubbed her hands together gleefully.
Mac scowled at her. “It’s a good thing I love you so much.”
Big Mac took his son aside for a private word. “When will you be leaving for the mainland?” Big Mac asked, his expression sober and thoughtful now that the laughter had passed.
“Late August,” Mac said. “We’re not taking any chances.”
“Glad to hear it. We’ve had enough high-drama deliveries on this island to last me a lifetime.”
“You and me both.”
“Heard today that Paul and Hope Martinez are on the mainland,” Big Mac said. “Their baby is due any time now.”
“That’s exciting news.”
“I’m just glad they’ve gone over ahead of the arrival.”
“For sure.”
“I was over at the Wayfarer today, and it looks fantastic. I can’t say enough about how happy I am with the job you guys did there.”
“I’m glad you’re happy with it. I can’t believe we’re done. A few little things here and there, but mostly done.”
“Another job very well done by my son.”
“Thanks, Dad. It was fun to work on something the family did together.”
“What’s next for you?”
“Landed the reno of the Curtis house today.”
“That place gives me the creeps.”
“You and me both, but they want a full reno, so it’ll be a nice job to keep the guys busy for the summer. Although, Finn told me he’s heading home after Shane’s wedding and the Wayfarer opening.”
“Is he? Well, that’s a damned shame. I love having all you kids out here with us.”
“I know you do, but he says it’s time to go home and get a life.”
Big Mac’s brows furrowed. “Did he now? I rather thought that’s what he was doing here.”
“Me, too, but I certainly know how this island can start to feel confining at times. He’s a young guy with his whole life ahead of him. I understand the need to go figure that out. Maybe after he does, he’ll come back.”
“You had to come back to find the answers.”
Mac glanced at Maddie, who was talking to his mom and Janey. “True.”
“Your brothers and cousins, too. Everything you wanted and needed was right here. All you had to do was open your eyes to the possibilities.”
“Maybe you need to tell him that.”
“Maybe I will.”
* * *
Finn had never felt more off-balance. His brother’s words ran around in his mind, tormenting him with the possibility that Chloe could be the “one” for him. What did that even mean? He’d never bought into the belief that there was only one person for everyone, and even after watching Riley find his “one,” he still didn’t believe there was no one else in the entire world his brother could’ve been happy with for a lifetime.
Not to say that Finn wasn’t thrilled for Riley and Nikki, because he was. He thought they were great together, but that didn’t mean his path had to follow theirs. Even as he had that thought, he sought out Chloe in the crowd. As much as he tried to pretend it was no big deal that she was there, he couldn’t control the need to find her, to see her, to talk to her, to be near her.
Giving in to the pull that was bigger than anything had ever been, he moved through the group of family and friends until he stood by her side.
She looked up at him, and the turmoil within seemed to calm somewhat.
How did she do that? How did she wind him up and then calm him without saying a word?
“Are you okay?” she asked, her brows knitting with concern.
“No, I’m not.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Everything is wrong.” And this wasn’t the time or the place to discuss it further, not surrounded by his loving but overly involved family. “Can we leave?”
“You’re not having fun?”
Finn shook his head. He was far too charged up to sit still, let alone endure hours with his family, when all he wanted was to find a way to understand what the hell was happening to him. “I’m going to tell them I’m not feeling well. Go along with me?”
“Sure.”
Finn went to make their excuses to Janey.
She eyed him suspiciously. “You don’t look sick.”
“I’ve been feeling off all day.”
“If you want to be alone with your new lady friend, all you have to do is say so.”
“New lady friend? How old are you?”
“Don’t deny that you’ve been playing eye hockey with her since the minute you got here.”
Finn suppressed a groan. He should’ve known an easy escape would be too much to hope for in this family. “Don’t make a thing of it. It’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t want it, and I’m leaving soon anyway. It’s nothing.” Even as he told himself that, the tingles running up and down his spine
made a liar out of him. It was definitely something.
“May I offer an opinion?”
“Can I stop you?” He loved Janey, who was more like a sister to him than a cousin. The two of them had always been close, and despite how it might seem, he valued her opinion.
She grasped his arm. “Listen to me, Finn. I’ve known her since she came to the island and opened the salon. She’s a really, really great person. If you like her, and I think you do even if you’re trying to deny it to yourself and to me, don’t be a fool. The good things, the important things, they don’t come along every day, and when they do, you have to at least try, or spend the rest of your life wondering what if.”
“Is that right?”
She smacked him upside the head, which she had to do on tiptoes because he towered over her. “I’m serious. I think all the time about what I would’ve missed out on if I hadn’t taken a chance with Joe at the worst possible time for such a chance.” She had gotten together with Joe the same night she caught her fiancé in bed with another woman.
“I hear you.” He kissed her forehead. “And I appreciate you—always.”
“Call me tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I will. Thanks for having us.”
“Thanks for all you did at the Wayfarer.”
“It was a labor of love.”
She hugged him. “You’d better call me.”
“I will.”
Finn went to collect Chloe and was on his way to a clean escape when they ran into his dad and Chelsea coming in the front door as they went out. Finn introduced them to Chloe.
“We know Chloe,” Chelsea said. “She cuts our hair.”
Of course she did. He was realizing she knew everyone on the island except him, or so it seemed.
“Where’re you going?” Kevin asked.
“We’re calling it a night. I’m not feeling great.” Finn could tell his father saw right through the white lie. He and Riley used to joke that Kevin had a built-in, finely calibrated lie-o-meter.
“Sorry to hear that.”
“I’ll check in tomorrow.”
“Talk to you then.”
With his hand on Chloe’s lower back, Finn ushered her out of the house and into the cool evening air. He felt a tremendous sense of relief at having escaped from the loving cloister of his tight-knit family. God knows they meant well, but sometimes he wished they didn’t have to be up in each other’s business the way they were. Of course, that didn’t apply to when Riley was falling for Nikki. Finn had been up in his brother’s grill the whole time. That’d been fun. Trying to explain the way he felt about Chloe, even to Riley, wasn’t fun. It was pure torture.
“You’re so tense.”
Chloe’s words interrupted his musings as he got into the truck.
He decided to be honest with her. “I’m trying to understand why meeting you has turned my whole life upside down.”
“Has it?”
“Completely. And I don’t get why.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m equally confused.”
Her confession buoyed his flagging spirits, and then he paused to ask himself why it mattered so much that she was confused, too. She’d already told him this wasn’t going to happen. He looked down at the floor, wishing for answers he didn’t have.
His phone vibrated with a text, probably from Missy, who’d sent a countdown image earlier that showed fourteen days until June first. But when he thought of her, of returning to her and the relationship he’d had with her, he felt dead inside, as if that was the worst possible thing he could do.
Inspiration struck with sudden clarity. “I’m here for a couple more weeks. Spend that time with me. No promises, no commitments, just two people who enjoy each other hanging out together.”
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth and eyed him with hesitation. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
“How come?”
“I’m afraid I’ll get attached and be heartbroken when you leave.”
Her honesty gutted him. “I already know I’m going to be heartbroken if I never get the chance to know you better. I’ll be careful with you. I promise.”
“I… I need to think about it. I’m sorry… It’s just that there are so many reasons why this isn’t a good idea for me.”
He wanted to know all her reasons. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her, and that was unprecedented for him. Even after all the years he’d spent with Missy, he’d never wanted to know everything about her. Their relationship had been lighter, more surface-level than what he wanted with Chloe, which flew in the face of his plans to leave the island and return to the life he’d been living before he came here.
None of it made the first bit of sense to him, but he’d meant what he’d said about wanting the chance to know her. “Let me see your phone.”
After unlocking it, she handed it over.
Finn punched in his number and then sent himself a text before returning the phone to her. “Text me, call me, FaceTime me—any time you want. I’ll be waiting to hear from you, okay?”
“Okay.”
He covered her hand with his. “And if it’s a no, that’s okay, too.”
She turned her hand and curled her fingers around his, sending the charge of electricity through him once again. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for being a gentleman. My father and uncles wouldn’t have it any other way. The first thing they taught all their sons was the meaning of the word no.”
“The world could use more fathers like them.”
“I agree, even if at times I chafed against their ‘guidance.’”
“I’m sure you did, but they had the right idea. They raised an incredible group of men.”
“That’s nice of you to say.”
Finn hated to lose the connection to Chloe by releasing her hand, but he had to in order to start the truck and drive her home. He wanted to ask what she was thinking but refrained, trying to show some restraint. One thing he already understood was that if he asked for too much too soon, he’d push her away. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
He pulled into her driveway and left the truck running when he got out to walk her to the door.
“Thanks for a great time. Your family is amazing, but you know that.”
“They are fun to be around.”
“That’s putting it mildly. They’re like a reality TV show—the good kind.”
Finn laughed. “The stories I could tell you…”
“I’m sure they’re epic.”
“They are, and if you decide to call me or text me, I’ll tell you all about them.”
“You’re very tempting, Finn McCarthy.”
If he’d ever received a more meaningful compliment, he couldn’t recall it. “Am I?”
“You know you are.”
“I don’t know any such thing.”
She looked up at him, her expression vulnerable. “You could have anyone. Why me?”
Finn caressed her face and moved closer to her as she took a step toward him. “Why not you, beautiful, sexy, mysterious Chloe?” Before he realized what was happening, his lips were touching hers in the gentlest possible kiss, and the sheer power of that kiss nearly brought him to his knees. “Say no if you don’t want this.” He waited, breathlessly, to see what she would do, and then she raised a hand, curled it around his neck and drew him into another kiss.
Everything—and everyone—ceased to exist for him the second she kissed him. He had experienced desire, but nothing like the heat that blasted through him when her tongue brushed against his as her hand grasped a handful of his hair.
Finn whimpered. He actually fucking whimpered. She was ruining him for any other woman one sensual stroke of her tongue at a time. It took everything he had to slow down, to pull back, to stop this before it became something more, something she had told him she didn’t want.
His brain swirled with the confusion that had been present since he met her. The p
ush-pull of what he wanted, what she wanted, his plans to leave… Leaning his forehead against hers, he was content for the moment to breathe the same air as she was, to let her distinctive scent surround and comfort him.
“Finn…”
“Hmm?”
“This is crazy. I don’t do these things.”
“What things?”
“Tell someone I can’t and then kiss his face off.”
He chuckled. “If it’s any consolation, I’m as confused as you are by what’s happening here. I thought I had a plan, and then I got my hair cut. And now, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.” Framing her face with his hands, he compelled her to look at him. “All I know is I want more time with you. I just want more.”
“I want that, too.”
Never had four little words meant more to him. “You do?”
She nodded. “Two weeks?”
“That’s all I can promise for now. My lease is up at the end of May, and I told my former boss in Connecticut I’d be back to work for him in early June.” His heart sank when he thought about Missy and the countdown she’d sent earlier. Before he did anything else, he needed to talk to her. His reaction to meeting Chloe was a sign he couldn’t ignore. No matter what happened with Chloe, his relationship with Missy needed to be over once and for all. They had run their course a long time ago and had held on to each other more out of a sense of nostalgia than anything. But he could worry about that later. Right now, he had Chloe in his arms, and he never wanted to let her go.
“I’m afraid of getting attached.” Chloe’s words, softly spoken, touched him deeply.
“We’ll keep it low-key.” Even as he said that, he wondered if he could do it. Would they both end up crushed in the end? “And we’ll proceed with caution.”
“Thank you for understanding and for a fun evening.”
“Thanks for braving the McCarthys to come with me. What time are you off tomorrow?”
“I close at seven.”
“I’ll make you dinner.” He gave her his address. “Come whenever you’re free.”
“Okay.”
Finn kissed her again, lightly, holding back the unexplainable craving for more that overtook him whenever she was near. “I’ll wait until you’re locked in.” He forced himself to let her go, to hold the door for her and to walk away when he heard the click of the lock. On the ride home, he thought it through from every angle, trying to make sense of the powerful emotions he was experiencing for the first time.
