“Nice recap,Mom, except you left out the part where you and Declan just stood there and watched.”
Hailey just stood there, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, racking her brain to remember the face of the man—or boy or whatever—that pulled her and Holly out of the fire as an O’Shea family dysfunction ensued.
“You know very well the control Adalwolf exerted on us,” his father said forcefully.
“Funny,” said Fin without a hint of amusement, “you looked more scared than hypnotized to me, but…whatever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night. Let’s go Hailey,” he said, grabbing her hand roughly and pulling her along.
“Are you sure it’s safe for her there, Pádraig? With…you know…” his mother called out, and Fin stopped.
“She’s far safer there with him than she is near either of you.”
“Son, we haven’t had…an incident in years,” she pleaded.
“Well, hooray and good for you,” he answered sarcastically, and his mother rushed over to him.
“Take this, son.” She pressed a small object into Fin’s hand. “It’s a gift. From Theon.”
“Shacked up with another Envoy, have we?” said Fin, his voice laced with bitterness. “No thank you.” He tried to give the object back to his mother, but she stepped back, hands up.
“Just take it, son. Theon is good. He watches over you, and he said to carry it with you—said you’ll need that. We love you…” she added as Fin walked off.
“It was nice to see you,” Hailey called over her shoulder, and his mother waved sadly.
Rolling his eyes, Fin shoved the object into his pocket. Then he turned to Hailey.
“Come on, you’ll ride the bus with the team,” he said flatly, and Hailey struggled to keep up with his angry pace.
“Am I allowed?”
“I’m the captain, and I’m inviting you,” he said unequivocally. “Besides, you need an opportunity to tell the team how extraordinarily giant I am,” he said like a German bodybuilder.
Hailey let out a nervous laugh. “I think I’ll steer clear of subtle innuendo for the rest of my life. You’re lucky to have witnessed the one moment in history that I actually fit my whole foot into my mouth—”
He cut her off by holding his hand up. “Stop talking, Hailey. You’re a train wreck.”
“What? Why?”
He never answered.
When Fin climbed aboard the bus, the Yetis absolutely erupted. His team obviously adored him. They clobbered him with high-fives as he passed.
Hailey did her best to duck and cover behind him.
“Game puck!” shouted Sidney as he lobbed an object at Fin, who snagged it out of the air.
“Thanks, guys,” Fin said. He pointed Hailey to an empty seat.
“Here.” He handed her the puck and slid in next to her. “Little souvenir.”
“Wow, nobody’s ever given me a puck before,” she said, hugging it to her chest. That came out sounding sarcastic, but she felt genuinely honored. She couldn’t stop smiling.
“You’re welcome,” he said. He so enjoyed seeing her squirm and laughed out loud as the bus headed north.
“What did you think of the game?” he asked.
Hailey tapped the hockey puck as she formed her answer.
“Hockey looks like an angry ballet on ice.”
