“I’m out here!” Her brother called from the back deck when she’d reached the kitchen.
Picking up her coffee, she headed to join him. Finch was sitting on the edge of the deck, looking out at the gardens. Every inch was covered in something: chickens, fruit trees, rows of vegetables and herbs.
“Bring it here if you want me to throw it, Sage,” he was saying to one of the dogs.
It obediently trotted up and spat the tennis ball at his feet. He picked it up and hurled it, which sent both dogs in pursuit. They barked and ran into each other in their excitement to reach it.
“Sit,” Finch said, his voice gruff.
He didn’t do well with emotion, which she guessed was possibly part of the reason he was good at his job. Finch had always loathed it when anyone in his family or friend group was hurt or crying.
She lowered herself onto the deck beside him. Her body had been feeling different lately, but she’d put it down to the changes in her life. Turned out, not so much—she was pregnant. How the hell was she meant to wrap her head around that? Further to that, what was she going to do about it?
“I get you lost your job because of those assfaces at your work. Still not happy you walked away without fighting, just FYI, but we’ll shelve that for later. Right now I want to know what else is going on with you.”
Blue had always been open with her family—well, at least when she was here in Lyntacky. They had no idea what she got up to in New York. Not that she was a rule breaker, but still, there were just some things you never told your siblings unless you wanted a lecture.
Turned out nothing was as bad as what she’d just learned.
“Blue, talk to me.” Finch angled so he was facing her now. Worry was etched in the lines of a face so familiar to her, she knew it better than her own.
“I don’t want to tell you,” she said softly.
“But you will.”
She sighed again.
“Say it fast, like we used to when we were kids.”
“I just found out—right now, in fact—that I’m pregnant.”
He clearly hadn’t been expecting that because his mouth fell open. Blue sipped her coffee. Was coffee okay to drink while pregnant?
“Breathe, Finch, before you pass out. I thought you army types were the tough ones,” Blue muttered.
“Who is the father?” were the first words out of his mouth.
She threw him a look that said exactly what she was thinking. No way in hell was she telling him that.
“Tell me, Blue Jay.”
“No.”
He then whistled slowly. “I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth until you were in a steady relationship and ready. Like me, your career always came first.”
“As you can imagine, I’m in shock too.”
He turned then, and they both stared out at the garden. Long minutes passed before Finch spoke again.
“I’m here for you in any capacity you need me to be. You know that, right?”
“Th-thank you.” Blue forced back the tears.
“How many months are you?”
Blue remembered vividly the day she’d slept with Jay Haddon because it was the day she’d also walked out on her job. “Fourteen weeks.”
“And you only realized that today? I mean?—”
