“I’ve been thinking over a lot of things lately.” She took a deep breath. “What if I stayed?”
Finn’s eyebrows shot up. “Stay? You mean longer than a year?”
She nodded, holding her breath and hoping that he would be thrilled about it and that he’d ask her to stay with him, only he didn’t. He just seemed a bit surprised she wanted to stay. It surprised her too. This is the first time she’d wanted to be serious with anyone, to even think about this.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“I guess I never really thought about that.”
“Oh, that’s…flattering,” she said, laughing nervously.
“It’s not that. It’s just—” Finn was going to say more when Magnus whipped open the door to Cool Beans, looking a touch frantic.
“Finn!” Magnus shouted. “I need your help.”
“What do you need?”
“A boat,” Magnus declared.
“Okay, well my mother is at the shop.”
“She’s not. I checked.” Magnus leaned over their table and he looked just as frazzled as he did the evening that Margaid had picked him up along the side of the road after that so-called revenge date. “The witch is back. I swear she is and I need to deal with it.”
Finn looked at her apologetically.
“It’s okay. Go help your friend,” Margaid said, trying to hide her disappointment that their conversation was interrupted. They could finish it later. She could work on her report for the recent findings and her proposal to stay.
“Very well.” Finn stood up, but before he slid out of the booth, he kissed her on the forehead. He didn’t say anything else, but it was reassuring.
It was something.
Finn left the coffee shop with Magnus. As she glanced around the cozy little coffee shop and stared out the window to the town, she knew she was making the right choice. Maybe she was rushing into things, but for the first time in a long time, she felt she belonged and maybe this is where she’d get her happily ever after, after all.
Chapter
Eleven
Magnus had been right. Finn’s mother had closed the shop, which was a bit unusual. Finn wasn’t angry about it, it was just weird. He rented Magnus a boat, a small motorized fishing boat, and Magnus headed out on the lake.
Finn had no idea what Magnus meant by the witch was back. If he was talking about that sea witch that cursed him and Sven, she was long gone. He wasn’t fully sure about their curse, but he really hoped that Magnus would be okay.
Right now, he was still reeling over what Margaid had said to him. She wanted to stay. No woman had ever wanted to be with him longer than one night and he wasn’t sure how he was processing it. Could she just stay?
Her contract job was only a year. And he didn’t want her giving up anything to be with him. What if her findings after a year shut down his business for a while? How could he support her? He wanted to be able to take care of Margaid, just like he helped take care of his mother and Pearl.
What if they had a kid? Margaid said she was on the birth control shot, but what if she wanted a family down the line and he couldn’t provide for them?
You’re overthinking this.
Which was true. They could make it work. He was in love with Margaid. Not that he’d told her that, but he really did love her. Deeply, and he didn’t want to lose her. As much as her sunshine had invaded his safe little dark cloud of isolation, and he’d hated that at first, he really couldn’t picture a life without her, or being with anyone else.
Also, he was kicking himself for not reacting as quickly when she had mentioned the prospect of staying longer.
As he entered the apartment in the back of the shop to see where his mother was, he found his mother and Pearl hugging. Tears running down his mother’s face. His hair bristled.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” he questioned, panicking slightly.
Hetty and Pearl broke apart. Hetty was smiling and wiped away a tear. “Nothing bad. Pearl got into state college. A full scholarship.”
