by Meghan Quinn
Finn’s last words cut right through Sophie, her stomach grew in knots. She didn’t know how much worse her night could get until Finn added, “I want nothing to do with her. She’s not who I am in love with and she’s not who I’m attracted to. I’m sorry, she’s all yours man.”
Sophie felt tears starting to prick the front of her eyes but she would not allow for them to drop. She would not break down in front of these two assholes. All her thoughts about Finn wanting her and coming over here to finish what he started the other night vanished within the matter of a couple of seconds. What she thought was going to be an extremely romantic and fulfilling night turned into a night of total loss and embarrassment.
Liam looked between her and Finn and then finally said, “I don’t want her man. I came over here for closure. I’m going after Neala, I love my wife and I want her back.”
Sophie watched as a giant grin spread across Finn’s face. If she wasn’t so heart-broken she would have fallen in love with Finn and that gorgeous smile of his but instead she wiped a stray tear quickly off her cheek so the two O’Learys wouldn’t see how much they hurt her. Even if they didn’t want her she thought they were at least friends and friends didn’t talk about each other like that, as if she was a piece of trash that could be flung around without a worry or care.
“You and Neala?” Finn asked. “Wow, man that is great.” Finn held out his hand for Liam to shake. Liam looked Finn up and down for a second and then pulled his brother into an embrace. Well good for them, Sophie thought. How nice that they could beat the crap out of each other and then spit out nasty things about her and make up. What a wonderful moment for them she thought as she rolled her eyes.
A wave of bitter coldness washed over her body. While she watched the O’Leary boys make up and pat each other on the back, she realized that even on her best day she couldn’t land either of them. She was not good enough for Finn or Liam and the mere fact that they both dismissed her in one night hurt, it hurt badly. She felt like she couldn’t breathe from such loss. She was so convinced that she was going to end up with Finn or Liam for that matter but she didn’t, she wasn’t good enough for them, never had been and never will be.
The bitter truth cut through her and she could feel her heart slowly starting to turn black. What was so wrong with her? She was cute, nice, had a good body and could make a man extremely happy in the bedroom and in the kitchen. She was actually quite the catch and the fact that Finn and Liam didn’t realize that made them complete idiots and she was going to make them pay for that. Some way, somehow, they were going to pay for the embarrassment and heartache they put her through tonight if it was the last thing she did.
Chapter 18
Fiona found herself repeatedly wiping her clammy hands on her pants. Why she decided to wear her winter gear to a place where it was sixty eight degrees in December was beyond her. The thought of being in a place with a different climate Never actually crossed her mind. All she could think about was all the things she talked to Blaire about over the phone. Once she hung up, she had to get on a plane and see Booker, to find out if everything Blaire said was true.
Although she wished she took a second to contemplate what she was wearing because at the current moment while she was driving along the pacific coast highway in her yellow taxi with some creepy realtor’s face plastered on the side, all she could think about was how sweaty her entire body was, and not just from nerves. She felt pools of sweat starting to form under her armpits and she worried that when she actually saw Booker he might turn her away for being a sweaty disgusting monster.
Thanks to Tipper picking up her shifts at the pub, which also helped Tipper out, Fiona was able to take a couple of days off and see if there was a possibility that she could actually save her relationship with Booker. She was also grateful to get away from the pub for a little bit because the tension between her brothers was almost unbearable. She heard from her ma that Finn and Liam were fighting but now have resolved their issues. Fiona just rolled her eyes, even if they did solve their problems she needed a break from the Neanderthals. There was only so much she could take when it came to her brothers and their short tempers. Sometimes Fiona wondered if they were actually men because they sure seemed like a bunch of clucking hens on their periods most of the time.
Sophie also heard from Tipper that there was a big scene at Sophie’s house the other night involving Finn and Liam. Fiona assumed that was where her two idiot brothers solved their problems. The sad thing she heard though was that Sophie got the short end of the stick and was extremely upset about the whole ordeal. Apparently Finn and Liam said some really nasty things about her without thinking. Fiona found that hard to believe since both her brothers adored Sophie, maybe Sophie took it out of context. Fiona did find it weird that Sophie turned to Tipper since Tipper and her were never really close. Well at least close enough to cry to Tipper on the phone. Thanks to the Warblers Point grapevine of information, Tipper immediately called Fiona right after she got off the phone with Sophie and divulged all the juicy gossip. Fiona felt slightly bad about what happened to Sophie but she also didn’t appreciate that Sophie was starting to bad mouth her brothers but she would have to worry about that later. Right now she was focused on getting her man back…hopefully.
When Fiona talked to Blaire about Booker the other day on the phone, she asked about Finn and how he was doing. She could tell Blaire still had feelings for him but to hell if she was going to get Blaire’s hopes up about Finn. She had no clue what Finn was currently thinking and until he got his head out of his ass and stopped acting like a drama queen, she was not going to say anything promising to Blaire. Not that Blaire would even do anything if Finn did confess his feelings since she was in California and had no intention of moving to Warblers Point, she made that quite clear to Finn when they broke everything off.
Fiona looked out the taxi’s window as all walks of life paraded outside, along the beach or on the sidewalks. She had never seen such a gaggle of different people. There were joggers, hippies, surfers, skate boarders, people walking their dogs and freakishly thin blondes. It was amazing to see such a variety of personalities mesh so well in what seemed like a permanent vacation get-a-way. She couldn’t imagine why Booker would want to leave such an amazing place. Palm trees lined the streets, reaching up to the sky in a wonky kind of way making her surroundings seem like utter paradise.
The driver pulled into a development type road where houses lined the beach granting them their own private access. She knew she was getting close to Booker’s house because Blaire said he lived right on the beach. Her body heat turned up another notch and she felt herself become woozy. Never in her life had she ever gone after a man with the possibility of rejection hanging over her head, especially if she still didn’t quite trust him fully.
The driver pulled up to a modern looking house that was full of windows but you couldn’t see in them. The walkway up to the door was lined with what seemed like some kind of desert vegetation lined with rocks. It was a very masculine looking and intimidating kind of home, something she never quite pictured for Booker. If it wasn’t for the driver’s putrid body odor that had taken over the cab she would be begging him to take her back to the airport but if she stayed one more minute in the cab she was going to throw up, which if she did it might bump up her fare.
She quickly paid the driver and got out of the taxi. She took in the smell of ocean and heard the subtle sounds of waves crashing along the beach. The sensations brought her nerves back down to a non-threatening level and gave her enough courage to walk to his front door and ring the doorbell.
***
Booker just finished his last bench press rep when his doorbell rang. Annoyed with the disturbance he huffed and wiped sweat off his face and bare chest. Ever since he got back from Vermont he had visit after visit from all his lonely lady neighbors making sure he settled back in from his vacation properly. He never let them in, just thanked them for their concern and quickly
shooed them away. In the past, he would have invited them in to relieve some tension but ever since Fiona stepped in his life, he wasn’t able to look at another woman the same way. He tried ignoring the lonely ladies parading his front door but what he learned after trying that was they didn’t go away. So instead he thanked them for their concern and moved them along. As he approached his door, he mentally thought about all the women he heard from since her returned and couldn’t think of one of his neighbors who has not visited him, so whoever was on the other side of the door must be coming back for “well-wishing” seconds.
After his picture showed up in the gossip magazines showing off his new look he couldn’t shed the paparazzi if he had his own high pressure water hose. Leaving his house was practically impossible, there were at least five cars camped out on his street waiting for him to make his next move. Life was so much simpler in Warblers Point. God he missed Fiona, it was upsetting to him though that she didn’t trust him and what he had to say, or that she wouldn’t even let him say what he needed to say. He thought their relationship was much stronger than that.
He got to his front door and as if he conjured her up himself from his thoughts, there she was, Fiona was standing right in front of him. He didn’t know what to say he was so shocked. He took her in her appearance and instantly wondered if she might have lost her mind. She was wearing what seemed like a thick sweater, winter jacket, jeans and boots. He was confused by her attire, why would she wear something so warm when it was in the sixties? He looked at her face which was extremely pale and her eyes seem glazed over.
Finally he broke the silence that was hanging between them. “Fiona, what the hell are you doing here?”
She didn’t answer him back instead she just swayed back and forth in place until her eyes rolled up in the back of her head while she passed out and fell forward. Luckily, Booker was able to catch her before she slammed her head on the door jam. He pulled her in his house along with her little suitcase and gently placed her on his sofa. He ran into his kitchen for a bottle of water and started taking off her jacket. She most likely passed out from heat stroke. He tore off her jacket and then took her sweater off, thankfully she was wearing a little shirt on underneath. He removed her boots and socks to let her body temperature mellow out.
He pressed the cold bottle of water against her head as he sat next to her on the couch. After a couple of minutes her eyes fluttered open and looked at him in a confused manner. He knew the moment she realized what was going on because she shot off the couch and her face turned bright red in embarrassment, one of her most endearing qualities. The fast movement she made off the couch caused her to sway once again but she grabbed a hold of the back of the couch before she fell again. Instead of standing she sat down, as far away from him as possible.
He extended the water bottle out to her. “Here, have some water. I think you are over heated.”
She grabbed it from him sheepishly. “Thank you.”
He watched as she slowly sipped the water and wished instead of the water bottle, his lips were in its place. He so desperately wanted to sweep her up in his arms and carry her off to bed and make her his forever, but he was not going to do that. He needed to know why she was sitting on his couch, in his house.
After a couple of minutes passed and it looked like Fiona regained her strength back, Booker asked again. “Fiona, why are you here?”
From the sound of his voice, her head shot up form looking at her water bottle. Her eyes were wide and searching him, for something, but what?
“Uh, I talked to your sister.”
“Blaire? Why? What did she say?”
“She called The Sleeping Potato and talked to my ma…about you.” Fiona was staring at her water bottle again. He wondered what Blaire must have said to make Fiona come all the way out to California.
“She didn’t tell you my health was bad or anything did she?” Knowing Blaire, she would lie to Fiona to make her come out here just so they were in the same room again.
“Oh my God, no. Are you sick?” Fiona quickly got up from her seat and sat right next to him with her hand on his face, searching for anything wrong with him.
“No I’m not sick, I’m fine. But your concern is reassuring.”
“Oh.” She moved away and he instantly missed her so he grabbed her hand so she couldn’t move any further.
She was looking down at her hand when he said, “Fiona, why did you come here?”
She looked at him and he got a great view of those whiskey colored eyes he fell in love with. “I wanted to see if what Blaire said was true. If you left here because you needed a new start and you changed your look and who you were so people didn’t treat you differently. So you could actually find out if people liked you for who you were and not your celebrity.”
Booker nodded. “Well, what do you see?”
“I don’t know. You tell me. Is that all true?”
“It is but you didn’t want to hear it when I tried to explain it to you.”
“I know and I’m sorry for that but I had been burned and used before and when I found out you lied to me it just brought back all those hurtful feelings. I completely shut off from you which was wrong. I should have given you a chance to explain yourself.”
Booker was shocked with how easily she agreed with him. It was hard to believe that his little fiery Irish girl gave up without a fight.
“I just have one question.” She asked. “Why didn’t you tell me Booker? Why didn’t you tell me after we made love for the second time, or when you said you wanted to buy a house with me? That would have been perfect timing to clue me in on the fact that you are a world re-known director. That was what hurt most, that you were unable to trust me with the facts of who you truly are. Did you think I was going to run to the nearest news station and tell them that I’ve been dating the infamous Booker Hall, who in fact had been out of the spotlight for the last couple of months? I would never do that.”
Booker stood up and paced the living room floor while he ran his hand through his hair. “I know. I know you wouldn’t do that to me. I guess I just liked living the life I was living with you. It was so carefree. I didn’t want anything to spoil that.”
“Well, it would have been easier if you told me because now that carefree feeling you were loving is no longer going on between us. It’s disappointing Booker, I thought you could trust me more.”
“I could. I can.”
“Well, I’m not so sure I can trust you. I feel like I don’t even know the man I love.”
“You still love me?”
Her shoulders deflated when she answered him. “Of course I do but I feel like I love some imagination of a man, not you. I feel like I don’t even know you.”
Booker sat next to her and grabbed her hands. He saw tears starting to swell in her eyes and he wanted nothing more than to make those tears go away.
“That is where you are wrong, baby. I’m the man you know and love. The only thing that is different is my last name and profession, everything else is real. The man you flew with for the first time, the man you spent hours hanging out with by the pond at your parents, the man who constantly pursued you until he got a chance to kiss your sweet sweet lips, and the same man who loves you so much he feels like his heart might burst when you are in his presence. Do you believe me Fiona?”
She shook her head. “I just don’t…”
Booker wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He grabbed her head with his hands and captured her lips with his. Gently he nipped away at her lips, remembering all the sweet sensations she released that intoxicated him every time they were together. Finally she relaxed in his arms and she wrapped her hands around his neck and brought him in closer. He felt her tears roll down her face and run up against his.
He pulled her on to his lap and continued to explore her mouth while she let him like they did so many times in the past but this time it felt different. It felt like she was completely giving herself over to him. Fo
r the first time since they had been together he felt like she was actually letting all her guards down and accepting him into her life…forever.
When they broke apart he looked into those beautiful eyes of hers and smiled. “Does this mean we can start house hunting?”
She gave him a startled look. “You still want to buy a house in Warblers Point still?”
“Yes, I love it there.”
She shook her head. “You’re crazy.”
“So what do you say? Will you move in with me?”
“Do you really think you can kiss me and have that solve everything? Well that’s not how the world works Booker. You can’t always get your way by throwing your body at people.” If it wasn’t for the faint smile on her lip and the teasing gleam in her eye he would have thought she was serious.
He decided to press his luck and kissed her again, this time with a lot more passion and wondering hands then before. When he pulled away this time she had a dazed look on her face.
She pressed a finger to his chest to be stern but instead of chastising him she said, “Oh my, that’s firm.” Her face turned a brilliant shade of red again causing him to fall in love with her all over again. She continued with her finger pointing, this time not distracted by his muscular chest. “Listen, that kissing thing might work this time but in the future you better come up with a better way of making things up to me.”
Booker could feel his face light up with a smile causing her mouth to retaliate with her own beautiful gleam.
“So, are we house hunting?”
She wrapped her arms around him. “I guess we are.”
He lifted her up in her arms and carried her off to his bedroom while the whole time she giggled in his arms and kissed his face. He was in heaven. He tossed her on his bed and stripped off her pants and top, leaving her only in her perfect cotton bra and panties. Never in his life had he ever seen anything more perfect.