The driver obligingly pulled the car into a space at the side of the road.
“What? What do you need?” Sebastian had one hand on the door handle.
“There’s a florist. I’d like to get my mum some flowers.”
“Nice thought.” He jumped out of the car, jogged round and opened my door. The security guard in the passenger seat got out and stood by the car, watching out for us.
“Are these dudes armed?” I asked Sebastian, warily.
“Guns are illegal in Ireland, Finola.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He paused for a moment, scanning my face. Then his voice dropped.
“Yeah, they’re armed.”
“Great. Let’s go pick some flowers.”
The store was tiny and crammed full of flowers of all kinds. There were elaborate posies, intricate wreaths and huge displays fit for a prima ballerina’s dressing room. All of this meant there was very little floorspace to walk around in.
“Can I help you, dear?” A white-haired woman with smiling eyes came to take our order. She saw Sebastian and immediately switched her attention to him. “Something special for the lady, sir?”
He grinned and turned to me. “It’s for the lady’s mother. Show us your very best arrangements, please.”
The florist turned delightedly to the window. “Something like this?” She pointed at a gigantic concoction, full of tropical orchids and bright colors. “Or perhaps something more subdued?” She indicated a massive pastel pink explosion, too big even to fit in the car. “Or I can always knock together something bespoke, if you give me half an hour.”
“Can we see something a little less extravagant?” I said. “A small hand-tied bunch would be lovely.”
Sebastian turned to me and muttered discreetly into my hair. “I’ll get this. Please don’t let price be a factor in your choice.”
“It’s not,” I said. “I just don’t like all this flashy in-your-face stuff. The simplest flowers are always the most beautiful.”
He frowned, as though I was speaking another language.
“You’d actually prefer to give your mother a small number of flowers?”
“It’s not the quantity. It’s the presentation. A bunch of roses just the way they come is gorgeous. One hundred roses squashed up with fifty other types of flowers and a bunch of foliage, three feet across? Not so much.”
He shook his head, baffled. But he said to the florist, “We’ll take whatever the lady wants.” Then he handed her his black credit card. She looked suitably awe-struck.
“Can I get a bunch of those pale pink roses, please?” I said. “Just twelve, tied with a ribbon. That’d be perfect. Thank you.”
We left with the flowers. Sebastian opened the car door for me again.
“So what are your favorite flowers?” he said, as the car pulled away. “I might need to know this in future.”
I smiled. “Daisies.”
“Daisies? Come on. They’re weeds. What do you really like?”
“Daisies.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“They’re beautiful. I don’t care what you think.”
He laughed. “Just as it should be, I guess. What the hell do I know about flowers anyway?”
We held hands all the way to my parents’ house.
The car pulled up outside a newly-built house on a tree-lined street. It was a little bigger and smarter than the house we’d had in London. There was an apple tree next to the garden gate and the door was painted bright yellow. My Mum’s favorite color.
Sebastian sat next to me on the back seat. The security guys’ SUV was huge, but his hulking form still seemed cramped and caged. He turned and grinned.
“You’ve waited seven long years for this. Almost. How does it feel?”
“Unbelievable. Weird. Great. Scary. I’m not sure, really.”
The last time my adopted Mum and Dad saw me, I was a stupid, spoilt sixteen-year-old who thought she knew it all. How the years of independence and hardship had changed me.
I smoothed my hair down and took a deep breath to calm myself. My fingers quivered like blades of grass in the wind.
Sebastian’s hand squeezed mine and then rested casually on my leg. The feeling sent shockwaves through my whole body. It was insane how fast my body reacted to his.
Also a little inconvenient. After all, we weren’t a couple any more.
Were we?
I turned to look at him. His gaze burned down on my face like the hottest sun.
For a moment, once again, I thought he was going to lean over and kiss me.
He moved closer. I stayed quite still, clutching his firm hand.
“Finola… There’s something I need to ask you.”
“Okay. What is it?”
He looked out of the window for a moment, then fixed me with his devastating sapphire gaze.
“Are we on, or are we off?”
“On or off? Like a radio?”
He frowned. “Like a couple. Because I want us to be together. I’ll do whatever I need to do to make that happen. But I need to know if you feel the same.”
I looked at my lap, then back at him.
“Wow. It’s not a great time to be starting a conversation about this, Sebastian. I have to go in.”
“I know. So let’s keep it brief. Are we on or are we off?”
I smiled at his relentlessness.
“What do you think?”
He kissed me long and tender, right there in the back seat. The security guards looked tactfully into the distance.
“Go enjoy your family reunion.”
I got out of the car, trembling with nerves. I didn’t want to admit it, but another headache was tingling through the very edges of my skull.
* * *
“Wait. Do you want me to come in with you?” He lingered, his hand on the top of my car door.
I turned, already at the front door. “What? You mean come into my parents’ house?”
“Yes.”
I thought about this for a second. “What would I say? Hi Mum and Dad. Here’s Sebastian! Don’t get excited, though. He’s already married.”
Sebastian looked down. But he didn’t move.
“Look, I still need to apologize to you. I should have told you that I was officially married.”
“Officially? Can someone be unofficially married?”
“Ah, you’re still annoyed. I get it.”
“Oh, you get it. Great. That’s… great.”
I bit my nails, too agitated to think of a proper comeback.
“Finola. Last try. Do you want me to come with you or not?”
“No… No, I don’t think so. It’s better if I just see them alone. My mum’s sick and my dad needs a little time to adjust. It’s going to be… weird.”
“I bet. All right then. I’ll just wait out here for you, in case you change your mind.”
I walked back to the car and shook my head. “No way. I have no idea how long I’ll be. If I know you’re sitting out here, tapping your watch and counting the minutes, I’ll be even more on edge.”
“I won’t be tapping my watch. I’ll barely notice the hours fly by. Look, I have a book.”
He held up a Mysteries of Ireland tourist guidebook.
“Sebastian. Go back to the hotel.”
He tipped his head back exasperatedly.
“Have it your way. Call us when you need a ride back to your room. Don’t even think about going anywhere without security.”
“But-”
“One of these guards will wait outside the house for you. The other will come right back and park right back here after I reach the hotel. No arguments.” He held a warning finger up at me.
“Fine. I’ll call when I’m done. See you later, Sebastian.”
Before I could walk back to the front door, he slipped his hand round my waist and drew me in close.
“Good luck, Fin,” he said. Then he kissed me on the cheek.
/>
I flung my arms round his neck and hugged him. He held me there solidly, one arm round my waist and one entwined in my hair. His lips hovered by my ear.
Once again, I could feel his body responding to mine instantly, just as mine was silently screaming for his.
Being apart from him felt so wrong. I had no idea what was right.
A week ago, I had never even met this man. Now it felt like I was only half a person if I was without him. And he still had a goddamn wife.
The situation was too complicated. And I had something else I had to do, before I could think any more about Sebastian Chase.
“Okay,” I said, peeling myself off him reluctantly. “I’m going in.”
He released me, then watched me walk all the way back to the front door.
I turned and pointed to the far end of the road. “Go!”
He got back in the car. After lots of gestures and frowning from me, it finally drove away.
I rang the doorbell.
Waiting for the next few seconds was torture.
Then the door creaked open. A thinner, grayer, older version of my Dad stood there.
“Finola,” he cried. “My angel. Oh, my darling, you’ve come home!”
26
My tears flowed freely as I hugged my Dad. He felt so frail in my arms.
“Dad… You’re okay, are you? Where’s Mum?”
He put his arm round me and beckoned me in the house, shutting the front door behind us.
“She’s in bed, my love. We put a bed downstairs for her, in the old dining room. It means she doesn’t feel so out of everything if she needs to rest during the day.”
I nodded, feeling like it was all a dream.
In a way, it was great that they weren’t still in the old house. I’d have felt even guiltier if I’d seen evidence of my teenage temper tantrum and the damage it caused.
“Here she is. I’ll just check she’s awake.”
Dad edged round the door, silent as a cat. Mum must have been awake, because I heard her laugh.
“Love! Oh, love. We’ve got a visitor!”
He opened the door wide, so she could see me.
“Who is it, pet?”
What was wrong? Couldn’t she see me? I was right there.
I panicked for a moment that she’d lost her sight, or her mind.
Then she reached for her glasses and put them on.
“Oh! Oh, my sweetie has come home! It’s Finola!”
I ran over to her and bent to throw my arms around her. Her voice was a little slurred from the stroke, but she wasn’t as weak as she looked. Her grasp was surprisingly tight.
“Mum, I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m so, so sorry for everything.”
We both wept as we hugged the last seven years away.
Then my Dad came over and joined in the hug.
“Bundle!” we all shouted.
It was a family joke from my childhood. Two people would hug. Then everyone else would leap on, whether wanted or not, and yell ‘Bundle!’ until they were shoved off.
The laughter dried up all our tears and I felt much better.
“Let’s get us all a nice pot of tea,” Dad said. “I’ll put these stunning flowers in a vase. You settle down there next to your Mum, love. I won’t be long.”
I sat down in the chair by Mum’s bed, my hand over hers.
“Do you want me to puff up your pillows?”
“Ah, will you stop your fussing?” she laughed, in her warm Irish lilt.
Her voice was like sea or sky to me. Part of the elements. I couldn’t imagine how I’d lived for seven whole years without hearing it.
She was my true Mum, I realized at last. She may not have given birth to me, but she was the only Mum I’d ever known. How I regretted ever wanting my birth mother’s love more than hers.
“Mum…” My voice was brittle and threatened to break at any moment. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I’m just so, so…”
My Mum heaved herself up in bed and pulled me to her firmly, patting the back of my head.
“Now, then. Let’s not hear any more of this. You’re our girl, you hear? You always will be. Let bygones be bygones. Let’s just live for the moment, pet.”
Her sweet forgiveness was almost too much to bear. I bawled like a baby onto her shoulder, while she made shushing noises and rocked me back and forth in her arms.
My Mum and Dad. They forgave me. They didn’t hate me.
I was home.
* * *
The day passed in a blur of hugging, reminiscing and relief. I felt so terrible about my destructive behavior as a teenager. Mum and Dad waved it away as though I’d just knocked over a glass of water.
Their graciousness and kindness blew me away. I wasn’t at all sure I deserved it. But I rejoiced in the warm feeling.
Then again, they weren’t thrilled that I had a hotel room to go back to, when I could’ve stayed with them.
“Waste of money!” Dad said. “We have the spare room, pet! You can sleep in there. Here, I’ll go make the bed up now.”
He was halfway out of his seat before I could persuade him to stop.
“It’s fine, Dad, really! I didn’t want to land on you for the night before I’d had a chance to make it all up to you properly. Plus my stuff’s all at the hotel. I may as well sleep there. I could always come back and see you again tomorrow?”
“Well, all right,” Dad said. “But Dublin is too far away. You should’ve got a hotel here in Meath!”
I didn’t mention anything about Sebastian. I wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Hey Mum and Dad, here’s a guy I’m sort of seeing, who is married! Oh, and guess what? He can turn into a tiger! Pass the salt.’
“You’ll stay for lunch, mind?” Mum said. “Your brothers will be here soon. Dad’s made a good old-fashioned stew. With dumplings!”
“I’d love to,” I smiled.
Right on cue, the doorbell jangled. Dad went to answer it.
My brothers were as noisy as ever, even now they were adults. Declan and Sean charged down the hall, exchanging banter at the tops of their voices.
“Finola!” they yelled, as they burst in. “Bloody hell! Finola!”
We hugged, laughing like we’d only been apart a few months instead of nearly seven years. Right behind them stood a petite red-haired woman and a black-haired man, both smiling shyly.
“Sorry, Fin,” said Sean. “This is my wife, Kim.”
The woman shook my hand, smiling wider.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” she said, in a strong Irish accent. “All good, I have to say.”
“Are you sure you’ve got the right person?” said Declan. “Doesn’t sound like our Fin at all.”
We all laughed, while Mum tutted and scolded him.
“And this handsome fellow is Tom,” he added. “He’s my partner. I would say boyfriend, but I’m not sure you can be in your forties and still someone’s boyfriend.”
Tom beamed widely and shook my hand. “Still younger than you, you big joker. It’s a pleasure, Finola.”
“Hey, Tom,” I said, as we all sat round the table. “It’s wonderful to meet you. You too, Kim. Hey, I’m so glad we’re all together. This feels incredible.”
“It does,” Sean said. “It really does.” He lifted his water glass aloft. “Malleys reunite!”
We clinked our glasses together and cheered.
“Guys, can I ask you something?” I said. “Do you remember the migraines I used to get when I was younger?”
My parents and brothers nodded, with a chorus of “Yeah” and “Uh-huh”.
“I had another one the other day. It was the first in years.”
I looked directly at them all in turn. Here was my only chance to bring up the idea of magical heritage. If any of my family alluded to it, I’d know for sure it was real.
“That sucks, Fin,” said Declan. “Anything you’re doing to bring them on? Something you’re allergic to, maybe?”
“I d
on’t think so,” I said, scouring everyone’s faces for clues. “Is there any reason why some people get migraines and others don’t? Like, a genetic tendency or anything?”
Nobody knew and nobody said anything about magic.
With that, the subject changed.
Kim smiled. “And what are you doing for work these days, Fin?”
I hesitated for a moment. My temporary job was almost certainly gone now. I hadn’t been to work since the Friday I was attacked in the parking garage. And I hadn’t contacted my agency boss, Lucy, at all.
I doubted sleeping with the bank’s CEO was going to be considered a good excuse.
“Uh… I’ve been doing office work. I got my degree though. Worked part-time throughout and now I’m paying off my student loans.”
“Ooh, you’re a graduate, Finola!” Mum and Dad exclaimed.
They made lots of fuss. I let them, feeling embarrassed but also delighted they were all so proud of me. I hadn’t really earned that love and pride, but it was there anyway. It was humbling.
“Are you all right, Fin? Not one of your headaches?”
Declan watched me with a concerned frown. I realized my hands were at my temples, rubbing them.
“Actually, yeah, I have a slight headache. Not one of the big ones. Nothing to worry about.”
Dad leaped up. “I’ll fetch the painkillers, my love,” he said.
“Do you still get those awful migraines?” said Sean. “You used to suffer big time with those.”
“Not so much,” I said. “Well, I had one a few days ago, actually. For the first time in I don’t know how long. It was, um… sort of a stressful day though.” I turned to Kim, who was looking at Sean for an explanation. “I get migraines sometimes, with audio-visual hallucinations. Not often.”
“Oh, horrid,” said Kim, looking sympathetic.
Sean nodded. “Fin used to be plagued with them, back in her teens. Didn’t you, Fin?”
“Pretty much.”
“So will you be doing the tourist thing while you’re here, Fin?” Declan turned to Tom. “Has he taken you to Newgrange yet, Tom? It’s the big local attraction. Don’t miss it while you’re here.”
“Oh yes, Tom, you must,” Dad said. “It’s older than the Pyramids, you know!”
Memories of childhood seeped back in. I remembered scampering round the grassy ancient monument as a young child, making daisy chains and singing.
Tiger Billionaire: The Whole Story (BBW Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Box Set) Page 17