Chapter Eleven

 

One week later…

Jen rolled her eyes as she walked back to the guest bedroom from the shower and heard the noises coming from her brother and sister-in-law’s room. She hoped Stephen was being careful, but ever since the doctor said Tasha was doing well and sex—particularly oral—could actually be a positive thing on occasion? There was no stopping her.

She wouldn’t be surprised if Tasha had paid that doctor in tarts to get that particular prescription.

Her heart twisted, just a little, and she told herself it didn’t hurt as much as it had yesterday or the day before. As long as she kept herself busy and focused, it would eventually get better.

It had been five days since she’d written the letter. After a few sleepless nights spent thinking about what Rory and Noah had said, Jen had finally let Tasha bring up the subject she’d been avoiding. They didn’t talk about Ellen, but Tasha had shared what she went through after she left Stephen when she was trying to protect him from a scandal. How she’d rationalized it, and how wrong she’d been. Then she’d gotten her BDSM teaching face on and told Jen about all the poly relationships she’d seen in her years at the club that were successful and why they worked.

“It’s about the people in them, Jen,” she’d stressed. “Do they bring out the best or worst in each other? Do they enjoy sharing or is everything a competition? Are they together because it’s forbidden and sexy, or because they’re in love and they can’t imagine living another way?”

So she’d written her letter to Declan and Trick. She’d told them everything. Everything she’d learned from her mother, everything she’d been thinking. She poured all her concerns onto the pages until she felt drained. She’d finished by admitting that she was in love with both of them, and if they wanted to talk, she would pick up the phone.

They hadn’t called.

Jen opened her bedroom door and pulled the towel off her head, drying her hair. When she saw her phone blinking on the nightstand, she went over to swipe her finger on the screen and nearly dropped it when she saw a text from Trick.

She opened it and gasped. He’d sent back the picture of her lace underwear. The one she’d taken when she was trying to entice him over to her apartment. Beneath, he’d typed a message.

If you still want to talk, come to the backyard.

Her blood started racing through her veins in a way it hadn’t in days. Her hands were shaking with adrenaline as she looked around her room, expecting to see him. Nothing.

If she still wanted to talk? She closed her eyes and felt the heaviness that had been weighing down her heart start to lift. It wasn’t too late. She hadn’t lost them, not completely. They were still willing to talk.

She tightened the belt on her robe and nearly slid down the stairs with her phone in her hand. The backyard was surrounded by an eight-foot wall, it’s only entrance a secure steel door with an alarm. For a state senator, Stephen was a rock star, and he and Tasha received a lot of attention, which is why police cruised the block up to three times a night.

Trick might have been able to bypass her cheap apartment alarm, but that?

He’s tricky, Tasha had said.

He sent the text. They had to be here.

Opening the kitchen door that led to the patio, Jen held her robe closed and peered outside. It was too dark to see anyone. She looked down at her phone, ready to text them when she saw Declan step into the light, adjusting his glasses before slipping his hands in his pockets.

He looked tired. “You’re here.”

Declan studied her wet hair and white bathrobe with hungry, storm-gray eyes. “Yes.” A small smile teased his lips. “Trick wanted to break into your room and relive old times, but I’m not a very good criminal and this is too important for games.”

She came outside, shutting the kitchen door and leaning against the house. “I agree. Is he with you?”

Trick appeared from the shadows beside Declan. “Of course I’m here. Who do you think got our professor through the door?”

“You broke into Stephen’s backyard?”

“I would have. But his beautiful wife texted me the code instead.” Trick came closer and lifted his hand to her cheek, using his thumb to wipe the tears she didn’t realize she’d started crying. “Don’t break my heart, Jen. Don’t cry.”

“I’m sorry,” she said to both of them as Declan joined them on the patio. “For the email…all of this. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just…I didn’t know what else to do.”

“No one did,” Declan admitted, reaching for her hand and tangling his fingers through hers as if he had to touch her. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, not when other people were involved.”

“We didn’t know about your mother.” Trick shook his head. “I still can’t believe that.”

“Solomon knew.” Jen’s lips parted in surprise at Declan’s words.

“He did?”

“For years, apparently. He only told Seamus after your mother had him warn me away. Your brother is still a little rattled.”

She knew. Seamus hadn’t made it to the last family dinner. Everyone noticed. They also noticed that Jen was still avoiding her mother and that Shawn Finn was quieter than usual. Sol, of course, was a no show.

“No one tried to warn me away.”

“You were pretty bruised up at the time, Trick.”

Trick smiled tenderly when she reached up to touch the faded bruise on his cheek. “Or they knew I’d kick their ass and chose to be talked to death instead.”

“We all have our strengths.” He pulled Jen into his arms. “I lost mine the day you sent that email. When I didn’t see you in class and you weren’t at your apartment, I nearly lost my mind. Don’t you know how we feel about you?”

She hoped she did. “Why did you wait?”

It wasn’t fair for her to ask, not after she’d broken things off, but if they’d gone through what she had in the last few days, she wasn’t sure why they hadn’t called.

Trick cupped her hip, both of them surrounding her, making her feel safe. “You said a lot of things in that letter. Maybe more than you realized. I thought we needed to take a breath, a step back and see if we could have answers for you when we showed up at the senator’s door.”

“What kind of answers?”

Declan pressed his lips to her temple. “You said you thought we’d be happy without you. That we should be together, just the two of us. To be honest, there was a time when I thought you were right. But Trick and I talked it out honestly for the first time in our lives and realized it wasn’t true. We love each other, we always have, but no matter how strongly we felt, we never quite came together. Never balanced out.”

Trick’s fingers curled into her skin. Caressing. Massaging. “The first time I saw the two of you in the same room, it all fell into place for me. I knew we’d fit. I knew you were the missing piece.”

“We are happier together with you, Jennifer Finn. We don’t work without you.”

She smiled at their words, another tear slipping down her cheek. “I love you both so much.”

“I love you, too. I have for a while. But just so you know, you don’t get to do that to us again,” Trick warned her, a vulnerability in his voice that broke her heart. “Leaving like that? I don’t think either one of us could take it, Jen.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“My turn.” Declan tilted her face to look into her eyes with all his heart there for her to see. “I love you. I didn’t know I wanted a family until you showed me what it meant. I didn’t know I could live in more than one little room. Will you come back and make our house a home again?”

She started to nod but then bit her lip. “I have a condition.”

Trick’s chin dropped to his chest. “Fuck.”

“What is it?” Declan asked.

Jen smiled down at her two beautiful men. “You have to sneak through a senator’s house and help me break in his guest bed.” Or break it entirely.

“Is that all?” Trick asked, shaking his head. But his smile was wicked.

“Isn’t that enough?”

Declan surprised them both by picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. “I’m in.”

“I thought you said you weren’t a very good criminal, Professor.”

Trick laughed and opened the door, leading the way. “I’ll protect Professor Hot Lips,” he promised. “I know how Stephen fights. I can take him.”

“New condition. No one tries to take my brother anywhere, and I’ll wear those lace panties you like.”

“Deal,” Trick and Declan said at the same time.

She smiled. She loved her men.

 

***

 

Declan was nervous. It had taken a few weeks and a lot of his famous “talking people to death”, but he and Trick had finally put it together. The Finns had agreed to have the family dinner at his house.

They needed to accomplish more than one goal tonight. Survival was just the first step. The next was getting Jennifer to talk to her mother. And Declan was determined to talk privately with Shawn Finn.

The bribe for Jeremy and Owen would just be icing on the cake.

Trick was dressed handsomely in tailored, ironed clothes for a change. Jennifer was anxious about doing this without Tasha, but she was still basically confined to her bed until the C-section, and Stephen didn’t want to take any chances.

Seamus was the first to arrive with his children. It was an obvious show of support for Jennifer, who hugged him tightly and then laughed when Wes and Penny ran around her in circles, asking questions about the house. Young Jake was just taking everything in with wide eyes, his hand firmly clutching Little Sean’s.

“She looks good with kids,” Trick murmured.

He couldn’t start thinking about that or he’d never stop. “She’s got field work next semester and a master’s degree to focus on first. Look, Owen and Jeremy are here.”

“I’ll give them a tour and get the plan rolling,” Trick said with a smile, going over to greet them, and stopping on his way to grab two beers. Smart man.

Noah came up to Declan first with his brother Wyatt, holding out his hand. “Good to see you again. I wasn’t sure I was going to. Wyatt? This is the man with the wall who teaches college girls about sex.” He winked at Declan. “You’re his new life goal.”

“I’ll stick to putting out fires.” Wyatt smiled easily. “You just keep starting them, Professor.”

Trying not to choke in surprised laughter, Declan nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

He noticed Shawn and Ellen Finn hesitating in the foyer and excused himself. This had to work, he told himself. He’d make this work. “Mr. and Mrs. Finn, welcome. Thank you for giving us the chance to host the dinner tonight. Jen’s really been looking forward to it.”

Ellen Finn was looking around his house with raised eyebrows, but she sent him a tentative smile and took his hand. He counted that as a win. Shawn, who looked a lot like Owen with more gray in his hair, put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on his heels. “Got a place you and I could sit and talk, son?”

“The library, sir.”

Shawn kissed his wife’s cheek tenderly and nodded. “Show me to your library.”

Declan and Trick had planned to talk to Shawn together, but he was in a deep discussion with Jeremy and Declan didn’t want to disturb him. It was disconcerting as hell, having “the talk” with a man like this, a man who knew too much about him for not knowing him at all. But he was ready for any argument. If he’d gotten Solomon and Brady to back down, he could handle the Finn patriarch.

He hoped.

Shawn took one look at Declan’s recliner and made a beeline for it. “This is my kind of chair,” he sighed, leaning back. “You have a nice house, Kelley. A little on the obnoxiously big side, but this room I like.”

“So do I, sir.” He leaned against his desk. “I practically lived in here before… Before,” he finished lamely.

Shawn nodded. “Any brothers or sisters?”

“No, sir. My dad died before I was born. It was just my mother and I.”

“Too bad. Family is a blessing.” He shifted in the chair and sighed again. “Ellen is a wonderful woman and the love of my life, but she’s been too hard on herself, and too hard on Jennifer. That’s the way with mothers and daughters, I think. And fathers and sons, for that matter. We see ourselves in miniature, growing up right before our eyes, and we try to stop them from making the same mistakes we made. Which isn’t really fair, when you think about it.”

Declan wasn’t sure how to respond. “No, sir.”

Shawn was staring at the bookshelf, but his eyes seemed farther away. “Maybe I’m an old sentimental fool, but when I look at my children now? At my wonderful nephews that we’ve finally gotten to see more of this year? When I think back to that summer and the life I was heading toward before it happened? I’m not sure we made a mistake. Despite what and who I’ve lost…I don’t think love can ever really be a mistake, Kelley. Do you?”

Now I understand why Jen believes you hung the moon. “I think I love your daughter, sir. We both do. And more surprisingly, the wonderful woman you raised loves us back. I think this is an unusual and uncomfortable situation, but I know Jennifer is a Finn to the bone. She’s all about her family, we almost lost her once because of that, and so I’ll be damned if the first gift we give her for loving us is taking that away. Sir.”

Shawn smiled and his blue eyes lit up like Jen’s. “Guts and honesty. She likes that I bet. You know, we finally got a law passed so my son can marry the love of his life, but I’ll be honest in return—I don’t think we’ll see one for you three any time soon. No matter how much you love each other.”

“I know and that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Mr. Finn.” Declan swallowed.

“Shawn.”

“I want to marry Jennifer, Shawn,” he blurted like a nervous prom date. “I’d ask her today if I didn’t think she’d run out the front door screaming. But Trick and I have already talked to my lawyer and drawn up a will for her and—if she decides she wants them—any children we might… Sir?”

Shawn was laughing. He pushed himself up to his feet and put his hand on Declan’s shoulder. “You should change your name, son. If I didn’t know any better I’d call you a Finn. When you go in, you go all in, don’t you?”

Declan smiled and reached up to adjust his glasses. “Yes, sir.”

“Good man. Life is too short for doing things halfway.” He paused at the door. “But it’s also nice to slow down and enjoy what you have right this moment. Let’s get through this next bit and see where it takes us.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jennifer was watching for him when he reappeared in the living room. She came up to him, kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “What were you doing with Dad?”

“Talking. It would be strange if I asked him to adopt me, wouldn’t it?”

She smirked. “Yes. We don’t have to break every sexual taboo for your research, Professor. Save some for my cousins.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “Did you see your mother?”

“I did.” Jen smiled hopefully. “I think we’re better. She hugged me a lot. We’re having lunch next week. This brought up a lot for her and she says she’s thinking about talking to someone.”

“Good.”

Trick joined them and handed Declan a beer. “Jeremy is in. Says Owen hasn’t stopped talking about the house for weeks and he’ll get with Tasha and start working on Ellen right away.”

Jennifer frowned. “Working on her for what?”

“Christmas. Weddings. The usual.”

“Actually.” Jen looked around. “That’s genius.”

“I know,” Declan and Trick said at the same time.

Jennifer shook her head, but she was smiling again. “Noah said he and his brothers are planning an intervention with their father. Apparently it was Brady’s idea.”

“Christmas is looking more interesting all the time.” Trick nodded toward the kitchen staff Declan had hired for the evening. “I think dinner is ready. Are we?”

Declan smiled at the two people who held his heart and let the conversation and laughter all around him seep in to his soul. He hadn’t known how alone he’d been. How much he’d been missing.

This was what loving Trick and Jennifer had given him. Complication, noise, mess, laughter and sex and—as his wise future father-in-law Shawn Finn once told him—love. And love was never a mistake.

“We’re ready.”

 

 

Look for Finn Again, a Christmas anthology,

with A Curious Wedding: An Owen and Jeremy quickie.

Coming Soon!