“Anything I can do in there?” Maybe if Finn could pitch in, it would get her out of this mess in her head.
“Let Ilsa run her show,” Hollis said gently. “You don’t look so great anyway.”
Finn could have made a joke: Hollis was the one giving her haircuts these days, so whose fault was that? She didn’t have the energy. “Why didn’t you tell me about Colton?” She hoped she didn’t sound like a sullen teenager, but the odds weren’t favorable.
Hollis made a hmmm sound. “It hadn’t been going on long enough to be serious. When I got hurt, Mom called him and he made it clear he hadn’t signed up for the ICU. I’m surprised she didn’t mention it when y’all had the phone call about the accident. She was so pissed.”
Finn could well imagine. Aunt Priscilla had always gone to the mat for Hollis. Bisexual son? No problem, and nobody better mess with her kid. Finn had spent as much time at their house as possible once she’d realized she’d have to come out someday too and the reception at her house wouldn’t be as warm.
Like what had happened with Vivi and her father. Finn could have been there for her.
For crying out loud, Ellen Amanda Finnegan, get it together!
“It’s old news anyway,” Hollis assured her. “I’m over it, and you’re sitting out here when all the pie is inside. Ready to come in?”
Not if she was going to stay so dang maudlin and bring everybody down. “I’ll be there soon.”
Hollis sighed, but patted her shoulder before he went back in the house.
She had to kick this. She’d known the score when she got out—depending on others, no place of her own—and she was hella lucky to have this much. She’d known how it was going to be. But deep down she must have expected it to be different.
Especially seeing Vivi again.
Finn hadn’t sought her out. She could have. With Vivi’s name being so distinctive, it would have been easy. The first time Finn connected to the internet without anyone monitoring her activity, she could have found Vivi and left a comment on a social media profile or something. Thanked her, the way she would have on Vivi’s last day at work if Finn had known it was her last day.
There was a reason she hadn’t searched. Finn hadn’t wanted to, not while she was playing the part of Hollis’s overgrown kid sister, crashing on a couch that wasn’t even his. The universe had brought Vivi across her path anyway when Finn didn’t have a job, or a life really. She wasn’t doing anything. She was just… waiting.
Finn wouldn’t look down on anybody else for being jobless. Nobody’s worth was defined by their employment status. That absence of judgment was so easy to apply to others, especially on a day of kids’ presents and gift cards and missing years of Hollis’s life and not being needed. Not by Ilsa, not by the business owners and operators of Austin, Texas. Not by Vivi.
Who could blame the gal? Vivi was in the world of employed people with apartments. Finn might as well be on the moon in comparison.
Luckily, there was still pie when Finn gave up and went back into the house: apple, pecan, and coconut cream. There was Blue Bell vanilla bean ice cream for the apple pie, the same flavor Finn and Hollis’s grandma had served on special occasions, so Finn’s decision on which pie was easy.
Aunt Priscilla cornered her in the kitchen before she could cut a piece.
“Hang in there,” she said, taking Finn’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’m going to ask around again once we get clear of the holidays, try to find you something. Part time would help, at least? Or temp work?”
Finn didn’t trust herself to speak, given what her throat was doing.
“And don’t worry about when Ilsa starts needing her space back. We can put you up for a few weeks, or maybe we can all chip in if you can find somebody renting out a room here in town. We’ll work it out. You don’t have to go to your mom and dad’s.”
Aunt Priscilla gave Finn’s hand another squeeze and stepped out to intervene in a toddler knock-down drag-out.
Finn had somehow never realized her situation could get so much worse.
She abandoned the pie idea, headed up the stairs into Hollis’s bedroom, closed the door, and paced. She’d rather sleep under a bridge than stay with her parents, stuck an hour and a half up the highway in Waco with no car. But if Hollis and Priscilla thought Finn was going to try bridge life, they absolutely would try to pay her rent somewhere else just like Priscilla said. Finn felt bad enough with Hollis paying for her share of the groceries. Rent was five or six times worse, easy.
Which meant her parents’ house was now an option, because she’d rather get prayed over every day than burn through more of Hollis and Priscilla’s money. Finn wasn’t a teenager anymore. She could ignore her mother. Barring that, she could go for extremely long walks.
Finn flopped down on Hollis’s bed. She’d known Ilsa wouldn’t want her in the living room forever. In the back of her mind, she’d figured Hollis would move back into his condo in the summer, and if Finn was still unemployed, at least she’d be sleeping on his couch. If Priscilla expected Ilsa’s hospitality to last until summer, however, she wouldn’t have brought it up now.
Finn had to figure out another option. She’d sold plasma before to pay a bill here and there. The only reason she hadn’t done it lately was the high likelihood Hollis would throw a fit. Payments for plasma wouldn’t touch rent in Austin, though.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was probably spam. Who would be texting her about anything important on Christmas Day? Her dad had called early in the morning for a couple minutes, but everyone else who might want to talk to her today was in this house. Oh. It could be Hollis, who’d texted her before when he needed something and he was too tired to take the stairs. Finn fished her phone out.
I’m sorry, Vivi’s text said. I shouldn’t have shut you out. Can you meet me at Knockdown tomorrow evening and we can try again? I could use a friend right now if I didn’t ruin everything. If I did I’m so sorry and please don’t avoid the clinic I will stay out of your way.
Finn hadn’t answered a text so fast in her life. No apology needed. Happy to meet. Hope you’re okay.
Not really. Thanks tho. 6pm?
A second chance. A third chance? Whatever the numbering system, Finn knew what she had to do. She might not have a clue what to do about housing, but maybe she could patch things up with Vivi.
I’ll be there.
Chapter Six
The day after Christmas, Finn pushed open the door of Knockdown Coffee for a second time. They hadn’t taken down the bells, but today there wasn’t a looming Nora. Instead, behind the counter, a hip-looking white guy with short turquoise hair in a blue apron with a bi pride pin on it poured a bright purple smoothie into an oversized pint glass. That was a lot of colors.
“Hi!” he said, less exuberant than Will, but friendly. “I’m Oliver, he/him. Been here before?”
“She has!” Will said as he stepped through the curtain. “Hey Finn! What are you having? Oh hey Ollie, I bet I know who that’s for. What name did she put on it this time?”
Finn thought Oliver colored a little bit as he put the smoothie down carefully on the counter and called out, “Smoothie for Leia?”