June 2025 #2
“Aaron, of course, is having something delivered, who knows what, and Hannah had her people come in and set up, and then they’ll be back to take all the plates, glasses, and silverware away after the party.”
“Hannah has people?”
“She does. She pays them out of her own pocket for something personal, and apparently everyone wants that gig because she’s a very big tipper.”
He groaned and shook his head and stepped into our closet. “I prefer to come home and veg with you over pizza on Friday nights.”
“Which is very sweet, but your son has requested us at his home, so I for one will not disappoint him.”
Instant glare. “Again, I would never willingly disappoint my son.”
I smiled at him. “I do know that.”
His eyes narrowed. “You think you’re so clever.”
“Only where you’re concerned,” I teased him, reaching up, slipping my hand around the side of his neck to gently ease him down to me.
He bent and kissed me, and it was only because it was one of our kids that we didn’t call and say we couldn’t make it. Something about how he held me and how hard I pressed against him made us both breathless when we stepped apart.
I stared at him, and he stared back for a moment, before he pulled me back to him and kissed me long and hard. I was so lost in kissing him that when he ended it, I moaned loudly.
He was panting.
“That was unexpected,” I barely got out.
“Yeah,” he husked, his gaze holding mine. “And I’m thankful that being close to me still has that effect on you.”
And so was I.
There were a lot more people than I expected, and the kids had the door open so everyone could come in and out. Finn’s parents were very happy to see us, as we were them, but I noted that Finn’s mother and his aunts seemed a bit put off by Hannah directing everyone.
Sam was immediately sort of engulfed by Finn’s father, Finn’s brothers, and more men who had to be related to him.
One of them, Conor, was the guy in the video at St. Patrick’s Day who was outed for the three—I think it was three—women he was sleeping with.
There was a very attractive woman on his arm who looked about Hannah’s age.
But because it was none of my business, I stayed in my lane.
Finn had a lot of cousins there as well, and I want to say three of them were talking to him when I walked by, and they were doing that thing where they hit him and pretended they were playing, shoving him harder than was necessary, and because I always hated people who played rough on purpose, I was going to go say something when I noted that Jake was on his way.
What everyone forgets about Jake is that he’s not the whole wall of muscle that Harper’s boyfriend, Wick, is, and he’s not trained like Finn, or stealthy like Harper, who you think is all nice until he hits you so hard you can’t breathe.
Kola, who is not the Tae Kwon Do master his sister is, is still trained, and that, accompanied by his understanding of anatomy, has suddenly made my son a bit spookier than he used to be.
But no one ever looks at Jake and thinks they should be wary.
I have a theory that it’s his affability.
Jake is, generally, the one in the group that everyone likes right off.
You don’t look at him and think he’d give you any trouble.
But he’s six-one, covered in muscle, and he has very quick reflexes.
I also think, because he can be a bit of a klutz sometimes—and as the founding member of the group, I know of what I speak—that Jake is not someone people look at and think yeah, he could hurt me.
So when Jake went to get Finn, he walked up to the group of three men and kept going, shouldering his way in, sending each of them in a different direction.
“What the hell are you doing, man?” the first guy yelled as he splashed beer on the front of his shirt and shoes.
“Are you kidding?” the second guy groused as he bounced off another guy, one of Finn’s friends from work, who deftly rolled him over the arm of the couch, and he ended up on the floor. I think the guy’s name was Lawrence, but I wasn’t positive.
The third guy tried shoving Jake back, but Finn told him it was an accident, and he ended up plastered to a wall, face-first, and from the groan where he kind of splatted, I was thinking that his guy parts somehow ended up smacking the wall.
“What were you doing?” Finn asked, smiling at Jake.
“Your family should always be good to you,” Jake replied, squeezing his shoulder.
“That hasn’t been my experience,” Finn apprised him solemnly.
“Well, don’t worry,” Jake said with a nod. “You’re part of Kola’s family now, and that’s how we do things.”
It was good to hear.
Hannah was directing in the kitchen, and I saw Finn’s mother, and one of his aunts, watching her and shaking their heads. As I never liked to see that, I walked over, taking both of them a glass of champagne.
“Oh, Jory, how thoughtful of you,” Anne stated, taking the glass. “Did you meet my friend Isabelle? She’s been in Finn’s life even more than some of Eammon’s and my family.”
“I haven’t had the pleasure,” I told her, offering my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“And you, Jory,” she said with a grin. “Now tell me, is it you who taught your daughter to be so bossy?”
I bristled, but I kept smiling. “Actually, I’m fairly certain she was born that way, and I’ve always liked it.”
Isabelle reached out and took hold of my arm.
“Me too,” she divulged, leaning forward, lowering her voice.
“I was watching some of Eammon’s relatives try and not listen to what she was saying about ‘you eat, you do it in the dining room, but God help you if you spill on my rug,’ and I thought oh, you tell them, girl. Bunch of ingrates, I tell you.”
I glanced at Anne, who had a hand pressed to her forehead, and then back at Isabelle.
“I know you heard about St. Patrick’s Day, as your darling son took video.” She cackled then, and Anne swatted her on the arm. “And look, did you see that Conor has a new friend? He’s not even divorced yet.”
I didn’t say a word.
“Not that being married has stopped him before.” Isabelle cackled.
“Izzy!” Anne shook her head.
“Stop,” she ordered Anne. “You and this man are going to be related through family, and I’m telling you right now, if Hannah wasn’t going to marry that sweet Jacob, I would tell either Grady or Caden to see if they might turn her head.”
Anne put a hand on my wrist. “I’m sorry about her.”
“Don’t be,” I said, smiling at Isabelle. “I love people who speak their mind.”
“You see?” Isabelle asserted haughtily. “Everyone likes me but your husband, his dear dead sainted mother, and his brother, Conor.”
I smiled at Anne. “Sainted mother?”
“Please forget she’s even talking right now,” Anne pleaded, looking like she wanted to die.
“Anne was never good enough for Eammon, even though by rights Anne should have never glanced at the man twice. He’s nice to look at, but that’s all.”
I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh.
“Oh God, take me now,” Anne begged, looking up.
“She had been engaged to a charming man, Niall Coburn, and not only did he cut a striking figure, but he was also a lawyer.”
I was enjoying this so much, but I took hold of Anne’s hand, and she squeezed back for strength. Clearly, this was a familiar rant.
“Now, do I think lawyers are better than men who have blue-collar jobs? No, I do not. But I can promise you that Niall was the whole package, and he’s aged well,” she said, giving me a pointed look.
“He married our friend Miranda—well, she was our friend, not anymore—and they have three lovely girls.”
“Jory doesn’t want to hear any of––”
“But I can promise you if she had married Niall, that he would not have had an issue with his daughter marrying a woman. And do you know how I know? Because his middle child did marry a woman last year, and the pictures on Facebook were lovely.”
But I got hung up on Niall not caring if his daughter married a woman. I turned to look at Anne. “Is Eammon having trouble with Finn being engaged to my son?”
She squeezed my hand. “No.”
“Yes,” Isabelle insisted.
Anne let me go and then gave all her focus to her friend. “You know it’s not that black and white.”
Isabelle thought a moment, squinting. “That’s probably true. It’s more that he has a specific idea in his mind of how all of his sons’ lives should look.”
“Yes,” Anne agreed, exhaling sharply. “He just wants Finn to have all the things he has.”
“You mean the things I have?” I asked her.
Deep sigh from her then. “Yes, but—it’s different.”
“How so?”
“It’s not anything you’re thinking,” she assured me.
“I think it is,” Aja said in that warm, mellifluous voice of hers as she stepped in beside me and slipped her arm through mine. “Your husband wants his son to have a wife.”
“He––”
“Which is his right,” Aja soothed her. “In this time, in this climate—my goodness, we’re all scared and worried, aren’t we?
Things get more crazy by the day. I mean, there was a time not too long ago when my husband and I couldn’t be married.
I’m so fortunate that there were people who came before me who fought so we could be together and have our precious, albeit annoying, children,” she said with that smile that made her eyes glow.
“So it’s all right that Finn’s father would prefer if he married a woman, but I suspect, if he desires to stay on good terms with his son, then what he’s doing now is ill advised. ”
“Oh dear God, what is he doing?” Anne rushed out.
Aja tipped her head toward the door, and there was Eammon and Caden, his middle child, standing with a beautiful young woman with gorgeous auburn hair, bright green eyes, dressed like she’d stepped out of a windswept beach town romance novel.
“What a stunning young woman,” I said to Anne.
“Is that Moira Callahan?” Isabelle asked.
“It is.” Anne sounded despondent.
“I thought she moved to Pittsburgh to go to grad school to become an architect.”