Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(75)

“Your girl just earned herself another kickass leather bracelet,” Dusty declared.

That was when Mike burst out laughing.

*

“What?” Fin, sitting out in the cold, dark night beside Clarisse on a deck chair, asked and she focused on him.

“Dad’s laughing,” she answered.

“What?” Fin repeated.

“Dad’s laughing.”

“So?”

“Dad doesn’t laugh all the time. But he laughs.”

“Yeah and he just laughed.”

“Dad doesn’t laugh all the time,” she repeated. “But he laughs and not like that.”

“What was that like?” Fin asked then he felt something weird in his chest when Clarisse smiled, straight out, big, right in his face and he’d always thought she wasn’t pretty.

But he was wrong.

She was beautiful. And it wasn’t her face made up like it was that day so she looked like an actual model.

She was just beautiful.

Then she answered in that kickass soft voice of hers, but this time it was different.

It was happy.

“Like he’s happy.”

God, he wanted to kiss her. He really wanted to kiss her.

And she turned fifteen yesterday. She was now totally in the zone where he could kiss her.

He didn’t kiss her.

Instead, he asked, “You wanna go out?”

She tipped her head to the side, “Go out?”

Shit, Clarisse Haines, totally cool. She was a freshman but she had it going on way more than any other girl, even the three seniors he’d been out with. Hanging back most of the time, making him come to her. Being all quiet and mysterious, not talking his ear off all the f**king time. Making an approach just enough times so he knew she was interested but not enough that she seemed to be gagging for it. Letting him make the moves, play his plays, giving back just enough to keep him interested but not really giving anything away.

Except this afternoon. This afternoon she was different. Twice, she grabbed his hand and held on. It was only for a few seconds but she did it. And she was meeting his eyes when he talked like she really gave a shit what he had to say. Like it meant something to her. Like she didn’t want him to quit talking. And she talked more too, telling him about her day with his Aunt Dusty and how cool she thought she was.

So, it was time. She was fifteen. Her Dad was seeing his aunt. She was giving him the signals.

It was time.

“Yeah, go out on a date.”

She retreated physically, shifting back a few inches and other ways too, he saw it in her face.

Shit, had he not read it right?

“Dad says I can’t date until I’m sixteen,” she whispered and he could hear it, disappointment was in her voice.

He was disappointed too but not surprised. Fuck, Mr. Haines was with Aunt Dusty for about ten minutes before he was all over the gig with Aunt Debbie. If he stepped up to protect Aunt Dusty like that, he’d totally be all over protecting his daughter. Rees was the only girl he knew who had to wait until she was sixteen to date. And that was another whole freaking year.

“Maybe I can talk to Dusty about talking to him,” she suggested.

She suggested.

Rees.

Fin grinned at her.

That would totally work. Mr. Haines was into his aunt and him stepping up with the Aunt Debbie thing wasn’t the only way he knew that. There were a lot of other signs. A f**kuva lot.

“You good to talk with her?” Fin asked.

She nodded.

“Awesome,” he murmured.

She grinned then looked at the dark yard.

Then to the yard she called, “Fin?”

“Yeah, babe.”

He could swear he heard a little sigh.

Then she said, “I…” and she trailed off.

He grabbed her hand and held it between them on the deck chairs. “What, Reesee?”

Did he hear another little sigh?

Then, “It was really…” she paused, “nice bein’ on Dusty’s horse with you.”

Fuck yeah, it was.

“Yeah,” he muttered, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Do you think Dusty would let us do it again?”

“Absolutely.”

“Cool,” she whispered, giving his hand a squeeze.

She fell into silence and Fin fell into it with her.

Then it hit him he was sitting out on a deck in a development doing nothing but holding hands with a girl, a freshman no less, while her Dad was maybe twenty-five feet away.

And it felt nice.

Jesus.

Rees broke the silence, whispering, “My Dad got back really late the other night.”

“Yeah,” Fin said through a smile, “I noticed.”

“He was really happy the next day.”

“Yeah,” Fin said through soft laughter. “Aunt Dusty was too.”

Rees giggled.

Fin squeezed her hand again.

“We’re like…fairy godmothers or something,” she remarked and Fin burst out laughing.

He heard Ress laugh with him.

That felt nice too.

Then he said, “Don’t tell any of my boys I’m a fairy godmother.”

“My lips are sealed.”

Fin laughed softly again and he stared into the dark yard, sitting on a deck in a development on a cold night holding a girl’s hand with her Dad twenty-five feet away and he did it thinking he wished his Dad had the chance to get to know Clarisse Haines. Being friends with Mr. Haines, his Dad knew her but he didn’t know her.