Sure. Talk to you then.
He sent a “thumbs up” reaction to my message.
How this would play out, I could only guess.
Chapter 15
FINN
“You’re positive?”
“Not a doubt in my mind. I mean, look at ‘em – I can’t believe you were even wondering whether or not they were yours.”
It was Wednesday night, the evening of my date, or whatever it was, with Kenna. The hour approached five, and I’d taken off a bit early to get ready for the evening.
Aunt Roxie was on the iPad again. After squeezing Kenna’s name out of me during a recent conversation, she’d taken it upon herself to do a little recon – meaning finding Kenna’s Facebook page. There, she’d scrounged up dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of pictures of the kids at all stages of their lives. Together we’d been going through them for the last hour, a longing burning in my belly with each new photo.
“That’s your ma’s smile on Sam – absolutely certain. But that adorable little chin dimple, that’s all yeh, Finny. And look at his hair, Lord in Heaven, that’s the exact same as yours and Patrick’s.”
I clicked again, ending up on a picture of Sam and Sophia at what appeared to be a birthday party for one of their friends. The twins were about the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.
I clicked again; the next photo was of Kenna and the twins at a water park. Kenna was dressed in a pair of sunglasses and a rather small, black bikini, one that made it impossible not to notice how sexy and curvy her body had become after giving birth.
Talk about a MILF, I thought. I chastised myself for the thought right away. Get a grip, you horny old goat – that’s the mother of your children you’re drooling over.
“How’re you feeling, boy?” Roxie asked, her eyes focused on her computer off-screen. She stared at me for a moment, long enough for me to see the question was asked with genuine concern.
“I don’t right know, Roxie. Part of me wants to let bygones be bygones, to see if we can build something good for each other and the kids out of what’s got to be the most insane situation I’ve ever been a part of.”
She chuckled. “And let me guess – the other part of you is all good and steamed about it, really wanting ta give poor Kenna a raw piece of your mind.”
I laughed wryly. “Am I that obvious?”
She smiled. “O’Conner boys are all the same – all piss and vinegar and fiery dispositions. Your da’s the same way, you know.”
I groaned. “Last thing I need right now is to be reminded of how much like the old man I am.”
“Fair enough, Finny. But let me tell you this – you’re not going ta do a damn bit of good coming at Kenna with claws out. The whole reason she’s coming over tonight, that she’s even willing ta have a little sit-down with you at your flat is that you offered the olive branch. Trust me – she’s likely scared out of her poor mind, wondering if you’re some lunatic who’s going ta make her and her babies’ lives a living hell.”
“I’d never do a thing like that,” I said, crossing my arms and sitting back.
“I know you wouldn’t. I know you’re a good man at heart, as rough and rowdy as you might be at times. But she doesn’t know that yet.”
“I gotta show her,” I mumbled.
She nodded sagely. “Be good. Be the good man I know you are. And listen to her. Don’t assume she doesn’t know what she’s doing, or that she didn’t have good reason for making the decisions she has. At the end of the day, those twins are the most important things ta you both. They’re common ground between you two. There’s no sense in quarreling when there’s two little people in both your lives who need more than anything for their da and ma ta be on good terms.”
I said nothing, nodding my head. Before the conversation could go on, the alarm on my phone chimed, the one I’d set to remind me to end the call and start getting ready.
“Alright, time for me to do the necessaries,” I said. “Thanks for talking, Roxie.”
“My pleasure, Finny. Call me back any time. And I know your brother’s just as taciturn about emotional matters as yeh are, but I hope you’ve got not the slightest doubt he’s on your side.”
“I do know that. I appreciate it.”
She waved goodbye, then the line went dead. I crossed my arms and sat back, staring at the picture of the happy family on the computer screen in front of me. It was all so surreal, so different than anything I’d ever known.
It was everything I never thought I wanted until it was placed right in front of me.
And damned if it wasn’t exciting. And more than that, I’d never been one to back down from a challenge. Being a perfect gentleman was a different challenge than the ones I was used to, but I was certain I could tackle it all the same.
After one last look at Kenna and the kids, I closed the laptop and got up. Time to get ready.
I headed to the bedroom, taking out my charcoal suit, along with a crisp, white button-up and a dark red tie. I dressed myself, finishing the look with a pair of black Oxfords.
“Too nice,” I said, checking myself out in the full-length. “Looks like I’m going to a damn job interview.”
As I stepped out of my shoes, I realized how true my words were. I was interviewing for the most important job I’d ever have in my life – being a father.
Father. The word had been bouncing around in my head non-stop since the other night at Duncan and Annie’s. I was a father – a da. But all I’d known about fatherhood was my own, the crabby, cold man who’d raised me, treated me like I was always just shy of good enough.
I wasn’t bitter – no time for feelings like that – but I didn’t exactly have the sunniest experience to draw upon. But I’d learn. I had to. I would be a better father than my own had been, and my kids would know how much I loved and supported them.
I changed into a pair of light brown loafers and lost the suit jacket, which made the look more casual. Once I was satisfied with my outfit for the night, I stepped into the living room and chose from one of the many bottles of red on my rack. I knew Kenna liked red, of course, because it was what she’d been drinking in the selfie from years back.
I popped open the bottle and poured myself a glass, and as I leaned against the counter and sipped, more details took shape in my mind.
I had to consider the legal aspects of fatherhood. I didn’t want to take a paternity test. Something about it seemed cold and scheming. And not only that, but one look at those two and how much they resembled me did more to convince me of my fatherhood than any test would.
I opened the fridge and took out a large, brown paper bag. Dinner tonight was chicken katsu served with some jasmine rice and sauteed veggies. A perfect, light meal. A dinner out had sounded nice, but with what we had to discuss, I decided privacy was more in order.
As I took out the bag and arranged the ingredients, I thought more about the legal matters. As much as I wanted to keep lawyers out of the whole affair, they’d be a necessary evil. I was sure my name wasn’t on the birth certificate, which meant we’d have to get that changed. But making me the legal father would open up all sorts of other issues, and they’d all have to be hammered out to both of our satisfaction before I could put my name on the birth certificate.
My blood went cold at the idea of things going sour between Kenna and me; of the situation devolving into a brutal slugfest in the courts.
I wouldn’t let it happen. Not a chance I’d let one of the twins’ first memories of their da be of him forcing them through something like that.
Ten minutes later, the kitchen was full of delicious smells as I cooked dinner, the chicken sizzling on the stove, the rice steaming, and the veggies cooking to perfection. I made my way through the glass of wine, and by the time I was ready for another my phone chimed with a text.
It was time. After turning down the music – The Pogues, naturally – I tossed back the last of the pinot in my glass and checked the text.<
br />
I’m in the lobby.
Front desk will let you up.
Once the message was sent, I sighed, running my hand through my hair. My eyes drifted to the bottle of whiskey in the fridge, my nerves craving a stiff shot to ease the jangling. Nah. If the evening went well, I could have a celebratory double of my preferred whiskey. But for the time being, I needed a clear head.
Really, I was more excited than scared. In mere moments, Kenna would be in my apartment, sitting across from me. I felt like a kid about to go on my first date.
A knock sounded on the door.
Game on.
After taking one last look at myself in the mirror, I stepped over and opened it, and what I saw on the other side was enough to make me weak in the knees.
Kenna was dressed in tight jeans, knee-high leather boots, a chunky, oatmeal-colored sweater, and a black winter cap on her head. She was effortlessly sexy, beyond beautiful.
“Hey.” Her voice was low, uncertain.
“Hey. Welcome.”
I stepped aside and gestured for her to enter. She breezed past me, the scent of her hair lingering behind her. As she stepped into my place my eyes fell to her perfect, round ass, my cock twitching to attention. It didn’t care what was going on between Kenna and me. All it cared about was that the most beautiful woman on God’s green earth was standing feet from me.
Easy, big guy. I pinched my thigh, causing it to descend a bit.
“Smells great,” she commented, turning and slipping out of her coat. “What’s for dinner?”
I slid into the kitchen, checking on the meal in progress. “Chicken Katsu.”
“Chicken what-su?”
I smiled, pouring her a glass of wine. “It’s this amazing breaded chicken dish I fell in love with while I was in Tokyo.”
Her eyebrows arched. “You were in Tokyo? For what?”
“No real reason. After I graduated from university, I took some time off to travel before I came to the states for med school. I love Ireland now, but back then all I wanted was to get the hell away. Tokyo was on the other side of the world – good enough for me.”
She offered a weak smile in response, and I could sense that my youthful adventures – or misadventures, depending on the story – weren’t what she was interested in.
I flipped through Spotify and put on some John Coltrane, and as I set my phone on the table and prepared to turn back to the food, I spotted Kenna taking the slightest, smallest sip of her wine possible before pushing it away.
She wants to keep her senses, I thought. Is she expecting this to go badly? No sense in worrying about it – I’d find out in a few minutes.
There was awkward tension in the air, and I did my best to ignore it as I plated the food. Carefully, I arranged a soft bed of fluffy jasmine rice on the plate. Next were the carrots and snap peas and baby corn. Once they were all in place, I topped the rice with the chicken katsu.
“Time to eat,” I announced with a smile, taking the plates over to the small table in front of the windows that looked out onto the city. Snow fell, the lights of the city twinkled for miles, and the shadows of the Rockies loomed far in the distance.
“Smells heavenly,” she complimented, sitting down.
“Hopefully it tastes as good.” I gestured toward the food once we both were seated. “Please, don’t wait for me.”
I watched as she cut a small slice of the chicken, dabbing it into the small dish of soy sauce I’d served with it. Then she popped it into her mouth. “Oh my God.” She moaned after she spoke.
The sound reminded me instantly of sex, of the noises she made when we’d made love, when I’d brought her to orgasm again and again, my cock buried deep inside her velvet pussy. My cock twitched to life again, and I let it – not like she could see under the table. I imagined swatting the plates aside, of standing and taking her on my dining room table.
I didn’t need to be thinking about sex, though.
The tension grew by the moment, and with each passing second it became clearer and clearer that the conversation couldn’t be put off any longer.
I set down my fork and sighed. “Kenna, we need to talk.”
Chapter 16
KENNA
“Talk? About what?” I was trying to be clever, but it just came out sounding lame and stupid.
He pursed those sexy-as-fuck lips of his into a flat line as if he were disappointed in my answer. “You know what we need to talk about.”
I’d been staying away from the wine, not wanting to dull my senses and risk screwing up the conversation I knew we were going to have. But I needed a big ol’ swig of booze. My eyes flashing wide for a moment, I grabbed the glass and took a long sip. Then I set it down and placed my palms on the table.
Finn raised his hands. “Actually, you know what? Let me use the restroom first.”
“OK!” The word came out in a strange, nervous tone, making me sound almost chipper.
Without another word, Finn left the room, and I was alone. At first, I didn’t get why he’d chosen then to use the bathroom. But then it hit me – I was so obviously frazzled that he wanted to give me a minute or two to collect myself before we got into it.
The bathroom door shut, and I let out a sigh. I rose, grabbing my wine and stepping over to the window to watch the snow fall over the city. From this height Denver looked calm, peaceful – the total opposite of how I felt in Finn’s condo. Despite it all, I found myself wishing the weirdest damn thing – that it was a real date.
When Finn had opened the front door to greet me, the sight of him had been enough to make wet where I stood. I wanted to rush inside, to throw my arms around him, smash my lips into his, to grab onto that perfect ass through his slacks and demand he fuck me.
Or maybe I’d wait, keep my overwhelming desire for him in check. We could sit and enjoy this delicious meal of chicken whatever-it-was and we could talk. We could talk and drink wine and eat and laugh and have the kind of fun I hadn’t had with a man since the night we’d conceived our children.
Our children. I had to remember they were why I was there.
God, it was hard, so fucking hard to not close my eyes and picture his body, that chiseled, cut form like something out of the Roman sculpture section of an art museum. It’d been years ago, but the memory of the way his body looked while on top of mine, each shredded muscle working like a machine as he brought me to orgasm again and again and again. The way his long, thick cock had felt inside me as he—
The door opened.
Instead of using the last few minutes to get my mind right, I’d spent them fantasizing about the sexy Irishman I was about to have the most important conversation of my life with.
He slid into the seat, his movements sleek and agile despite the man being built like a damn Special Forces commando. Finn slowly sucked air into his lungs as he regarded me for a long moment, a smile taking shape on those exquisitely kissable lips.
It was that stupid little smile that got me every time, the smile that made him seem like he was up to something, like he was plotting a scheme he wasn’t sure he should let you in on. It was the smile that had gotten me into so much trouble, the one that had changed my life forever.
It was the smile I wanted to kiss so badly just the idea of it sent a shiver up my back.
“What?”
The smile vanished, and he appeared coyishly bemused. “What do ya mean, what?”
And the accent – that sure as hell didn’t help matters. The man was sex incarnate, so hot he seemed from another world.
I had to focus, to remember that this man could be a threat to my family. No – not a threat. I chided myself for using the word, if only in my own head. Finn was the father of my children, and he deserved to say his piece. The longer I dragged it on, the more likely it was my thoughts would drift to that mouth, that body, that cock.
It was time to cut to the chase.
“What do you want with my children?” It came out a little harsher than I
’d intended, but there it was.
His green eyes flashed, and he set his silverware on either side of his place and lean forward. “What the hell do you mean your children? Don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve taken a biology course, dear, but you need a boy and a girl to make children.”
“Don’t get cute with me,” I scathingly replied. “You may have provided the DNA, but I did all the rest. I’ve been on my own for two years. You weren’t there for all those midnight feedings, me going to work on three hours of sleep – bad sleep. You weren’t there when Sam was colicky, up all night crying. You weren’t there when Sophia got that nasty cut the first week she started walking, when I had to take her to the hospital to get stitches while Sam cried with her because he was scared.” I shook my head. “You weren’t there for any of that. So, as far as I’m concerned, they’re my kids.”
I spoke with anger, the kind of rage only a mama bear could have about her babies, but Finn was hardly beaten into submission by my words.
“You’ve got a lot of damn nerve, Kenna, blaming me for something you did to yourself!” He didn’t raise his voice, but his tone was clear. “I had no idea you were pregnant, and it wasn’t like you went outta your way to let me know I was a father. How the hell was I supposed to be there to help you through those things when I didn’t even know I should be?”
“And as I’ve said before, I didn’t know your last name. You left before I even woke up, and I couldn’t get information from the hotel. How the hell was I supposed to find you? As far as I knew, you’d gone home for good and I’d never see you again.”
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he watched me from across the table. I recognized that look. It was the same look he’d given me at the hotel. He wanted me, and that look made me realize that, despite my better judgement, I was probably going to end up in bed with him again at some point.
I had to play it smart. If he were trying to pull something, I wasn’t about to let it happen.
The Irish Doctor’s Secret Babies: A Secret Baby Romance Page 13