Let Me (O'Brien Family, #2)(10)

Nope. I think it’s horseshit. “Sure.”

“Finn, I’m serious.”

“Me, too.” I say. I don’t add that as motivated as I was to get help, I totally shut down the moment I meet with my therapist. It’s not that Mason isn’t nice. He is. The court appointed psychiatrist even hand selected him thinking we’d be a good fit. But we’re not. Totally not.

Nothing personal, but the guy wears loafers―with tassels! And the first time I saw him, I swear to Christ he was in a sweater vest. He can’t be more than in his late thirties. What is he doing in a damn sweater vest?

Let me play out our first session: Mason sat in front of me, crossed his leg, and waited for me to speak. When a few moments passed and I didn’t say shit he said, “So, Finn. The way you’re looking at me makes me think you don’t like me.”

He wasn’t angry, just sort of smiled politely all the while calling me out. “I don’t know you,” I’d admitted. “Can’t say I do or don’t yet.”

“Fair enough,” he replied. “So let’s work on getting to know each other . . .”

Yeah. So far it hasn’t happened. Not the first time. Or the second. Not even this last time. I mostly talked sports, and he lets me. Get this, he likes chess and tennis.

Me and him, we just ain’t connecting.

“I want you to be okay,” Sofia says. She hooks her thin arms around mine and glances up at me. “We’re all worried about you, Finn.”

I nod like I’m listening, and I am. What she doesn’t know is I’m worried about me, too. Lately, I can’t get past what happened to me. It’s messing me up five ways from Sunday.

For a second, neither of us moves or speaks. It feels good to feel close to someone like this―I don’t mean in the sexual sense. God knows I get my share of tail. But as close as am to her and my family, we don’t really touch each other. Probably because I don’t let anyone touch me. Not since . . .

Kill’s heavy feet crunching against the snow gives me an excuse to glance up. I smirk when his stare bounces between me and Sofia. If I wasn’t his brother, he probably wouldn’t like me so close to his girl. But Sofia has always been just that: Kill’s girl, even when they were too young to know what love really is.

“Sorry,” I tell him. “I told her to quit fondling my ass, but she can’t seem to help herself.”

The stare he pegs me with would have sent anyone else running. Me, I just laugh.

“You’re lucky I trust her,” he warns.

“Don’t you trust me?” I ask, my grin widening.

“Not even a little bit,” he says.

“Behave, Finn,” Sofia says. She pats my hand and reaches for the last tray of food, a fresh blush coating her cheeks. It doesn’t take much for her to blush, something Kill can’t seem to get enough of.

He grins as he approaches her. “I got it, princess,” he tells her, lifting the tray away from her with one hand. He places his free arm around her waist, stopping to kiss her before leading her forward.

I tuck my tray of food and slam the rear doors of his truck shut. “So what were you saying, Sofia? Something about my irresistible ass.”

“You’re pissing me off, Finn,” Kill says.

It’s what he claims, but even with his back to me I know by now he’s laughing.

I follow them down the stone path that leads to Teo and Evie’s, Sofia’s brother and sister-in-law. Teo has killed it in the automotive repair industry, but he’s never forgotten his friends. Every now and then, they have a bunch of people over for dinner. Tonight is one of those nights, I’m only hoping Sol will show.

Sol . . . yeah. I haven’t been able to shake this sexy woman with the even sexier smile from my mind―not since seeing her at the clinic, and especially not after flirting with her at the diner. When I’m attracted to a woman and start talking to her, it doesn’t take long for her to warm up to me, and it sure as anything doesn’t take long for us to end up in bed. That’s not the case with Sol, and in a way it’s new territory.

Women like me. I know how to make them laugh and feel good. Call it a gift. The part where I end up pissing them off, call that a need to move on. I don’t let women get too close, but that goes for everyone I know. I’ve had a few relationships here and there between hot make-out sessions and one night stands, but nothing that’s ever really meant anything and that’s how I like it. My brothers were pretty much the same way. But they had “daddy” issues. Me. I wish our cheating and absent father was all the shit I had to deal with.

“Hey,” Teo says, bending forward to kiss his sister. His baby girl, Lynnie is pressed against him, taking everything in. “How’s it going, Finn?” he asks.

I shake his hand. “Aside from prying your sister off me in the driveway? Pretty damn good, man,” I tell him.

“Sure you were,” Teo says with a smirk, laughing when Kill mutters, “Christ.”

I kick the snow off my boots and step inside. “Where’s your pretty wife?” I ask. And your hot cousin?

“Kitchen,” he answers as we make our way inside. He puts Lynnie down in the foyer. The little blondie grabs on to her father’s finger and shuffles forward.

“She’s walking already?” Kill asks him.