He arched an eyebrow. ‘Worried it’ll fall down around your heads?’
Ronnie had the good grace to blush before she turned her attention to Fin. ‘Is there anything wrong with wanting to spend time with our children?’
Sweeney, who was still royally pissed off at her own mother, could afford to be more lenient with Fin’s. It was Connie who had started it, after all. ‘It sounds lovely, Rhonda. You know how much I love your pancakes.’
Ronnie beamed again at the compliment and Fin gave an eye roll, his gaze leaving Sweeney in no doubt that he thought she was a total suck-up.
‘I guess it will give us a chance to discuss things,’ he said grudgingly. ‘Like, what exactly you’ve told everyone aboutourengagement.’
‘Ooh, good idea.’ Ronnie sat forward a little. ‘We’ll need to get our stories straight.’
Fin shook his head at his mother, but Sweeney could see it was exasperation rather than anger. ‘I think you’re enjoying this too much.’
Ronnie shrugged. ‘If it helps, we kept things vague.’
‘Good.’ He nodded. ‘So, how long ago did this happen?’
‘A few weeks ago. A spontaneous proposal when you were in Hawaii together.’
Fin blinked. ‘Hawaii is vague?’
‘I saw a post on Sweeney’s Instagram about her being in Hawaii recently and it just…’
‘Popped out?’
‘It was logical,’ Ronnie said defensively.
‘And have we set a date yet?’ Sweeney asked.
‘Not yet. And you’re not in a hurry.’
‘How wise of us,’ Fin murmured derisively. ‘Did you say how, after thirty-two years of friendship, we suddenly ended up romantically involved?’
‘Just that you finally both woke up and realised you’d been in love all along.’
It was Sweeney’s turn to blink. Apart from a publicly clumsy kiss when they’d been twelve, and a definitely-not-clumsy-but-just-as-public kiss last night, she and Fin hadn’t ever thought of each other like that.
It was true, she did love Fin. But not likethat.
‘Oh, and Sweeney doesn’t have a ring because you wanted her to have your granny’s Claddagh ring.’
Ronnie reached for the fine gold necklace around her neck that displayed Grandma Murphy’s ring. Michael had worn it on his little finger after his mother’s death twelve years prior, and Ronnie had taken to wearing it on her chain after Michael’s death.
Sweeney shook her head. ‘Oh no, Rhonda… I couldn’t.’
‘Nonsense,’ Rhonda insisted as she whipped off her necklace. ‘Of course Fin would want his fiancée to have it.’
In the real world, Sweeney didn’t doubt that was probably true, but this was not the real world. In fact, she was beginning to think they’d entered a completely alternate reality.
Ronnie handed him the ring. ‘It’s only for a week.’
Sweeney watched as Fin stared at the ring sitting in his palm.
‘People will be expecting to see it,’ his mother reminded him gently as she, too, watched her son stare at the ring.
‘I guess,’ Fin said eventually. He glanced at Sweeney. ‘It’ll only cause more questions if it’s not on. You good with that?’
Feelingnot goodabout it but wanting to avoid as much town gossip as possible, Sweeney nodded. ‘Yeah… okay.’
