Finn rolled his shoulders, working out the kinks in his neck. He hated flying. He’d been spoiled by the team charter plane, and there’d been no first-class seats available on the short flight to Calgary, so he’d sucked it up in economy. Those seats were not built for long legs and broad shoulders.
The fact that he was tense to begin with wasn’t helping matters either. Only Grace and Brandon knew he was heading home, and he’d sworn them to secrecy. He didn’t want to give his father any warning of his return. Ambushes were better that way.
Now here he was, on his mother’s doorstep, wishing he was anywhere else. He knocked on the door and heard his mother tell someone—he assumed Jack—to see who would show up so late at night. Not that it was late. Just after dinner for most.
Finn braced himself for the confrontation and wished that Sophia was with him, her hand in his, squeezing away his tension. But this wouldn’t have been the best way to introduce her to his mother. There would be time for that later—hopefully. Unless his mother wanted nothing to do with him after he told her the truth.
The front door opened, and he stood face-to-face with his father. The man looked the same. Maybe a few extra wrinkles, a new line or two around his mouth, but Jack Finnegan hadn’t really changed, and as much as Finn hated it, it was like looking in a mirror, an aged mirror. He’d always wished he’d gotten his mother’s coloring, instead of seeing the features he loathed whenever he looked in the mirror.
“Eric. What are you doing here?” Jack’s voice lifted at the end, but Finn didn’t miss the bite in his father’s tone.
“I’d like to ask you the same, but we already know the answer.”
“Have you thought about what I asked?”
“You have some fucking nerve,” he bit out.
“Jack, who is it?” His mother’s voice carried over his father’s shoulder, and Finn pushed the man out of his path with a subtle shove.
“Hi Mom,” Finn said, dropping his bag to the floor and picking her up in his arms to give her a hug.
“Eric. Oh my goodness, what are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to visit?” She laughed, and it was a sound he ached to hear more than he realized. “And put me down. Aren’t you still recovering?”
“I wanted to surprise you, and my ankle is fully healed. I should be ready to go for training camp next week,” he said, setting her back down. He hadn’t seen her in at least six months, since before his accident and surgery. She was smiling at him now, but she looked tired.
“Well, this is a surprise. I’m so happy you’re home. Molly told me all about their visit, and something about a sleepover with Sophia?”
Finn laughed. “Yeah, Sophia is my girlfriend. You’ll have to come visit me so you can meet her, or we’ll make a trip up here.”
“Oh Finn, I think the last time you introduced me to a girlfriend was in high school.”
“There was never anyone special for you to meet until Sophia.” He heard the almost wistful tone in his voice, and he didn’t care.
His mother’s eyes widened, and she grinned. “I’ll definitely need to make a trip to see you. I noticed the bag. Are you staying with us?” she asked.
“If you don’t mind. I thought I’d stay a few days before camp started up, since I wasn’t able to come up for the summer.”
“Of course. You are always welcome here.”
He wasn’t sure she’d feel that way when he said what he needed to, which is why his bag was still next to the door.
“Now, why don’t you and your father sit down and catch up. I’ll grab us something to drink. I know you two have had your differences, but this will be good to be together. It’s been so long,” she said, patting his arm before she turned and headed into the kitchen.
“The perfect son has returned. You decide how much you’re going to pay me this time?” his father asked as soon as his mother was out of sight.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Finn growled. “I just walked in the door and you’re already looking for a handout.”
“Let’s not play games. I know you want me gone, and the fastest way to do that is with cash or check,” Jack sneered. “Preferably cash.”
“How does she not see through you? After every time,” Finn muttered, barely resisting the urge to knock his father to the floor.
“Because she loves me,” the smug bastard said, and rage boiled in Finn’s belly. “Sounds like you have a woman who loves you now. Feels great, doesn’t it?”
He gritted his teeth. “Don’t you dare try to compare this fucked up situation to what I have.”
“But you could fix this. You could make me go away again. Did she cry a lot after I left? Was the note too vague?”
His father was a sick bastard, and he hoped this apple had fallen clear of the orchard. Finn remembered the note. Remembered his mother crying for days—weeks—after Jack left with an I have to go, it’s better this way note. He’d hated seeing his mother in pain, and he’d hoped that she would move on. But she hadn’t. He’d never heard her talk about dating another man, and she’d never filed the divorce papers that he’d hoped she would. The ones he hoped she’d file now because he wasn’t giving his father another cent.
“I think another million will send me on my way,” his father said calmly, as if he was asking for directions.
“Here’s the thing, doting dad, you aren’t getting anything from me this time. Honestly, I have no way of believing you won’t come back for more, and I’m not going to pay you to leave. I tried that,” he paused, “and it clearly didn’t work.”
“You want me to stay here? With your mother? With your sister and Molly? Cute kid, by the way.”
“You are going to leave them alone, and no more fighting in front of Molly. It’s not good for her to see that,” Finn said, his fists clenched at his sides.
“You going to stay here and police my behavior? Come on, Eric. A little payout and I’m gone. Isn’t that what you want? How about eight hundred?”
“You are a greedy asshole. Yes, I want you gone. I want that more than anything, but I’m not giving you money again. And since you aren’t getting what you want from me, why don’t you just go back to that rock you crawled out from under, with whatever girl of the moment you’re cheating on mom with, and disappear,” he said, his gaze locked on his father.
The old man actually flinched as Finn stood his ground.
“What girl? What money?” His mother’s voice was soft, and Finn spun around as she dropped the tray of glasses she was holding. It crashed to the floor, the glasses shattering into a million shards, liquid bleeding across the varnished wood.
Shit. He never wanted it to go down like this. He wanted to tell his father to shove it before his mom came back in the room.
“Yes Eric, what money? Why don’t you tell your mother all about that,” Jack said, his expression still smug, but not as sure as it had been moments before Finn told him the gravy train was done.
“Mom, come sit,” he said, walking toward her, his arms outstretched. She sank to the floor, trying to pick up the large pieces of broken glass. “Mom, please. I need to talk to you. Tell you the truth about Jack.”
She stopped trying to clean the mess and looked up at him. “Eric, I know you and your father don’t get along, but I want us to be a family. I’ve always wanted us to be a family.” He hated how broken her voice sounded.
“I know, but we don’t need him. We never needed him. And he doesn’t want to be here.”
“But he came back. After all this time. I know he’s not perfect, but…”
He couldn’t take it anymore. Her excuses, her blind love for a monster.
“Mom, I paid him off. I paid him a million dollars to leave four years ago. He took it easily, and he wasn’t supposed to come back, but he’s here because he wants more. Not because he wants to be a family or meet his granddaughter or make up for lost time. He only wants money.”
“What? Jack, no,” she gasped, shaking her head. “That’s not true. Your father loves us. He loves me.”
Finn waited for his father to say something, to call Finn a liar and rush to his wife’s side and pretend to give a shit, but the man stood still, his face blank of any emotion except the barest hint of rage. Finn wouldn’t delude himself by thinking it was rage for Finn causing his mother pain, but only for not getting more money to disappear.
“It’s true. And I have texts from him as recent as last week saying he would leave again if I paid him. But I’m not going to keep giving him money to leave. I’m not going to keep this secret from you anymore. You deserve better. You deserve to not waste your life with him or waiting for him to show up.”
“No,” she said, her tears telling him that she believed her son.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t want to tell you this. And I never should’ve given him money the first time. I just wanted everyone to be happy,” he said, hugging her close while Jack continued to say nothing.
His mother pulled out of his embrace and turned to her husband. “Get out, Jack,” she said, stepping away from Finn and standing on her own as she brushed away tears in anger.
“Olivia, don’t be hasty. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
“No you don’t. Just go. You don’t want to be here. You never wanted to be here. I can’t believe our own son thought it was best to pay you to go away and you went. You took money he earned. Get out now,” she said. “You can come back tomorrow for your things, but you cannot stay here tonight, or ever again.”
“Fine. I didn’t want to be here anyway,” Jack spat out before he walked out the door, and hopefully out of their lives for good.
“I think I’m going to go to bed,” his mother said, her shoulders slumped, and Finn’s heart broke.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I just wanted you to find the happiness you deserved, and it wasn’t going to be with him.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make,” she said, giving him one last pained look before she headed up the stairs.
He dropped down on the couch and put his head in his hands. There had to have been a better way to tell her the truth, but at least it was out now and they could pick up the pieces without his father. He just hoped it stuck.
“Sophia, you’re going to be late,” Claire called out Monday morning. Sophia bolted up in bed, only to remember that she had nowhere to be until Lanzi’s tonight, and she flopped back down. This week was going to drag. Finn was with his family—he’d filled her in last night and she’d wished she was there with him. As much as he hated his father, the whole situation still had to sting. Her own dad drove her crazy and thought he knew what was best for her, but he always loved her and showed he cared about her in his own way.
She couldn’t imagine having a parent like Finn’s father, and it broke her heart.
“Sophia, are you sick?” Claire asked, poking her head into Sophia’s room after a brief knock.
“Hey. What if I’d been occupied?” Sophia shot back.
Claire wiggled her eyebrows. “Doing what? Finn’s not here.” She stopped. “Oh, doing a little phone sexting?”
“No,” Sophia sputtered. He definitely wouldn’t have been in the mood for that last night. And they hadn’t done that—yet.
“What’s going on? I barely saw you this weekend and now you’re still in bed when you should be running out the door to get to work.”
Claire had been away until late last night. Sophia didn’t have all the details, but she thought it was a work trip. They had a lot to catch up on.
“I got fired,” she blurted out.
“Wait. What? How did you get fired?”
“You know how I told you that Tony’s been texting me?”
“Yes, and I told you to tell Finn about it.”
“I know, but it was my mess to deal with…” she trailed off.
“Finn loves you. He LOVES you. You do know that, right?”
“Yes. We said we loved each other on Friday.”
“What?” Claire screeched, and Sophia winced.
“Umm, yes. You were away and everything happened and then he left to go to Calgary, and I had to work at the restaurant. And I didn’t tell you. I thought it was more of an in-person sort of thing.”
Claire flopped down on the bed. “Spill everything now. Start with Finn’s confession of his undying love. Was he super romantic? And why is Tony involved? Did you finally tell Finn everything? Like everything?”
“Slow down. Too many questions.”
“Well, clearly you don’t think filling in your best friend immediately is a priority, so I have to throw all these questions at you,” Claire said.
“How about I start with the texts from Tony.”
“Fine. Did he threaten you? I will kill him. I mean it. I should’ve done it years ago,” Claire muttered.
“Could you shut up and let me talk?” Sophia grumbled.
“Fine. Go.”
“He’d sent a text about missing me when he’d stopped in for dinner one night when I wasn’t working, but I ignored it, but then earlier this week he started sending pictures of me and Finn kissing. And he said he was going to send them to Dr. Anders if I didn’t ditch Finn and play nice with him. That his mother missed us together. Seriously, I don’t know why he cares. Does his mother have that much control over him? She’s always been so sweet to me, so unassuming.”
“Stop with the tangents. What the fuck is wrong with him? Did Finn find out about the pictures? And how did you get fired?”
“Stop rushing me. Umm, I didn’t tell Finn about the pictures.”
Claire shot her a look of exasperation.
“Yes, I know I should’ve told him from the beginning. On Friday I decided to tell Dr. Anders about my relationship with Finn. Get it out there and come clean before Tony sent her the pictures.”
“Oh no,” Claire said, her hand reaching out to Sophia’s arm.
“Yep. She had no choice but to fire me. I get it. I hooked up with a patient, and she works with the Strikers a lot. It would look bad to keep a PT on staff that slept with a patient.” She hated saying that out loud and realizing Dr. Anders had no other choice, and that Sophia had willingly put her boss in that situation.
“But you guys are together and in love,” Claire cried.
“Yes, that was Finn’s response as well when he showed up.”
“Ooh, what happened. And I am sorry about the job, but what happened?”
“He showed up as we were finishing up and I was going to grab my stuff. He wanted to know what happened, so we discussed it in Dr. Anders’ office. That’s when he told her she couldn’t fire me because he loved me and so I wouldn’t hook up with any of her other patients because he wasn’t letting me go.”
Claire sighed. “Okay, that is adorable.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t do anything else, and I know that,” she said, picking at a loose thread on her comforter.
“You’ll find another job, but the more important thing is that Finn loves you and you need to deal with this Tony issue. He can’t have a hold over you anymore. You have to tell your family.”
“I know.” She yanked on the loose thread. “I know. And I swear I’m going to. It just sucks. I didn’t even tell my family that I got fired when I was working last night. They have no idea, and the truth about Tony is going to blindside them.”
“That is not your problem,” Claire said, nudging Sophia to look at her. Claire gave her a half-smile. “You’ve got this. And the sooner it’s done, he’ll be gone. Your family won’t let him near you.”
“You’re right. I’m tired of holding this in.”
“Good. Now let me call in sick, and then we can grab a late breakfast and you can tell me everything Finn said after he told you he loved you. And next time, you text me ASAP when shit like this happens. Good and bad.”
Sophia smiled. “I promise.”
Finn woke up to the smell of bacon and maple and almost forgot where he was. He stretched his legs, cursing the too-small bed in the room he’d grown up in. The events of last night crashed over him, and he winced, wondering what he was going to encounter downstairs.
He’d texted Sophia last night after his mom had gone to bed. She’d told him he’d done the right thing, no matter how hard it was for his mom to hear it. Part of him wished that Sophia would see that she needed to do the same thing with her family. Come clean about everything, no matter how painful, and he wondered if part of his drive to tell his mother everything was to encourage Sophia to do the same.
Finn got out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before making his way downstairs, and found his mother making breakfast. She turned to smile at him, her eyes red-rimmed, and he hated himself.
“Hi, Mom,” he said, coming around the kitchen island and planting a kiss on the top of her head. She didn’t shy away, and that was a good sign. “Are you cooking for an army?” he asked, peeking over her head at the pile of pancakes and bacon.
“From what I remember, you have a healthy appetite,” she said, flipping the last pancake onto the plate.
He stepped back, poured them each a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice for himself.
“Do you want to talk about last night?” he asked, eyeing her while she doctored up her coffee.
“Not really, but we should. You never should’ve paid him. And I know that coming to me probably wouldn’t have accomplished anything, but seeing him not try to defend himself and knowing that he took money from you was it. I’m sorry for not being a better parent to you and your sister. For keeping him in your lives when I should’ve seen him for what he’s always been for years.” A tear slipped down her cheek.
He reached across the table and took her hand, squeezing it. A gesture she’d done with him every time he got injured on the ice as a kid, a gesture that he did with Sophia to comfort her.
“You were—you are a great mom. The best I could ever ask for. Yes, Jack stayed in our lives longer than he should’ve, but you did everything you could to help me and Grace go after our dreams. You worked three jobs so I could have all the equipment and ice time I needed. We never wanted for anything, I promise.”
She wiped away her tears with the hand he wasn’t holding, and took a deep breath, giving him a watery smile.
“I should’ve done better.” She straightened her shoulders. “But that starts now. I called a divorce attorney.”
“Mom, it’s like seven in the morning. Are attorneys even awake right now?”
She laughed softly. “I have a friend whose husband is a divorce attorney, so I called her. I have an appointment in a few days.”
“I’m sorry this happened, but this is going to be a good thing. And if you ever need anything—”
She cut him off. “You are not paying for my divorce attorney.”
“Fine.” Not that it wouldn’t be money well-spent.
“Thank you for telling me the truth,” she said, squeezing his hand. “Now let’s eat, and then go visit my granddaughter. You’re here for a few days, right?”
“Yes, another four, if you’ll have me.”
“Of course, honey. Then I can grill you about this new girlfriend.”
He’d give her whatever she wanted. That’s all he’d ever wanted to do, even if the way he’d gone about it hadn’t been the best.