Gritting his teeth, Sam jumped up anddown for a moment, loosening the muscles in his arms.He rocked hishead from side to side on his neck and took a few deep breaths inan attempt to relax.
“Hey, PrettyBoy.”
Sam briefly closed his eyes at thenickname and tried to ignore the man walking toward him.He focusedagain on his footwork as he pounded his fists in a steadysyncopated rhythm into the heavy bag before him and shuffledsideways so that he put his back toward the man still heading inhis direction.He should have known it would be a waste of time.Finn McGregor was not a man to be ignored.
“Aww, come on, Pretty, yougotta know that just turning your back on me is not going to work,”Finn said as he walked up to stand almost shoulder to shoulder withSam.“I cannot be ignored!I know all the words to ‘American Pie’,and I will stand here and sing it over and over again until youacknowledge me, and let me warn you, my singing voice is not mystrong point.In fact, it should come with a warninglabel.”
Sam stopped his punching and steppedback from the bag, breathing heavily, but that tight feelingbeneath his skin still very much there.“Christ, Finn, can’t youjust go away and annoy someone else?Surely you and Dev havesomething to argue about so that you can spend the afternoon makingup.”
“As enticing as thatsounds,” Finn answered as he moved to lean against the heavy bagand look up at Sam, “Dev is over at the new house build with Marceland Riley.I swear to God, he loves all this construction stuff.You know I found him looking at an online hardware store catalogthe other day and he was turned on.”
Sam grinned.“Bullshit.You’re makingthat up.”
“I swear on all that isholy that I am telling you nothing but the truth.The man threw meto the bed and put all that built-up sexual tension created bylooking at automatic nail guns to good use.Would I lie to you?”Finn’s eyes were wide, the picture of innocence, but there was adefinite twinkle of mischief in them.
“Yes, yes, you would.Especially if you thought I would believe it.”
Finn grinned unrepentantly.“Well,that is just something you are going to have to work out foryourself.Now that you’ve stopped beating the shit out of this oldbag, you wanna tell me what’s got you all riled up?”
Sam turned to walk over to the trunkof the tree that housed the heavy bag and leaned back against it ashe removed the gloves he wore.“Maybe I just want to burn off someof these extra pounds I’m piling on now that Marcel is all lovedthe fuck up and baking up a storm.”
Finn’s eyes narrowed, and he stared atSam in silence for a moment or two.“Boy, you have got to be theworst liar in Bravo team.Firstly, although Marcel is baking someamazingly calorific baked goods because of his current loved upstate, you haven’t gained a damn pound.In fact, you, Dev and Glennhaven’t gained a single pound whereas all I have to do is look at adamn choux pastry and I go up a damn belt notch.Secondly,” Finnstepped closer, and Sam had to fight the urge to look away, “I knowwhen a guy is fighting a war with himself.I have been there,bought the damn t-shirt, and starred in the HBO special asmyself.”
Sam took a deep breath, knowing thatFinn had indeed faced his own demons months ago when Bravo team hadcome to Redwood Falls.Dev and Finn had been lovers when hishomophobic grandmother ran him out of town, threatening Finn in theprocess.Eight years later, when Devon made it back to town, it wasto discover that Finn had been fighting his own war that entiretime a lot closer to home, at the hands of his abusivefather.
Devon had stepped in and brought Finn,his brother, Nate, and his mom to the farm to protect them, but toalso wage a campaign to win Finn back.It had taken them a while towork their way through the past, but they came out the other sidetogether and that was all that mattered.
“Demons from my past justrearing their ugly heads, Finn, that’s all,” Sam said quietly as heunwound the tape he’d wrapped around his knuckles.
Finn smiled gently back.“Yeah, I getthat.Hell, Sam, we’ve all got demons, but I think you know as wellas I do that they are better shared than bottled up withinyou.”
Sam exhaled, planting his gloved handson his hips.“I seem to remember saying something similar to younot long ago.”
Finn’s grin widened.“Where do youthink I got it from?Now, come on, spill.You’ve been coming outhere pounding on this bag a lot lately, and I want to knowwhy.”
If anyone would understand it would beFinn.Hell, if anything his father had been worse than Sam’s.“Mybrother was born with a series of medical problems that weredifficult to treat back then.Not least of which was leukemia.”Hesaw a flicker of compassion in Finn’s eyes.“My parents then madethe decision to have a second child.”The compassion was replacedquickly by confusion.
“You see, Finn, I wasconceived out of love, but not for me, or for the chance to haveanother child to love and spoil.My parents had me so that I couldprovide blood cells and bone marrow to help save Thomas.From thetime I was born I knew that my life was second toThomas’s.”
“Did Thomas live?”Finnasked quietly
Sam had undergone various proceduresto save his brother more than once.He had given blood, plasma,tissue, bone marrow and they were even talking about taking akidney to try to save his brother, but in the end, it hadn’t beenenough.
“No, the doctors say hepassed due to complications from his illnesses.My parents blamedme.”
Finn frowned.“That’s fucked up.Whatdo you think?”
Sam jolted in shock.No one had everasked him that before.“I think he simply gave up and embraceddeath.He did it for me as much as himself.”
He blinked back tears and stared atthe heavy bag he had been pounding on for the past thirty minutesand shook out arms that felt heavy.The heavy feeling in his chest,and the sensation that his skin was too tight for him that haddriven him out to the old oak tree behind the main house an hourearlier still lingered so he lifted his gloved hands and began hisworkout combinations again.
“Sounds to me,” Finn saidsoftly, “like your brother loved you very much, even if yourparents were assholes who couldn’t see a good thing when he wasstanding right in front of them.”
“Yeah.It’s just sometimeseasier to believe the bad stuff about yourself, you know?But I’mworking on changing that.”
Finn moved forward and placed a handon Sam’s shoulder, and he looked up to meet his friend’s eyes.“Youjust make sure you do.I know that you and Bravo team are closerthan family, but I feel like y’all are my family, too.”
Sam grinned and nodded.“You know wefeel the same way about you, too, Finn.But that doesn’t mean Iwon’t eventually make good on my promise and shoot you one day forletting that Pretty Boy nickname get out there.”
