As she glanced around the room, Hailey made a concerted effort to look at the guys from the neck up only. After making unintentional eye contact with far too many bare-chested players, she finally spotted Fin next to a row of lockers. His hair was wet, and he was only partially dressed, but since he was expecting her and since she’d already seen him naked from the waist up, she figured it was alright to proceed inside.
She sped over to him, smiling brightly and still buzzing with the excitement of the game. As he finished giving a sound bite to a scantily-clad “member of the press,” Hailey waited patiently with her hands clasped. Fin had shed several pounds and really toned up since the summer. Hailey pointed at his abs, marveling so loud it echoed.
“Wow!” she exclaimed. “You’re so small!”
The whole room went silent, and everyone turned to see whose manhood had just been robbed.
“Hailey,” said Fin in his best instructor’s voice as she pulled her shoulders in, “that’s not usually something a man likes to hear.”
“I’m so sorry!” She covered her mouth with both hands.
Fin scratched his eyebrow. Then he threw his shirt on and led her outside.
“I meant your belly,” she told him in a small voice. “You were getting a little shelf over the summer, but now you have a six-pack,” she said desperately.
Fin gave her a cold stare. “A closed mouth gathers no feet, Hailey.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“No…” he sighed. “You’re just my cross to bear.” He hung his arm around her neck and knuckle rubbed her head.
“Ouch!” she laughed in relief.
“Come on, knucklehead,” he said, pointing across the parking lot. “There they are.”
“Oh, Declan, here they come,” Fin’s mother cried as the two approached. She raised her hand to her mouth, and his dad straightened up, tugging the hem of his coat.
“Pádraig,” he said with a single nod. In a business-like demeanor, he gave his son a firm handshake.
“Declan,” said Fin coldly.
Shoving herself between the two, his mother opened her arms wide and squeezed Fin tight. “So good to see you,” she said.
“You too, Meara,” he answered curtly.
Hailey stood by, smiling politely until Fin escaped his mother’s clutches and stepped back.
“Guys,” he said unenthusiastically, “you remember Hailey…”
“All grown up!” Meara gushed. She crushed Hailey in a giant mom-hug.
“Oof—I’m sorry, have we met?”
They both looked sort of familiar.
Meara released her to arm’s length, saying “Oh, but it was years ago. You were just little when we were neighbors—”
“—lived right next door,” Declan interjected.
“—until the fire,” said Meara. “Of course, after Pádraig pulled you girls out of the house—”
“What?” Hailey snapped, casting a flabbergasted look at Fin, who leaned back on his heels with his hands in his pockets and very intentionally but not very convincingly became suddenly captivated by a constellation in the sky.
“You didn’t know?” Meara looked with a blank face at her son, who bit the inside of his cheek and continued gazing skyward.
“Sure, even when he’s just a lad, he’s not afraid of them—so defiant. Well, he saw Adalwolf going for you girls, and he marched right into that house, hell-bent on a rescue, butthen, of course Adalwolf exploded, and…well, you know the rest.”
Fin tilted his head to the side and set his jaw.
