Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(97)

“Finley asked you out?” I asked.

Her eyes shot to me. “I…uh, sorry!” she exclaimed. “He’s your nephew and –”

I threw my muddy hands in the air and yelled, “Right on!” I dropped them and smiled at her. “When are you going? Where are you going? Oh my God! This is so cool!”

She smiled hesitantly at me then her smile wavered. “Well, um…Dad says I can’t date until I’m sixteen.”

Shit. In the thrill of the moment, I totally forgot that.

Shit!

“Dang,” I muttered, “he mentioned that.”

Her head tipped to the side and her perfectly arched dark brows drew together, “He did?”

I looked into her eyes and confirmed, “He did.”

“So, um…when he did, did he seem, uh…firm?”

“Yes,” I told her honestly then grinned. “But, you know, a car date is one thing,” I stated thinking, for Fin, it wasn’t a car date but a truck date, a truck with a bench seat date which no way in hell would Mike approve of, “but, have you done your homework?”

She blinked then her face closed down.

“No, I should be doin’ it now but –”

I cut her off. “Well, seeing as Fin is a couple years older than you, if you brought your books over, you had any questions, he might be able to help you out.”

Her eyes held mine and I watched light dawn.

It was a beautiful thing.

Then a slow smile spread across her beautiful face.

That was gorgeous.

“And,” I went on, “you both have to eat and you live nearly right next door to each other. Rhonda’s a good cook. So am I. So is your Dad. Bet you’d like our cooking and Fin would like your Dad’s.”

I watched her gorgeous smile get more gorgeous.

“And,” I kept going, “you both have televisions and I bet you both watch them. No reason you both couldn’t watch them together.”

“Yeah, I have to eat and I watch TV all the time,” she confirmed.

“There you go,” I replied then immediately stood up and invited, “Let’s go see what Fin’s doing. He may have time to help with homework.”

Her smile got huge. I returned it, bent down, turned off the wheel, plunged my hands in the bucket of water that I kept close then grabbed a towel. Without further delay, I threw Rees another grin, jerked my head at her to follow me and I hightailed it to the house.

We were in the kitchen when I turned and said, “Wait here, give me a minute.”

She nodded.

I took off down the hall calling, “Fin! You here?”

“Yeah, Aunt Dusty!” I heard from upstairs.

I turned around the foot of the stairs and jogged up. Fin met me at the top.

I looked up at him. “Got your homework done?” I asked and watched his face get slightly hard.

I’d learned since being home that Fin was way past mothering. I tried it once, he shut me down. Then, shortly after, I found he didn’t need it. He did his homework and not only that, he urged his brother to do his. He saw to shit that needed to be seen to like closing down the house at night, turning off lights, making sure doors were locked, muttering quiet words to his brother to get to bed. He’d slid without effort into Darrin’s role in the Holliday household. Surprisingly, at seventeen and very soon after his father died, he’d seen what had to be done and he already knew what he wanted in his life. So he assumed the role of the man of the house without attitude or complaint.

So an indication from me that he was still a kid was not welcome.

“I –” he started but I interrupted him.

“See, Clarisse came by to talk about learning how to ride horses and going to the mall.” The hardness swept clean from Fin’s face and his eyes went alert as I carried on, “Then she shared she hadn’t yet done her homework. Been a while since I’ve been in high school but I remember it was more fun to do it with a study partner. Not to mention, if you’ve got someone older than you, they might help you out if you got caught on something. You think you might help Rees with her homework?”

His eyes were now not only alert but alight.

“Yeah,” he said quietly and I buried my grin.

Then I said, “Well, she probably doesn’t need help walking back to her house to get her books so you two can study at the kitchen table. But I bet she wouldn’t mind the company and she’s downstairs in the kitchen now.”

Fin held my eyes. Then he jerked up his chin and instantly made to move to the stairs.

Yeah, my Finley liked Rees Haines.

I grabbed his arm quickly before he could disappear.

“Two things, honey,” I said when he turned his eyes to me.

I got another chin jerk.

God, so Darrin.

I took in a breath and reminded him in a quiet voice, “She’s fifteen and her Dad is a cop.”

“Got it,” Fin whispered.

My fingers curled deeper into his bicep and I continued, “I bet you do. But I’ll just reiterate, she’s young, she likes you, she doesn’t know anything but good men in her life so she’ll trust you and you need to protect that. And if you don’t, you’ll be answering to her father and he’s not a man whose respect you throw away. Are you with me?”