“The battle, maybe,” I pant. “But not the war.”
He props himself up on one elbow and looks down the bed at me. His lips are red and wet, his cheeks flushed. “Come on, then. Make your assault on my ass.”
“Give me five minutes,” I groan, holding up my hands in surrender for now. “Five minutes, and then I’ll show you who the Boss really is.”
He grins. “Happy first-meeting day, Boss-Man.”
“Happy first-meeting day, baby bird.”
Chapter Twenty
Finch
Next do-gooder Friday my conscience overwhelms me, and I decide I better keep my promise to Celia and go fold clothes, cook meatloaf, arrange flowers, or whatever the fuck she’s supposed to be doing this week.
When I turn up, the other members of the Ladies’ Committee stare at me like they’ve never seen me before. Marco takes his usual seat in the corner, but I roll right up to the women where they’ve set themselves up in the kitchen, and plant my ass on another chair, after turning it around and sliding it between my legs. “Ladies, ladies, ladies,” I drawl. “ My sister-in-law can't be here today, having just had a kid and all, but she sent me in her place. So please, deploy me at will.”
Turns out, today is another clothes-sorting day. I get stuck on my own at a table heaped high with clothes that smell like mildew and mothballs at the same time. Still, I promised Cee I’d do this, so I keep my complaints to myself and start sorting.
Predictably, about halfway through, Just-Aidan shows up. Only this time he's not alone. A full-fledged priest with a collar, cassock, and self-satisfied smile is with him. Aidan looks shocked when he sees me, and then he gets the same look I've seen on Luca’s face more than once when I start running my mouth: theOh, shit, look.
The cassocked priest does this stupid thing where he grabs at his heart, and takes a step back as he looks me up and down, and says loudly, “Why,goodnessme,whois our new helper, Aidan? You never told me we had a gentleman helping out with the Ladies’ Committee.”
I ignore them, and go on with my sorting.
“Father Benedict, this is…uh, Finch,” Aidan says quietly.
The pair of them head over to me and I hear Celia's voice in the back of my head begging me to be friendly. Ugh. Doing good works is much more exhausting than I had anticipated.
I stick out my hand before the priest gets there, so he has to take it or look like an asshole. “Finch D’Amato,” I say. “My sister-in-law, Celia D’Amato, is usually the one here, but she's just popped out a bundle of joy, so she's got other things on her mind right now.”
“How is she?” asks Aidan hurriedly. “I hope it wasn't a difficult birth. I had an email from her saying that she was going away with her mother.”
I don't know what the hell Cee was thinking when she emailed him. No one is supposed to know who she was with, or where she was going.
“She's taking a break upstate at one of our holiday homes,” I say.
“Oh,” replies Aidan. “That makes sense. The way she put it made it sound like she was having quite a journey, but I'm relieved to hear she's staying in-state. It can be a difficult time those first few months after the birth.”
“You know this from personal experience?”
Father Benedict laughs as though I've made a joke, and Aidan gives a weak smile. “Well,” Father Benedict says, “I'm sure you'll fill her shoes admirably while she's away. But really, you didn't have to come; we have manywonderfulladies who are eager to contribute to the work of the church.”
“I find I just can't stay away,” I say, looking at Aidan. He makes a shocked Pikachu face.
Father Benedict gives Aidan a sidelong look and grunts. “Well, well. Give your sister-in-law my regards, and of course my best to the baby. Girl or boy?”
“Girl.”
“How delightful. I'll look forward to baptizing the child in due course. Now, Aidan, those newsletters won't fold themselves, will they?”
“No, Father Benedict,” Aidan says miserably.
“How about I help fold?” I say, throwing a petticoat over my shoulder back onto the pile. Who the fuck even wears petticoats these days?
“Oh, no, I don't need any help—”
“But how else will I keep up with the news of the church? I insist. Really.”
