Page 61 of Protecting Jess

The questions turned over in her mind, but the answers were as far away from her as the day she was stabbed.

Twenty

Finn ordered himself to sit still. He was almost thirty, but still, with one look from his mom, he was back to being ten years old and in trouble for riding his dad’s horse without asking for his permission. Like he had one time when his dad wasn’t around.

Today, his dad had gone to the beach with Jess’s dad and her half siblings. Primmy had decided to stay in the hotel room, which was why Finn and his mom were meeting in the coffee shop in the lobby.

Mom didn’t want to be too far away from her daughter, and he could understand that. He loved his sister, but sometimes she pushed the boundaries, so it wouldn’t surprise him if Primmy left the hotel and hit the stores—without permission.

“So, you and Jess, huh?” Mom asked after she took a sip of her orange juice.

There was no point denying it, as his mom had heard the doctor call him Jess’s fiancé after he’d visited. She hadn’t said anything, but he’d caught her raised eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“And you’re…engaged?”

Finn rested his hands in his lap. Getting a dressing-down from his commander was easier than the questions from his mom. Although they weren’t hard questions, just ones he didn’t want to answer. “It was the only way to get information about her when I arrived at the hospital. You know how it is; they don’t like to give out details about a patient to non-immediate family members.”

“I do.”

Damn. Mom was wearing her extremely unimpressed pants.

Was she upset that he and Jess were together? “Something you want to say?” he asked, determined to get to the bottom of why she seemed unhappy at the thought of him and Jess together—which went against everything he’d thought.

Her gaze flitted away, and she began to fiddle with the silverware on the table, as though she didn’t want to answer. Or his mom didn’t know what to say, which he was pretty damn sure wasn’t the case.

What the heck was going on?

Unease pooled in his belly. Finn was happy with Jess. Settled, even. They might’ve only had a few days together, but he’d felt in his soul what he’d known when he’d been a tween—Jess was his.

Always had been and always would be. While he’d love to have his mom on board, because family get-togethers would be awkward if she weren’t, no way was he going to leave Jess. Not when she needed his support now more than ever.

“Are you happy?” his mom asked, when the silence between them had stretched from normal to uncomfortable.

“I am. But I feel like that’s not what you wanted to say. Do you have a problem with me and Jess being together? Is it because her stepmom is my aunt, which kind of makes us cousins? But you know there’s no blood shared between Jess and me.”

Mom gasped. “No! None of that. I promise.”

From the moment his mom had picked him up at the children’s home the first time, she’d never lied to him, and he didn’t think she’d start now.

“Then if that’s not the issue, what is? And don’t say nothing, because you’re acting all squirrely, and I don’t like it.” Finn hadn’t meant for his words to come out as harshly as they had, but he was confused. His mother was never indecisive. Never at a loss for words, as she appeared to be right this second.

Mom laid her hand on the table, palm up, the universal sign of her wanting him to place his on top. He might be annoyed but he loved his mom and so he did, and her fingers closed around his, squeezing gently.

“I love you, Finn Spelling. I have from the moment I saw you when you were six.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

“I’m happy you and Jess are together. I knew that something special was growing between you when I picked you up from Poppy’s place when you visited her for the first time. Even way back then, when you were children, I saw it. It’s just, for the last few years, you’ve always shut down any conversation about her. I know your job takes you to all sorts of places you can’t talk about. But when you’ve been in the country and it was Jess’s opening night, you’d always beg off, saying you couldn’t make it. And I know it’s not because you couldn’t afford the airfare.”

He chuckled. For sure, money definitely hadn’t been the reason he’d been putting space between him and Jess.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, what’s changed? And I know you’re happy with her. I can see it. The shadows in your eyes are lighter, as though her presence in your life makes all the burdens you carry from your job a little easier to bear,” his mom said.

Her insights didn’t surprise him. Even though he lived in a different state, she always seemed to know when he was down, or if something was wrong. There’d been many times when she’d video-called him when he’d been lost in his head.

Her happy face had always cheered him up. Her picking up on what he’d thought he’d carefully hidden about avoiding Jess wasn’t a shock. What was surprising was the fact she hadn’t called him out on it.