“I actually think it’ll be fun,” he said. “Obviously it’s not what I’m used to, and it’s definitely not what Robbie’s used to, but that’s part of the fun.”
“Well, I, for one—”
“Finn!”
The verbal warning gave him just enough time to set his glass down before Imogen basically belly-flopped on top of him. “Oof!”
“I didn’t hear you come in,” she complained from the vicinity of his left nipple. God, her chin was sharp.
“I was being quiet trying not to get ambushed by a bony teenager.”
Mercifully, she sat up. “You’re going to get us tickets, right? So we can watch filming?”
“I don’t know,” Finn mused. “I mean, tickets could be hard to get…”
“Fiiiinn,” Imogen whined and rolled her eyes. Finn loved the little brat. “Say you’ll get us tickets to every show. I wanna see you compete!”
Finn’s career-ending injury had happened shortly after the wedding, and Imogen couldn’t remember attending any of her big brother’s competitions—a fact she lamented on a regular basis.
“Everyone? What if I make it to the final? You’d have to go for weeks and weeks,” Finn teased.
“Six weeks is hardly an era,” Imogen scoffed. “It’s not even the whole summer.”
“Well, pardon me for looking out for you.” She gave him a look. “Anyway. It probably won’t be that long. Not everyone’s going to be excited about a same-sex couple. Also, I’m not sure how well the lifts are going to go.”
Gail snickered and Imogen tilted her head to the side in consideration. “Oh. I didn’t think about that. Does this mean you have to lift Robbie?” She wrinkled her nose.
“Nah, other way around.” Finn explained what he’d told Robbie earlier in the day. Imogen nodded seriously as she took it in. Behind her, Gail grinned, having way too much fun.
Before Imogen could grill Finn about the specifics of paired-skating physics, Dad arrived carrying barbecue.
“Hey, kiddo,” he gruffed in Finn’s direction.
On the outside, Finn’s dad was a stereotype: a large man who’d obviously been athletic in his youth but now carried extra pounds around his middle. He wore years of hard physicallabour on his body and cut an imposing figure, especially when quiet and unsmiling—which was often, as he was a man of few words with a resting bitch face.
But on the inside, his father was anything but the expected. He’d been a single parent for most of Finn’s life and never left him in doubt of his love or denied him physical affection; he hadn’t batted an eye when he caught Finn making out with his first boyfriend on the couch. He just offered Billy a Coke and then added, “You boys better be being safe.” Finn and Billy, fifteen-year-old virgins, had nearly expired from mortification.
You couldn’t find a sweeter, more open-minded man, which was why, all those years ago, Finn had arranged for his dad and Gail to crash his impromptu skating lesson with Imogen and then promptly absconded with his student to leave the two of them alone. Gail and his dad cottoned on to Finn’s machinations immediately, but they let him get away with it because they were too busy looking at each other.
They basically hadn’t stopped since.
“So.” Imogen speared a piece of potato and eyed Finn across the table. “It’s June.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “I noticed that May was over.”
“So….”
“So.”
“So it’s Pride month! The parade is in a few weeks.”
Finn hummed. Life had few pleasures greater than being a shit to younger siblings, and Finn had missed out on the opportunity until he was a teenager.
“I was hoping we could go together this year. You’ll be able to, right?”
“I mean, my legs would be able to make the walk….”
“Fiiiinn, you tell more dad jokes than Dad. Seriously. I meant, the show won’t get in the way, will it? Because I really wanted to go with you.” She turned to him with round, begging eyes, and Finn knew he’d be attending the parade with his sister this year, no matter what the filming schedule said.
