Joel said something in the background, then his deep, booming voice came through the phone.
“My woman has tears in her eyes, Finn. What did you say to her?”
“Listen.” I shifted the device to my other ear. “Waverly is currently passed out in our bed. Whatever happened was bad enough she numbed herself with enough vodka to start a large potato farm.”
“Shit.”
“We need a beat.”
“She needs to lay eyes on you and I need her to stop with the waterworks. They’re my weakness and my wife uses them to her advantage. You’ve got thirty minutes to prepare for Hurricane Noreen. Ow.” A commotion sounded over the line, followed by a grunt and a creative sequence of curse words. I smiled for the first time in hours. “Shit, woman. You didn’t have to run over my foot with the cart to get your point across.”
The two of them separately were a force to be reckoned with. Together they were impossible to defeat. I’d given up trying years ago. It wasn’t worth my energy or sanity. Resigned in the knowledge they were coming over, regardless of my protest, I slouched back into the leather chair.
“I’m not waking Waverly up.”
“Then don’t. Hell, we won’t even come inside. We’ll do a porch exchange. You’ll get a fuck ton of food you didn’t ask for, and we’ll get a little peace of mind. I’ll text when we’re close.”
The last couple of words sounded muffled, then thecall dropped abruptly. No doubt Noreen had snatched her phone out of his hand so I wouldn’t have a chance to change my mind. She didn’t have to worry though. I hadn’t learned how to say no to her. Like Joel, she was my weakness; as were the other women in my life. I’d step in front of a bullet for any of them without a second thought. It wasn’t the way I was raised, it’s just the way I was.
With nothing left to do except wait, I waded through the rest of my emails. After answering a few, they all began to blur together. I switched objectives, thinking I’d have better luck reviewing the quarterly financials. However, my heart wasn’t in the game, it was fifty yards away, beating in sync with a certain gorgeous redhead.
Stepping away, I went in search of whiskey. Any single malt would do, though a seven-year-old Gendalough was my preference. Finding none, I was about to message Joel to grab me a bottle when he texted first. They were two minutes out, so I jogged up the stairs for a quick check on my Sleeping Beauty before quietly exiting the house to meet them on the porch.
Noreen got to me first. Her hugs were like feelings minus the words. When she had her arms wrapped tight around you, there was no question how much you were loved. It was exactly what I needed. Kissing her cheek, I moved to help a struggling Joel, who had a ridiculous number of white plastic bags slung over his forearms. He shook off my attempt to lighten his load.
“I’m more than capable of carrying a few groceries.”
After setting them down to the side of the front door, he greeted me in a similar fashion as his wife, only he ended with a spine-tingling back slap.
“Thank you both.”
“How is she?” Noreen wrung her fingers together nervously, almost like she was afraid of the answer.
“Not good.”
There was no way to soften the blow. Waverly was wrecked, plain and simple. It put me in a position I’d never been in before. I felt helpless. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t take her pain away. The only thing I could do was chase down the shadows before they wreaked havoc on her spirit.
“What can we do?” Joel wrapped an arm around his wife.
“You’re doing it.” I glanced at the dozen or so bags waiting for me to carry them inside. “Although, you do realize it’s just the two of us here, right? We’re not hiding an army on the back forty.”
“Psh. This is only half of what I had in the cart. Joel made me put the rest back.”
“Because you went overboard,” he teased.
“There’s no such thing. You’re supposed to feed the soul.”
“I thought the saying was ‘feed a cold’?”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “We’ll get out of your hair.”
Politeness overruled my desire to duck back into the house. Instead, I walked them to their car. When I opened the door for Noreen, she stopped and turned, looking me dead in the eyes.
“You’re my son, Finn. I may not have given birth to you, but you’re mine all the same. It goes against every motherly instinct in my body to leave you to do this on your own.”
“I know, but thank you for doing it anyway.”
“I love you. Never forget it.”
