Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Understanding washed over Maisie. Of course they were Finn’s friends. That was why they were all looking at her with curiosity as clear as day.
“I’m Maisie King,” she said. “Although, you probably gathered that.”
Winnie laughed, and Maisie tried to return it, though she was still slightly unnerved by the three guys towering above her with focused intensity.
Clearly, she was on trial here. She had no idea what Finn had said about her, or if he’d even said anything beyond the fact that she was on his tour. But she did know how difficult it was to be accepted by another’s friends. To be accepted by Finn’s, she clearly needed to step up her game.
“You guys are the ones coming in for the run this weekend, right?” she asked.
The blond—Matthew, was it?—looked pleased. “That’s right.”
He draped his arm around Winnie’s. The two of them had to be dating.
“You’re welcome to join us, if you’d like,” the one Winnie had introduced as Cedric said. He smiled a charming grin, his brown hair thick and wavy, though she couldn’t pin where his accent was from.
“Oh, thanks, but I’m not much of a runner,” she replied.
“Neither is Matthew, but he still tries,” Cedric continued, jutting his thumb toward his friend. “Fails, but tries.”
Matthew ignored him. “So did Finn invite you here tonight?”
“No, I had no idea he’d be here. It was just a happy coincidence.”
“Or fate,” Cedric said.
“Definitely fate,” Graham—the final man—said in a thick Scottish accent.
Matthew folded his arms across his chest. “So are you two dating, then?”
Maisie blanched, her mouth remaining partially open, frozen to the spot.
“Oh my gosh, you guys,” Winnie jumped in. “You’re freaking her out. Were you this bad when you first met me ?”
“They were worse,” Matthew said. “Don’t you remember? Finn was the most awful of the lot. This is just payback.”
“But you’re taking it out on Maisie, not Finn,” Winnie pointed out.
Matthew paused. “Right.” He faced Maisie. “Sorry about that.”
Maisie gave a wave of her hand to say it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“You’ll have to forgive them,” Winnie said. “They’re all a little shellshocked. This is the first time they’ve ever seen Finn take a girl up there to sing.”
“And the first girl he’s texted about,” Cedric piped in.
“And basically the first girl of his we’ve ever met,” Graham said.
“Who Finn is dating?” Matthew added with a questioning gaze.
Winnie nudged Matthew into silence, and Maisie would have laughed, had she not been thoroughly occupied with her own thoughts.
Was what they were saying true? Had Finn been messaging about her? Had he never introduced them to another woman before?
No matter the answer to any of those questions, she had to clear up one thing first, if only to avoid Finn getting into trouble at his job.
“No, we’re not dating,” she clarified. “I’m just a girl on his bus tour.”
“That’s not what Finn was sayin’,” Cedric said with a knowing look.
“Okay, you guys seriously need to chill,” Winnie said, then she faced Maisie again with a shake of her head. “So you’re from the US, I hear?”
“Yep. North Dakota. I’m guessing you’re from the States, too?”
“New York,” she said with a nod. “Though technically, I live in England now.”
She glanced at Matthew, and the guy finally tore his suspicious gaze off Maisie to look at Winnie. Maisie could have sworn she saw his blue eyes shift to heart-shaped. The two were definitely dating.
Silence ensued, and Maisie chewed her lower lip. She needed to say something—bonus points if it was something impressive.
“Okay, so let me see if I can remember your names,” she said, pointing first to Winnie, then moving right to left. “Winnie, Matthew, Graham, and Cedric?”
“Very impressive,” Cedric said, flashing another grin.
This one was as charming as Finn.
“What would be impressive is if I could name where you’re all from,” she said.
“Have a go,” Matthew said.
“Well, I know Winnie is from the States. Matthew is from England?” Matthew nodded. “Graham is obviously Scottish. ”
“Obviously,” Graham repeated with a grin.
“And you…” She pointed at Cedric. “I have no idea.”
“Have a guess,” Cedric said, giving her a nod and a wink.
How did four attractive men from four different countries end up in the same group together—and how did Winnie win the jackpot by being included with them?
She hesitated. “Okay, you must have met at college in England,” she deduced. “But you definitely don’t sound like Matthew. So you could be from the…south of England?”
“No.”
He gave her nothing else.
“She’s not going to guess it because no one knows about your country, Ced,” Matthew joked.
Cedric frowned. “Because you lot are louder than all my country combined.”
“I don’t think the English have ever been accused of being too loud,” Matthew retorted.
As they argued, Winnie caught Maisie’s attention and mouthed out, “Wales.”
Maisie beamed. “Oh, I’ve got it! Wales!”
Cedric looked properly impressed. “Well done, you.”
Winnie looked away with innocence when Matthew stared at her, then she smiled conspiratorially at Maisie, who grinned in response.
Finn waited anxiously for the song to end as he watched his friends circle around Maisie like the vultures they were. He had to admit, he deserved this. He was always the one to ask uncomfortable questions to his mates’ girls—which was no doubt what they were doing to Maisie right now. Luckily Winnie would be there to ease a bit of the burden .
Still, the second the song wrapped up, he whipped around the stage to help his bandmates clean up their gear, had a quick bant about their next gig in a few weeks, then said goodbye before running toward Maisie and his friends.
To his relief, she was smiling and laughing as he approached, though her eyes brightened—and shone with a little relief—when she spotted him.
“There he is,” Cedric called out when he saw him next. “The man of the hour!”
“Alright, alright,” Finn said, pushing him aside to stand next to Maisie. “Give the poor woman room to breathe.” He looked at Maisie. “I hope they haven’t been treatin’ you poorly.”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
Their eyes fixed on each other for a moment, unspoken words filling the air between them. Singing with her had been a dream. One that he was still in—one that he was unwilling to wake up from.
“Good singin’ tonight,” Graham said to Finn, ripping his attention away.
“Thanks, mate.”
“I preferred Maisie’s,” Matthew inserted. “Less screechy.”
“How very English of you to say,” Finn retorted.
They shared a smile before the mic rang out around them, signaling the beginning of another band.
“Dart board’s free,” Cedric said, pointing to the other end of the bar. “Should we have a round?”
Finn looked down at Maisie. “You in?”
Maisie smiled, though hesitation clouded her eyes. He looked at his friends. “You all claim our spot there. I’ll be there in a second.”
The four of them nodded, walking away with a few smiles at Maisie before leaving them.
“Don’t feel any pressure,” he said the minute they were alone. “But I’d love for you to stay. ”
She looked over his shoulder to where his friends had reached the dart board. “I dunno. It’s getting kinda late.”
“Ach, aye. You probably have to get back to your hotel to knit some doilies or some other granny activity.”
She let out a laugh. “Fine. I guess I can stay for a little bit. But…” Once again, she hesitated. “I don’t want to get you into trouble with your work. You know better than I do what the rules are.”
Finn had figured that had been her reason for hesitating, but honestly, there wasn’t a single rule he could remember that specified him not being allowed to talk with a member of his tour while he chatted with friends at the same time in a public space.
Anyway, as he said before, he wasn’t ready to wake up from this dream yet.
“Chattin’ with a group of friends isn’t breakin’ any rules,” he reassured her. “Anyway, I’m not workin’ now. What I do on me own time is me own business—no one else’s.”
Maisie tipped her head to the side, her gaze focused on him. “What about when I asked you out? What’s the difference now?”
Finn didn’t have to think long about that one. After their time on the bridge, their chat at the causeway, and the moments he’d just spent with her on stage, he’d come to the realization that he’d be away in the head if he let this woman go without at least trying to see what could become of them.
This time next week, she’d be headed back to the States—but he’d also be free to pursue her. If he had to do that virtually before anything else, so be it. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was scare her off with his intentions, so he settled with a different reply.
“Technically speakin’,” he began, “you’re still part o’ me tour, even if I am off-duty for the weekend, so if we were on a date now—which we aren’t—the rules would still apply.”
She seemed to mull over his response.
“You didn’t know I’d be playin’ here tonight, did you?” he asked .
“No, not at all. The hotel receptionist recommended the pub. I didn’t even know you were in a band.”
“I’m just a total package, aren’t I?”
She laughed in response.
“The way I see it,” he continued, “if we just so happened to be in the same place at the same time, and we’re with a group o’ me friends, this can’t be called a date. We’re just havin’ a wee craic without breakin’ any rules.”
He could see the cogs turning in her head as she went over his reasoning.
Finally, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll stay. But only if you’re sure.”
Finn grinned. He’d never been more certain of anything in his life.
Of course, this meant he had to take extra care when he was officially on-duty again, but until then, he was going to enjoy his time with Maisie without those rules breathing down his neck—even if they were still peeping through his locked-tight windows.
Maisie followed him through the pub, then, reaching his group of friends as they greeted them with welcoming smiles.
These lads right here, they were everything to Finn. Like family, they were. To have them meet Maisie was important, if only because he wanted them all to know just how special she was.
The five of them decided on a round-robin tournament on the dart board, though Maisie confessed she’d never played before.
“Actually,” she said, “I’ve literally never even thrown a dart before.”
The group stared. “How is that even possible?” Matthew asked.
She shrugged. “We didn’t do much dart playing where I grew up.”
“That’s no problem, ’course,” Finn defended. He looked at the others. “Maisie here grew up on a farm?—”
“A ranch,” she interjected.
“A ranch,” Finn corrected without missing a beat. “So she’d probably beat us all in…” He leaned toward her, talking in a loud wh isper and pretending no one else could hear him. “What games did you play?”
“I used to run around and catch pigs,” she said with a shrug.
He looked down at her with a face that said, “Are you havin’ a laugh right now?”
But she nodded again. “I’m serious.”
“Alright,” he began, “Maisie, here, could beat us in any game of Pig Catch there ever was.”
They all shared a laugh as the game commenced. When it came to Maisie’s turn, she held the dart awkwardly in her hand, then launched it toward the dartboard. To everyone’s utter shock, she made it directly in the bull’s eye.
“Never threw a dart, she says,” Finn scoffed.
“I swear, I haven’t!” she said, in as much shock as the others.
Of course, the shot had been beginner’s luck, as the rest of the game, she played abysmally—which made Finn fall for her even more.
Each time she sent the dart flailing past the dart board and into the wall of the pub itself—which shockingly happened more often than not—she did a little gasp, covered her perfect lips with her long fingers, and looked at Finn with wide eyes.
He’d click his tongue in mock scolding, then help her remove the darts one-by-one.
To his delight, his friends were more than kind and welcoming to her, and he didn’t even care a lick when they sent subtle glances between him and Maisie, as if trying to deduce what was going on between them.
Let them stare. Let them guess and wonder and speculate. Because with the way Maisie was acting that evening, they could only conclude that she was a veritable star on earth.
Not only did she joke around with Finn and his friends, she also spoke comfortably one-on-one as much as she did in the whole group. She asked about each person’s home, family, jobs, everything, and her exchange with them all was so comfortable, it felt as if she’d been friends with them longer than Winnie had .
Eventually, the conversation shifted to Maisie herself, and she spoke of the restaurant she was planning to open with her aunt.
“So you chose to end a tour through Europe by going to Northern Ireland for soups and bread?” Matthew asked, pulling a face.
Finn took a shot at the dartboard, then leaned toward Matthew. “Notice how she didn’t even visit England? Just flew straight over your country entirely.”
“Absurd,” Matthew mumbled.
Finn finished his turn, then took his usual spot next to Maisie. “Did you eat at any noteworthy cafés today?”
“Not really,” she replied, leaning into him slightly to be heard above the other band still playing nearby. “I have a few more to go to tomorrow, so here’s hoping.” She raised crossed fingers.
Her long hair brushed against his forearm as she moved, and Finn suppressed the urge to stroke a lock of the silken tresses between his fingertips.
“So you’re spending the whole day going to restaurants and trying out their food?” Winnie asked beside them.
“Pretty much,” Maisie replied.
“That sounds amazing,” Winnie said wistfully. “I think I’d rather do that than run tomorrow.”
“I think anyone would rather do that than run,” Matthew piped in.
“Not me,” Cedric said, landing a dart near the center. “I love runnin’.”
Finn glanced sidelong at Maisie with a roll of his eyes, and she stifled a laugh behind her hand.
“I swear,” Winnie continued, “if it weren’t for the charity benefiting from this, there’s no way I would have signed up for it.”
“Hey,” Matthew said, pulling back with a dejected look, “I thought you signed up to be with me.”
Winnie reached over and kissed Matthew on the cheek. “I love you, Matthew. But not that much. ”
The group laughed.
“How does that make you feel, Matt?” Finn asked.
But Matthew merely shrugged. “It’s alright, isn’t it? Winnie shows me she loves me in other ways.”
He flashed her a wicked grin, and Winnie swatted him on his chest. He responded in turn by pulling her in for a kiss.
The men groaned, but Maisie smiled as she looked away from the couple.
“They’ve been inseparable since they started datin’ not two months past,” Finn explained.
“More like insufferable,” Graham said with a grimace.
Matthew finally pulled back from his kiss, and Winnie beamed from ear-to-ear.
“You only say that because your love life is lacking,” Matthew said, facing Graham. “Missing Pyper still?”
“Oh, yeah,” Graham said sarcastically, his Scottish accent thick. “I miss Pyper like I miss end-of-year exams at Eton.”
Finn once again leaned closer to Maisie to explain. Did he need to? No. But he wanted to help her feel welcome, as if she were “in” on their stories. That, and he really liked the smell of that strawberry scent in her hair.
“Graham and Pyper have hated each other since they were kids,” he explained. “I tell you, though, I think he’s secretly in love with her.”
Graham pulled on a look of disgust. “Never.”
Cedric moved to take another turn at the dartboard. “You just need someone else, Graham. Someone to help you forget how much you hate Pyper. That’s what I do. A palate cleanser of sorts.”
“Easy for you to say,” Graham returned. “You’ve got a million girls always after you.”
Cedric raised his arms to the side of him, motioning around. “I don’t right now.”
“They’re all back in England,” Finn said. “No one cares about Habergham over here.” He leaned near Maisie again. “Ced plays for a football team for England. He’s rich and famous.”
“Oh, please,” Cedric said with a bashful look, then he flashed a smile at Maisie. “But it’s true.”
She laughed again, and Finn’s heart took a little stumble at the sight of her gorgeous grin once more.
After another round with Maisie and Winnie both losing, the girls went to the toilets, leaving the men alone to finish up another go.
But it wasn’t two seconds that the girls were gone before the lads rounded on Finn.
“So…” Cedric began, motioning toward where Maisie had just left from.
“So, what?” Finn asked, playing dumb.
“You know what,” Matthew said. “Out with it.”
Finn was going to play it off more, but decided he’d rather give his friends the answers now than when Maisie returned.
He looked at her blonde hair disappearing through the crowds, then replied. “I don’t know, lads. But whatever this is between us, I’m goin’ to enjoy it while it lasts.”
That seemed to satisfy his mates enough for them to continue with their game, which was fine by Finn. He didn’t need to define anything. At least not to them.
Because he’d already made a conscious decision that evening. Once the tour was over, he was going to ensure Maisie King had a place in his life for good.