Now he was talking to him? It was then that Wyatt registered the moisture on his cheeks cooling in the summer breeze. No fucking way. He did not cry. None of this was happening.
He rounded the back of the car and stood at the curb. “Did you mean to talk to me?”
“Shut up and get in here before they see us. Or did you want everyone to witness your tantrum?”
No, he did not. He followed Noah back into the neighbor’s yard—he thought her last name was Laurence, but she’d introduced herself once, when they first moved in next door, and they’d hardly spoken since. He waited until Noah’s back was turned to swipe his knuckles over his cheeks and fold the image to shove it in his pocket. Sweat, he told himself. Manly, pissed off, broken-hearted sweat.
Mrs. Laurence was sitting on the porch near her house, drinking lemonade and reading a book while her small, ancient looking Lhasa Apso slept at her feet.
“Wyatt, how good to see you,” she said politely.
“You too.”
“Uncle Wyatt?” Zach squealed, careening toward him in a blur of joy and determination.
Wyatt laughed as the little redhead plowed into him, dropping to his knees and pulling him in for a hug. Zach squeezed him back with all his strength, smelling like sugar and sunshine and the fresh dirt Wyatt could feel on the hands that patted his back. “Hey, buddy, I’ve missed you. Have you gotten any bigger since the last time I saw you?”
“Yes. A lot. I can show you.” He leaned in Wyatt’s arms and tilted his head back. “Daddy, can I show him?”
“Not right now, Zachary,” Noah said as he walked over to a chair protected by a shade tree farther out in the yard and sat down carefully. “He can see it later.” The arm that wasn’t snug against his chest in a sling reached out to grip his son’s shoulder. “Z, will you go inside and see what’s taking Jae so long?”
Zach looked crestfallen, his eyes lifting to Wyatt’s and then returning to his father. “But Wyatt…”
“Now, Zachary.”
“No Uncle Roar. Can’t show Uncle Wyatt,” Zach muttered mutinously at the ground, kicking at the dirt with the toe of his sneaker.
“Please, son.”
Wyatt felt bad for the little guy when his chin wobbled. But he nodded and turned without another word, his little legs pumping as he ran past Mrs. Laurence, pushing open the screen door and disappearing into her house.
“Who’s Jay?” Wyatt asked. “The babysitter?”
“None of your business,” Noah said shortly. “What’s got you so upset?”
“What do you care?”
“I care.”
“Really? Because I’ve got to say, you have a damn funny way of showing it.” Wyatt grabbed the empty chair beside him and turned it, sitting down to face him directly.
“Tell me what’s got you so torn up. I’ve never seen my brother cry while trying to murder a dead tire before.”
“It was sweat.”
“Right. From your eyeballs.”
“Why do you care? You haven’t given a shit about me since the fire.” There. He’d said it.
The man who stared at Wyatt from underneath the wide-brimmed hat was not the same Noah Finn he’d known all his life. And it wasn’t only because of his injuries, though he looked better since the last time Wyatt saw him, and the eye they’d feared had been damaged looked like it was working just fine.
Only a month in, and the left side of his face was still bright pink and red from the grafting procedure. Wyatt knew beneath the hat his hair would still be shaved on one side. Knew his arm was in a sling because his shoulder had taken the brunt of the blast and he’d need more surgeries to regain mobility.
It was startling to see him without his bandages, with the right side of his face still looking exactly the same. Handsome. Flawless. The contrast was almost cruel, and he knew it had to eat at Noah. The same way it would eat at him.
Wyatt leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re not talking unless I do, is that it?”
“Spill, Wyatt—tell me who hurt you, or go on over to the family rave next door.”
No way was he moving. Noah was talking to him and he wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to finally clear the air. “You hurt me. You dusted me off like I meant nothing to you, shut me out of your life completely. Yours and Zach’s. You didn’t respond to any of my messages—”
Noah’s lips twitched. “You mean the ones you send every single day? The selfies and book reviews in the middle of the night? Those irritating self-help quotes? Those messages?”
“At least I tried,” Wyatt said fiercely, feeling like one big open wound. “You don’t give up on people you love, Noah. Not the people who matter. At least, I don’t.”
“Believe me, I know you don’t,” Noah said hoarsely. “If you did, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Are you mad at me for saving you? Because that doesn’t make any—”
“No! I’m grateful, damn it. You think I’ve got a death wish? That I want to leave my kid without a father?”
“Then what?”
Noah sighed. “My surgeries could take a year, maybe more. Recovery could take longer. I’ve got no desire to go back to our old job. I’m done as a firefighter, Wyatt. I won’t do that to Zach. My old life doesn’t fit my new skin.”
Wyatt nodded, taking that in. “I had a feeling about work. But that’s no reason to push me away. Not a good enough reason, anyway.”
Noah turned his head away. “Maybe I’m beating you to the punch. You ditched me after Zach was born. Was that a good enough reason? You didn’t talk to me for months because you resented me for growing up and taking responsibility.”
Wyatt flinched. “So this is payback? You know what? That’s fair. I was being childish. But you didn’t talk to me about it or factor me into the equation at all. We were roommates, we worked together, and you’re my best friend, and yet you acted like letting me know didn’t matter. Like I didn’t matter.”
And now Fiona had done the same thing with his baby. What the fuck was it about him that made people see him as an afterthought?
“We’re grown men, Wyatt. We’re not connected at the hip. We make our own decisions, and I had a child to consider.”
“You know, that might wash if you hadn’t just done it to me again. You shut me out, refused to talk to me for a whole god-damned month—”
“Language,” Mrs. Laurence called from the patio.
“Sorry, Mrs. Laurence,” Wyatt said, automatically lowering his voice. “You made me nothing more than an issue to be dealt with by the family when you refused to talk to me about not coming back to my own home to recuperate. Does what I feel even matter to you, Noah?”
His throat ached with the effort it took to get those words out.
“Of course you matter,” Noah said roughly.
“I do? Because right now, I feel like I might have been a handy wingman and convenient babysitter. And now that you don’t need either, I’m expendable.” Wyatt was being harsh, he knew, but it was the only way he knew to get through to him. And he needed to get through to him.
Finally, his brother looked at him again, and Wyatt looked back, taking in every ridge and pore. Every scar. He hated the pain they implied. Hated what Noah was going through. But he was going to look until he never flinched again.
Noah would hate it if he flinched.
“I’m sorry, Wyatt,” he said thickly. “I swear to God, I am. I should have said it the day Younger wheeled you in, but I knew it was my fault.”
“What?”
“I’d acted like a hothead and nearly cost both of us our lives. The guilt was too much. I couldn’t look at you without feeling it. And then I looked in a mirror and was too caught up in my personal pity party to consider anyone else’s feelings. So now I’m ugly and a dick.”
Wyatt kept studying his face, but the tension and hurt he’d been wearing for weeks started to dissipate. Thank God. “Apology accepted. Dick.”
Noah reached out his hand to
grab Wyatt’s. “Don’t let me off that easily. You matter, Wyatt. I’m sorry I had any part in making you think you don’t. You’ve saved my life more times, and in more ways, than I can count. I’m the impulsive one. You’re slow and steady stick-to-it guy, remember? I don’t work without you, and I’m not the only person you matter to, either.”
Wyatt finally looked away as fresh pain bloomed in that open wound in his chest. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Fiona? I couldn’t believe it when you said you’d moved in with her and Thoreau. What were you thinking?”
“Well, first I was thinking I didn’t want to stay in Seamus and Bellamy’s Brady Bunch sex mansion,” he started, not joking even a little.
Noah snorted.
“But then I was thinking that a near-death experience was a great time to get over some of my hang-ups and to start worrying about what Fiona needs.” He clasped his palms together and resting his head on them. “I thought I was owning that new lease on life thing.”
“Until what?”
Wyatt reached into his pocket and handed Noah the crumpled image. “Until I found this in the back of her car just now.”
Noah whistled long and low as he studied the sonogram. “You didn’t know?”
Wyatt gave him a withering look.
“Sorry, stupid question.” He hesitated and then asked neutrally, “Yours?”
“Mine.” There wasn’t a doubt in his mind. “Not that she told me. And after a month of living together, I’m not sure she was ever planning to either.”
Noah’s expression didn’t change. “That’s some bullshit right there.”
“Language,” Mrs. Laurence called again.
“Sorry,” Noah called back politely, his blue eyes never leaving Wyatt’s face. “Fiona loves you, Wyatt. I’ve seen it. I know she’s been taking care of you since she got back. There has to be a good reason why she kept this to herself.”
“I asked her to marry me before she left,” Wyatt admitted. “She was pregnant then, though she might not have known it. Either way she said no and left. Since she came back, she’s never talked about the future beyond me getting the doctor’s all-clear. For all I know, she’s planning on getting on a plane to California tomorrow and never coming back. She might love me, but she doesn’t want to be tied down. At least, not by me.”
Noah was silent for a moment, then he shook his head again. “You’re missing something. She leaves, yes, but she keeps coming back. Why do you think that is if it isn’t for you?”
“She does have a job here,” Wyatt pointed out.
“At a bar! She could find work anywhere, and yet she keeps coming back to this place. To our family. To you.”
Yeah, he kept coming back to that, too.
“For all you know,” Noah added, warming up to his theory. “She’s afraid to say anything until she’s seen the baby’s heartbeat for herself. A lot of women don’t, you know, until the first trimester is over and there’s less chance of a miscarriage. Fear can make people do crazy things, man. Believe me.”
Fear can make people do crazy things.
Wyatt’s eyes widened. Was that it? She’d lost her sister—was she afraid of losing another member of her family? Her baby? Did she think he wouldn’t understand?
Hope eased the knot of misery he’d been tying in his chest.
He looked over at Noah, nudging him with his knee. “I missed talking to you.”
“Missed you, too, brother.”
Wyatt’s smile faded, but before he could say anything, Zach’s sweet voice drifted toward him, making him turn in his chair. The boy was singing to Mrs. Laurence, and his hands were dancing in front of him as if they were acting out the words.
A tall, broad shouldered man with straight black hair and a wide smile stood beside him, adding his deeper voice when Zach’s hesitated and subtly followed along with his own hand movements.
“Is Z singing in a different language?”
“Korean.” Noah grunted, but he sounded proud.
Holy shit. “So that’s the Manny I’ve been hearing Fiona talk about?”
Noah laughed at the word and the man looked up, his eyes narrowing on them across the yard.
Holy shit, he wasn’t even into guys, but Wyatt knew smoking hot when he saw it.
You’re not? You sure?
He brushed aside the image of Thoreau, because there was only so much he could deal with in one damn afternoon. “What are they doing?”
“They’re bribing Mrs. Laurence,” Noah told him. “Zach entertains her, Jae makes some kind of sweet dumpling that she loves, and in return, we get a hideout any time the family invades.”
Wyatt turned back around and raised his eyebrows. “You could just not hide when people who love you come to your house.”
Noah sighed. “You’re right. I could. It’s time to stop avoiding it. So…we good?”
“All good.” Wyatt nodded, feeling calmer now and more whole. He had his brother back.
“You going over to face the family before they send out a search party?”
Wyatt chuckled. “You could come along and prove you’re not all asshole, all the time anymore.”
“Way to spoil my fun,” Noah smirked, leaning forward anyway and struggling to get to his feet.
Wyatt rose to help him, but by the time he’d reached for his arm, they were no longer alone.
“I told you to wait for me,” Jae said.
“And I told you I’m an adult and not in need of your assistance. Manny.”
Wyatt and Noah laughed at the same time the man’s brown eyes narrowed dangerously. What was that look about? Did he even want to know?
No. One afternoon. Too much information. Remember?
“Zach! Come on, we’re going home,” Noah called.
Then he looked at Wyatt. “Let’s go find out what Tanaka’s big emergency is.”
By the time they walked into Noah’s townhouse, Thoreau was walking up the front steps. “What are you doing here?”
Thoreau was on him in a heartbeat. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to call you.”
Noah gave him a look as Wyatt patted all his pockets down. “Shit. I left my phone in the car. I was talking to Noah.”
“Noah?” Thoreau’s brown eyes widened as they focused on the two men with a toddler between them. “Hey, man, nice to see you. Hey Zach.”
“Thor!” Zach bounced up and down, as if Thoreau were part of the Avengers.
“Can you guys excuse us?”
Wyatt shared a look with his brother. “You first. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Noah nodded, walking up the stairs as if he were on his way to the gallows. Jae picked up Zach and hurried after him.
Once the door was closed, Wyatt frowned at Thoreau. “I just left. What’s going on?”
He moved closer, his concern evident. “As much as I want to find out how you and your brother got to talking again, I’m worried about Fiona. She took your truck while I was in the shower, not too long after you left.”
“Of course she did,” he muttered. “Mine has four good tires on it, and hers is sitting out front with a flat.”
“I saw that,” Thoreau said. “What concerns me is that she took some of her clothes.”
“Some of them, or all of them?” Wyatt asked, shaking his head when he realized that wouldn’t matter to her. “What the hell happened?”
He sighed. “Normally, it wouldn’t be my place to tell you, but we’re way past normal now. Things got a little tense because I confronted her about her pregnancy.”
“That cat is already out of the bag. How did you know?”
“My sister called after you left. How did you find out?”
“Sonogram in her car. How did your sister know?”
Thoreau winced. “Shelley invaded a nineteen-year-old boy’s privacy? His text message,” he muttered. “If she weren’t too old and wouldn’t enjoy it too much, I’d make sure s
he was grounded for life.”
“Jake knows?” He swiped a hand down his face. “Jesus, is there anyone in this family who didn’t know Fiona was pregnant before I did?”
“I didn’t.”
They looked up the stairs and saw Brady standing in the doorway, looking stunned. “Sorry, Wyatt. Just wanted to get you in here and deal with this reporter thing. Noah said you were outside. Pregnant?”
Great. Now Brady knew.
Wyatt turned back to Thoreau. “Any idea where she went?”
“None.”
“She’s missing, too? I’m on it,” Brady said, scrolling through messages on his phone. “Come inside and fill Ken in.”
“I have to find her,” Wyatt said. “I’m not sure I can—”
His giant ginger brother held up a hand to cut him off. “Stop and think for a minute, buddy. Who can find her faster? You in a car with one flat tire? Or my fiancé with his laptop and beautiful mind?”
Thoreau was already walking up the stairs to join him. “He has a point.”
“War has made him wise,” Wyatt muttered, following the two men into his old place and wondering where the hell Fiona had run to this time.
***
Fiona
What am I doing? she wondered as she pulled up to Seamus and Bellamy’s house. She couldn’t go to the bar, she knew. That would be the first place Thoreau would look. She didn’t want to go to the airport. Not yet. But after the things Thoreau had said to her, she hadn’t been able to stay.
He was right about all of it. She’d lied. How could they trust her? They loved her and she’d done the one thing she’d been trying to avoid—she’d hurt them both.
For some reason, it wasn’t JD or Jake she wanted to see right now. She needed a parent. Someone who might understand what she was going through. And the best parent she knew lived in this house. The first Finn she’d ever met the day she was hired at the pub.
Seamus.
Penny and Wes’ mother, Presley, was unstable, just like Fiona’s parents had been. She was in a home because she couldn’t be trusted with her kids, so he knew firsthand what it was like to fear for the safety of his children. He would get why she’d been so afraid to think about this, too afraid to tell Wyatt. She knew he would.
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