Page 71 of Something Unforgettable

“Hey, look at me, sweetheart.” He tilted Finn’s chin up. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t want you to give up your whole life for me. What if you’re miserable and you change your mind and want to leave?”

Xavier stroked the curve of Finn’s cheek with his thumb. “You ready to hear what I’m thinking now?” he asked.

Finn nodded.

“I’m thinking that I can buy a place here and make that home base. I’m already going to cut back to a small number of clients, just two or three. I would be here with you for the majority of the year.”

“Remy?” Finn asked, knowing Remy would be disappointed if Xavier stopped helping him.

Xavier’s eyes were warm and gentle. “Yes, Remy, though I’m going to ask him to hold off on the scandals for a while, just so we can get settled in.”

Finn giggled. Well, Remy could try, he guessed.

Xavier leaned down and kissed him again, like he just couldn’t help himself. Finn kissed him back, since he was exactly the same.

“My question for you, my sweet boy, is: What do you want? What are your dreams? Do you plan to take over your grandfather’s store when he retires? Or do you want something else?” There was no judgment in Xavier’s voice, just curiosity.

Finn wrinkled his nose. “I don’t really know. I used to have some ideas, but I always planned to come back here, eventually.” Finn sighed and rubbed his cheek against Xavi’s bare chest, enjoying the scratch of chest hair. “When I was finishing college I started to realize that I might not have a lot of years left with Pops. I sort of decided my dreams could wait.”

“Did you talk to your Pops about that?”

Finn made a face. Xavier didn’t seem to need more of an answer than that.

“What do you think he’d say if you told him?”

“Probably that I was being an—” Finn stopped himself. Right, positive self-talk. “He probably wouldn’t be too happy about it.”

He got an approving kiss before Xavier continued. “I’m not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, but it might be a good idea to talk to him before you make any decisions.”

Finn heaved a sigh. “Honestly? I wish he would just retire already. I worry so much about him. I’m never going to feel right leaving him to run the store alone.”

Xavier hummed, his lips against Finn’s hair and his arms tight around him. “I think that’s something I can help with.”

Finn’s eyebrows went up. “You actually think you can convince Mac Finnegan to retire?”

He felt Xavier grin against the top of his head. “Sweetheart, convincing people to do things my way and be happy about it is myjob.”

It was two days later, and Finn’s ass didn’t hurt as much as he’d expected after Xavier’s promise that Finn would be feeling him for days. He would have to get Daddy to do something about that later, once they were out of the hospital.

His not-so-sore ass had been an okay distraction from the waiting. Pops had had his surgery that morning and, while the doctor said everything went well, Finn was desperate to get in to see for himself. He dragged Xavier down the hallway to Pops’s room, his hammering heart refusing to let him slow down. At least Xavier was going along with it. He probably knew if he didn’t, Finn would just leave him behind. His anxiety was in control at the moment, but it would get better once he saw Pops.

He knocked on the door and didn’t wait to be invited in. When he came face-to-face with his grandfather, lying in the hospital bed with his eyes closed, though, Finn froze.Please be back to normal.Please. Please.

“Hi, Mac,” Xavier spoke from beside him. “You have a visitor.”

Pops’s eyes opened. They locked on Finn, and he smiled. “Corey. My boy.”

Finn let Xavier go and rushed across the room. Pops lifted his arms and Finn fell into them, hugging him as tightly as he could without fear of hurting him. Pops hugged him back just as hard.

It took a while for Finn to let go, and when he did, he had to wipe some tears out of his eyes.

“How are you feeling? The doctor said the surgery went well.”

Pops patted Finn’s hand where it rested on the bed railing. “I’m sore, but I can think for the first time in months,” he said, his eyes bright and focused as he studied Finn’s face. “I didn’t realize how foggy things had gotten until I woke up to everything sharp.”

Finn wasn’t going to cry again, damn it. He was happy. And he was sick of tears.

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