I had the cabbie drop me at a coffee shop near my old home. I ordered a vanilla latte and a water then sat at a table near the window, me and my plant. I probably looked like a weirdo. Who carries around a fern?
Gently, I righted it, patted the dirt back into place and gave it a little water. It looked a little beat up, but I figured it would survive. I wasn’t sure what I’d do. Go home probably. I dropped my head into my hand, my defeat complete.
I lost my job. I lost my husband. I had no home. I was going home with less than I’d left with… And the humiliation of a marriage that had lasted less than a week. Just call me Britney. At least, my marriage was days and not hours.
I pulled out my phone to make arrangements to go home, wondering if they’d let me fly with my plant. The fifteen message notifications on my phone screen, all from Finn, indicated that maybe I was being a tad dramatic. Yes, I’d lost my job and that bitch had pushed me over the edge. I didn’t feel bad yet about whipping my badge at her. I wasn’t sure I ever would.
Taking a deep breath, I dialed Finn. He wasn’t the bad guy here. Unless he knew about this policy and hadn’t told me.
“Where are ya?” he said after less than a ring and no greeting.
“Did you know?”
“That they would fook over my life? Naw. Love, I’m sorry. Where are ya?”
“At the coffeeshop by my apartment. My old apartment, I mean.”
“Aye. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Don’t leave.”
“Okay.” I hung up the phone and stared into space. He hadn’t known. Having a wife with violent tendencies wasn’t going to sit well with the family oriented board. I just kept getting in deeper.
Minutes later, I watched Finn pull into one of the diagonal parking slots in front of the bank of shops. He practically vaulted from the car and half-jogged into the building. His eyes scanned the room before he zeroed in on me.
His long legs ate up the space between us and as I stood, he pulled me into his arms and buried his face in my neck. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t know.” He’d said he didn’t, and I believed him.
“I quit.”
I yanked back and stared at him. “What?”
“I quit. They can’t go yanking around my life. We started this because of them and now they fook me over, fook ya over? No. Just no.”
“Then you don’t need to be married.”
His arms tightened, determination in his eyes that dared me to try to leave him. “Oh, I need to be married. Ya ain’t getting away from me.”
“But…” Well, okay. We’d work this out however we needed to. “You can’t quit your job.”
“Already did.”
“What will you do?”
He shrugged. “Whatever we want. See I’m well off, hen. I would have walked away last week, but it would have meant walking away from ya. You’re all I’ve ever wanted. You’re the reason I didn’t tell them to fook off.” He tilted his head back and forth, his gaze on the ceiling for a moment. “Until today.”
My lips parted as I stared at him. “I…”
“Come home.”
“Okay.”
His hands cupped my face and he covered my lips with his. “I love ya. I love ya. I love ya.” He pressed a hard kiss to my mouth with each declaration.
“I love you, too, Finnigan Gray. You better catch me. I think I’ve fallen all the way.”
He grinned. “Forever, love. Forever.”
Epilogue
~ Gia ~
Three Years Later
“The vineyard is beautiful.” I spun around, gazing at the blossoming vines around me.
“Careful,” my husband chided, catching me around the waist. “Ya don’t need to fall down the hill, thank ya.”
I laughed, clinging to him. He’d never let me fall. After the blow up at the studio, we’d looked long and hard at our options. Though a winery was different from a brewery, Finn had used a fortune I hadn’t known about and purchased this vineyard just a half hour drive from my parents. Then he’d parlayed his connections into everything he’d need to know to turn this into a booming success.
We were doing well, and something else was blossoming, too. Finn palmed my stomach as we looked over the land surrounding us. A late spring chill was in the air but nothing we needed to worry about. The vines weren’t in danger.
The baby beneath his palm kicked. Finn rubbed the spot. “That was a hard one.”
“He’s hungry.”
“Is he?”
“Yes. He wants nachos with extra jalapenos.”
“Does he? Does he remember what happened the last time he had extra jalapenos?” Finn kissed the side of the neck and I couldn’t even be mad that he was reminding me that I should indulge in super-spicy food if I wanted to sleep tonight.
“Fine. No peppers. The tour group is gone?” We’d had a bridal group here today, all of them getting tipsy on their bachelorette winery crawl. Thank goodness we had staff to cover that and I didn’t need to carefully warn them away from the goods—AKA my husband. He only had eyes for me, so if I had to occasionally be his bodyguard, so be it. We just didn’t put him in the line of sight for drunken women.
When we had tours like today’s, he usually spent the day with me at the house, catching up paperwork and fulfilling all my wanton needs, which to tell the truth were a lot with my pregnancy hormones. Gosh, it sucked to be me, right? A hot Scotsman whispering sweet nothings in my ear while he fucked the daylights out of me.
Speaking of…
I batted my eyelashes at him and he chuckled. “Aye?”
“I’m feeling a little tired.”
“Are ya?”
“I need to get off my feet.’
My laugh carried across the vineyard as he scooped me up into his arms and carried me off into our future. There was nowhere else that I wanted to be. In his arms, forever.
Thank you for reading!
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Books by Brynn Paulin
Steamy in Sweetville
Postcards in the Sand
Cuddle Up, Buttercup (coming soon)
Bolthouse Security
Pursuing Pansy
Claiming Caylee (coming soon)
New Midgard
Viking’s Claim
Viking’s Touch (coming soon)
Wall Street Princesses
Billionaire’s Halloween Princess
Billionaire’s Runaway Princess (coming soon)
Cherish Cove (Home For the Holidays)
Jingle Belle’s Rock
Ex Scrooge Me
Loving St Nix
Cherish Cove (Beach Please)
Light My Fire
Reclaiming Love
Beach Please
Dare to Love
Half Past Normal
Billionaire’s Bunny
Quarterback Leap
Penalty Call
Switched Up
Flipping For Love
The Bad Boys
Bad Boy Biker Boots
Bad Boy Bossy Pants
Bad Boy Babymaker
Daly Way
Belonging to Them
Plays Well With Others
Fill Her Up