Chapter 5
Chapter Five
F inn watched as Emi’s face twisted in a disappointed pinch when he didn’t immediately answer. His heart tugged, then squeezed again when she blinked up at him with her mama’s eyes and said, “Please?”
That changed his mind quick, because any man capable of disappointing her in regard to something as simple as a boat paddle didn’t qualify as a man.
He smiled as he nodded, tilting his head toward the lake.
Squealing, Emi grabbed her mama’s hand and then Finn’s and began to tug, her grunt of exertion loud as the small girl tried to move two full-grown adults. Well, one and a half, he countered silently, eyeing Mak’s petite frame.
Everyone smiled at the sight of Emi taking charge. Hudson grinned like a loon and said to have fun, and Sam glanced over at the two chairs set up in the shade near Harriet and said he’d be over there if Hud needed him.
“Come on, come on!” Emi tugged harder and another grunt sounded. “ Mommy !”
Finn took a step which meant Mak had to comply or be the stick in the mud. He sensed her reluctance and chalked it up to the fact she’d be stuck on a paddleboat with a man who couldn’t hold a conversation. Not exactly any woman’s idea of a good time.
Things would be awkward, but he doubted she could’ve said no to Emi, either, when the baby girl asked so nicely and was so excited.
Maybe the rental booth would be closed? Give them an excuse that didn’t leave either of them taking the hit for disappointing Emi?
He watched as Mak sent a glare at Sam’s smirking face and retreating figure, and she blushed when she saw Finn taking note.
Yeah, this wasn’t such a good idea… She obviously didn’t want to do this anymore than he did.
“Finn, you…really don’t have to,” Mak said in a low voice. “I can make an excuse for you if you’d rather not go.”
She would too. He had no doubt about that. And even though he told himself he should let her do just that, something made him keep walking behind Emi’s diminutive form as she tugged them in the direction she wanted to go.
Mak glanced up at Finn in time to see him shake his head no and walk a few more steps.
“Okay then,” Mak said. “I guess you’re going.”
He guessed he was. And he’d be lying if he said every glance down at the two ladies beside him didn’t make him wonder what it would be like if this was the norm.
A day at the lakeside market, a paddleboat ride and smiles and giggles galore from the little one holding two of his fingers because that’s all her hand could manage.
Emi hip-hop-skipped steps in between them, pausing whenever the walkway was crowded and they had to slow down to maneuver through the crowd three wide, like a family.
They got to the shed that served as a sales stand and while Mak looked down to unzip her purse, he quickly pulled out his wallet and handed the kid inside some cash.
Mak looked up in time to see the kid take it.
“Wait, no. You can’t do that. I’m paying for this. Especially since you were forced to join us.”
“Done,” Finn said, forcing the word out of his tight throat.
The D sound was thicker and drawn out, but the stutter wasn’t as obvious as the other night.
He added a look at Mak that made it clear he wasn’t going to argue about who was paying. This was his treat—and while Emi’s adorableness had wrung the decision out of him, he wasn’t being forced.
Mak and her daughter were a no-go for him for too many reasons to name, but he could give them time on the lake. It fell under being neighborly, since he doubted Sam was up for paddling, and correct that Mak probably wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals.
Mak murmured a thanks and put her wallet away, sliding him a glance as she zipped her purse. The attendant left the hut to get them lifejackets and indicated they were to follow him.
Finn watched as Mak helped Emi into hers and clicked the latches into place, making sure it fit properly despite her squirming, excited daughter bouncing up and down.
Mak straightened and turned, and since he’d decided to embrace the moment, he refused to hand over her jacket and instead held it for her. Once he slipped it over her shoulders, he heard her suck in a breath when he gently swiveled her round and his hands shifted to the first buckle.
“I can…”
The words had barely left her mouth before he had all three buckles fastened, tugging to make sure they were secure.
Mak stared up at him with her luminescent blue eyes, squinting a bit due to the bright sun overhead.
He’d never known anyone with eyes the color of hers, like light, bright laser beams that sucked him in every time he locked gazes with her.
“Mommy, you ready?”
Drawn out of the trance he’d found himself in, Finn turned and nodded toward the attendant and Mak’s bouncy daughter.
“You’re not wearing yours?” Emi asked.
Finn started to shake his head since he was a good swimmer and they’d never be too far from the edge of the lake but hesitated due to setting an example for Emi. He shrugged on the jacket and buckled the middle buckle, and then caught Mak’s slight sigh of relief.
Given the number of questions the child had asked so far, he figured the next on her list would’ve been why she had to wear a life jacket when he wasn’t.
“Thank you,” Mak said softly. “I’m sure you’re a good swimmer if you grew up around here, but Emi…”
Finn nodded, and seeing those gorgeous eyes of hers soften left him feeling protective as he wondered how many battles she’d had to face with her ex over something as simple as setting a good example for their kid.
The thought made him think of Alec and how much his eldest brother had to grow up after the accident. Instead of being eighteen with the world at his feet, he’d taken on fatherhood to all crying, mourning, messed-up eight of them. The thought nearly brought him to his knees due to the sheer weight of the pain and responsibility Alec must have felt.
An image came to mind, that of Alec holding Isla and bouncing her in his arms while ripping into them for joyriding in a golf cart that didn’t belong to them.
They hadn’t been caught, but that wasn’t the point. Had they been, it would’ve put the entire family in danger of being split up and taken by CPS. Why had they been so stupid? Risked so much for a stupid ride after everything they’d been through?
The thought left Finn reeling mentally there on the floating dock until the attendant shuffled by him on the narrow area to hold the paddleboat steady for Mak to climb aboard.
Finn moved closer and gently grabbed Emi’s hands while her mama got settled. The girl squealed with delight as he lifted her off the floating dock and carefully placed her directly onto the boat seat.
He looked at Mak and could’ve sworn he caught her staring at his arms before she averted her gaze. Her face changed color, though, and he didn’t think it had anything to do with the sun.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one who liked what he saw? But he reminded himself this was a one-off. A forced event due to Sam and Hudson’s meddling and Emi’s request for him to come along.
He’d had no choice but to say yes. Especially when Emi had her mama’s eyes, and her girlish giggles and grins had wrapped him around her tiny fingers.
Once Emi finally settled on the seat after her mama said they wouldn’t move until she did, Finn climbed aboard. The boat tipped quite a bit toward the left with his much-heavier weight, earning more squeals from Emi.
And the soft, husky chuckle that emerged from Mak? He wanted to hear that again, but for a whole other reason.
“Shift the handle in the direction you want to go with that lever, and use the knob to go forward or reverse,” the attendant said as if by rote. “You’re good for an hour’s rental.”
An hour?
He’d been in such a hurry to pay for the ride before Mak could argue about it that he hadn’t realized the kid had booked them for an hour.
How would they pass an entire hour without being able to carry on a conversation?
The attendant unhooked the paddleboat and used his foot to push them back from the platform. Finn started paddling and then chuckled when he noticed Mak was shoving down on the pedals with every turn but that she couldn’t reach them until they swung back up to meet her feet after a rotation.
Sam had been right to wonder how well they’d do on the water. Finn also figured it was old Sam’s way of saving face by not being the main person responsible for keeping the boat moving.
“Mommy, turtles!”
He glanced to where Emi pointed and saw the line of turtles sunning themselves atop a small log near a bank. Finn used the rudder to guide them closer so Emi could get a better look and listened while she carefully counted them and took pictures with the camera hanging from a lanyard around her neck.
Once Emi knew how many were there and realized they did nothing but sit there, he sensed the girl getting bored so they moved on, with Emi chattering to herself or the dragonflies or the fish they saw along the way.
“Finn, do you have a dog?” Emi asked suddenly.
Finn nodded with a glance at Emi. “M-m-max.”
He grimaced at the way the word emerged, cringing internally and avoiding eye contact with Mak, paddling faster out of frustration.
“Max’s Uncle Sam’s dog,” Emi corrected, her words followed by another giggle. “I wanna dog, but Mommy says no.”
“Dogs are a lot of work, sweetie,” Mak said. “And Max is our dog now.”
Finn paddled, still angry with himself because he couldn’t even answer a child’s question without the stupid stutter making an appearance.
But now that they were on the water and it was just them staring at the crowd and the tents set up around the lake, he felt even more self-conscious about being alone with Makayla.
Emi got quiet for all of two seconds. “Uncle Sam said Max likes to visit Harriet. I wanna go with him when he goes.”
“You can only go when I take you,” Mak quickly countered. “No wandering off on your own. Not again, remember?”
Finn noted that Emi tucked her chin a bit and wrinkled her nose in visible disgruntlement, leading Finn to think her mama might need to have another talk about roaming too far from her side.
Apparently Mak felt the same because Finn caught the worried expression that flashed across her face as she looked back at her baby girl.
He doubted Mak could see Emi’s expression since the girl sat directly behind her, but Emi’s crossed arms and pouty silence spoke volumes.
Finn inhaled and before he could stop himself, he stretched out a hand and grasped Mak’s, squeezing gently.
Mak’s gaze shot to his, and after a moment, she inhaled what appeared to be a steadying breath and nodded.
He released her hand and then shifted to tug on Emi’s hair. “Mom’s right,” he said slowly and carefully, stumbling over the M and on the r but keeping his tone stern despite the wide megawatt blue eyes staring up at him like a baby owl.
Emi seemed to come to terms with the rule, and after a few long seconds she went back to trying to see everything at once as they moved across the water with the repetitive thunk-thunk-thunk of the paddles beneath the boat.
The breeze shifted, and in the process his nose picked up the light scent of Mak’s perfume or body lotion. Or maybe it was just her.
She smelled like heaven. Like sugar and vanilla frosting and…everything a home should smell like the moment you walk inside. It made him think of comfort and peace. The kind that came with memories of his family—before the accident.
His hand clenched over the lever guiding them through the water because he thought about his empty house. It didn’t have a scent unless dirty laundry counted. And while it was his safe place, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel like something was missing.
Silence fell between them with Emi pointing out all the fish jumping out of the water, more turtle sightings, and a piece of trash too deep to retrieve.
They paddled and floated and lasted about forty minutes of their allotted hour before agreeing to head back to the dock when Emi said she was hungry.
“Did you have fun? What do you have to say to Mr. Finn since he paid for our boat ride?” Mak asked Emi as they bumped against the wood planks by the other boats.
“Thank you! It was fun. I can’t wait to tell Daddy. He always says no to doing it.”
Finn caught Mak’s barely contained a grimace.
“Your dad probably just didn’t have time that day, baby. There’s no need to say anything because you got to paddle today on our day out, right?”
Finn stiffened, and Mak looked up in time to see him studying her as he weighed her words. But had they hit wrong because she’d made an excuse and defended her ex—or that she’d basically told Emi not to mention their outing because she didn’t want to be associated with him?
It had happened before. Plenty of times.
Women liked how he looked but when he opened his mouth? Different story.
He and his brothers were fairly well-known in the area due to their many business ventures and charitable pursuits. Out of all of them, he was the one known to be a cranky recluse due to his inability to speak properly, and since it made so many people uncomfortable, they left him to it.
Did Mak not want her ex to know she’d spent time with him because he wasn’t someone she could be with? Be proud of? Was she like all the other women but too polite to say so?
And what did it matter if she was? It wasn’t like he was actually looking for someone. He’d given up on that a long time ago after all the failed attempts in the past and the curse of his speech. He knew the outcome because he’d already experienced it and reminded himself that this—today—was him being neighborly.
“Will you come to our picnic?” Emi asked Finn as she raised her arms for him to transfer her from the boat to the dock.
He lifted her up and off, taking in her impish grin. Once Emi was safely on shore, he noticed Mak struggled to stand in the gently rocking boat. And, even though he still questioned her choice of words, he extended a hand to help her off as well.
“Thanks. I think I have sea legs now,” she quipped.
“Mommy, make him come with us!”
Mak moved off the dock to dry land and turned to face him, looking a bit irritated at her daughter but wary as well.
“You are welcome to join us,” she said, shifting her gaze toward the vendor area. “We brought plenty of food.”
“Please, please, please?”
“Emi, don’t pressure him,” Mak said in a firm tone. “He’s here to work and might have other things to do, especially now we’ve taken up so much of his time today.”
Yeah, hint taken. He got it. Loud and crystal clear.
“Will you?” Emi asked determinedly.
Finn waited for Mak to make eye contact and then fought the pull of her beautiful blues. Emi waited expectantly, but he focused entirely on her mother and fought the punch of disappointment that she was proving to be like all the others. “I h-have w-work,” he said, biting back a curse when he stumbled worse than before due to his upset. And because Mak looked relieved by his excuse.
Yeah, she was definitely one of them.
Why wasn’t he surprised?