16. Finn
Finn
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH
I didn’t mean to be an asshat with Callie before the clinic.
I really didn’t.
Something about the way she was trying to sugar-coat things for Lex rubbed me the wrong way and I snapped. I was going to apologize before Brian walked in, but it wasn’t the right time. Now, while Callie’s being uncharacteristically quiet on the drive back to my place for lunch with Lexie, is probably better. Especially since she’s kind of stuck here next to me.
“How does the wrap feel?” I ask instead.
She snaps out of whatever daydream she was in. “Uh, fine, thank you. Yeah, Brian showed me how to make sure it’s not too tight or too loose. Just having it on is already helping.”
“Good, good. That’s good.”
The silence has now gone from mildly uncomfortable to thick and suffocating. At the stoplight, I rub the sweat of my palms onto my thighs and run my hand over my mouth in frustration.
“I’m sorry,” we both say to each other.
We exchange a quick look of surprise before the light turns green and I turn my attention back to the road. “Wait, what are you sorry about?” I ask.
“I wasn’t trying to undermine you or overstep earlier. With Lexie.”
“No, no, I know that wasn’t what you were doing. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you, I just get really defensive of anything Lex-related. That’s why I’m sorry. I need to loosen up, you were just trying to make her feel better.”
“I know, but it wasn’t my place to butt in. My mom was honest to a fault when I was a kid and it screwed me up. But I shouldn’t have projected that onto your family, that was…not cool.”
I don’t even know what to say to that. I want to ask her about her mom, but it doesn’t feel like a good idea. So I fall back on something safer. “You know what is cool?”
She gives me a confused look.
“I mean…you know what’s cooler than being cool?”
A knowing smile pulls on her lips.
“Come on,” I goad. “You know. What’s cooler than being cool?”
“You’re such a dad,” she giggles.
“I can’t hear you.”
That gets a full laugh out of her. “Oh my god.”
“Don’t leave me hanging, now.”
I chance a quick look her way and even though she’s staring out the passenger side window, I can see her trying to hide her smile behind her arm in the reflection.
I lightly poke her shoulder, and she jerks her hands to her mouth and yells, “Ice cold!”
“There it is!”
The relief of hearing her happy makes me want to grab her hand and kiss her. I grip the steering wheel to keep myself in check, and pull into my parents’ driveway.
“Stay there,” I instruct. “I’ll come around and help you.” I don’t wait for her to answer before hopping out and rushing around to the passenger’s side..
“I don’t know if we thought this all the way through,” she gives a sidelong glance to the long staircase leading up to my front door over the garage.
I help her out of the car. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t think I’ll be able to hop all the way up there, even with help—OH!”
Am I pleased with myself for scooping her up with zero effort, like she’s a small sack of sugar?
Yes. Yes I am.
Am I pleased with myself for the pink in her cheeks and the unsteady breathing she’s exhibiting in response to my breathtaking demonstration of manliness?
Again, yes.
“Oh my god, Miss Callie, are you all right?” Lexie rushes up when we walk in the door and takes inventory of Callie’s wrapped ankle.
Callie gives me the briefest of looks before smiling. “I have never known such pain.”
Lex surprises me and giggles. “You mean your ankle or driving with my dad?”
My daughter’s unwelcome quick wit gets a laugh out of Callie and a scowl out of me.
“Make yourself useful and get the couch set up for Miss Callie, all right?” I grumble as I help Callie sit down on the sofa. Luckily, it’s almost immediately to the left of the door since our space is pretty small. “She needs some pillows to prop up behind her back and some more underneath her leg to keep her foot elevated.”
“Can she use your special teddy bear?” Lex smirks.
Callie’s eyebrows shoot up.
To be clear: I do not have a teddy bear, special or otherwise.
Lexie makes a show of covering her mouth. “Oh no! Was I not supposed to say anything?”
“Alexis, that’s enough.”
“Don’t be embarrassed, Dad, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Then, to Callie, she stage-whispers, “He probably just doesn’t want to share, I’ll let you borrow one of my Squishmallows.”
I glare at my diabolical offspring. “Are you trying to get yourself grounded for the foreseeable future?”
Callie is trying not to laugh, bless her, but she’s not doing a good job hiding it.
Lex disappears into her room for pillows and I shuffle some cushions around to help my patient get more comfortable.
“Okay, be honest,” she grins.
“ I do not have a stuffed animal. I would be man enough to tell you if I did.”
“Not even an old raggedy one made from the material of your oversized sweatsuits?”
“Woman, I will carry your ass back home, my hand to Jericho Tufts!”
She throws her head back and lets out the most incredible laugh. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I promise I’ll be good.” She gently grabs my forearm, forcing me to make eye contact. “Thank you so much, Finn. I mean it.”
“God, you’re pretty,” I blurt out. Shit . “I mean, um, shit.” I should apologize except I’m not sorry I said it. And she doesn’t look uncomfortable. In fact, she starts moving her hand up my arm, like she’s trying to get me to lean over. Which obviously I do. Her lips are so close…
“Okay, I think I’ve got enough,” Lex’s voice is muffled behind a pile of pillows and Squishmallows. She unceremoniously dumps them in a heap on the floor and starts picking through them, oblivious to the eye-fucking I was just shamelessly engaging in. “Dad, go get us some pizza,” she orders.
I straighten up. “Um, want to try that again there?”
With a heavy sigh and a beleaguered eye roll, I’m graced with, “Father, dearest? Will you please—pretty please with sugar on top—go get us some pizza for lunch? I’m so dreadfully hungry. Aren’t you dreadfully hungry, Miss Callie?”
“Dreadfully,” Callie agrees. “I fear I might perish if I don’t eat soon.” For added effect, she drapes her arm over her face and falls back onto the cushions.
“All right, all right,” I smile. “I can’t have any expiring ladies in the house, I’ll go get pizza. Toppings?”
“Cheese,” Lex replies.
“Boring,” I answer. She sticks her tongue out at me, and I point to Callie. “You?”
“Pepperoni and black olives, please.”
Lex looks like she might dry heave. “No way.”
Callie looks equally appalled. “Have you never had pepperoni and black olives on your pizza?”
“Why would you ever put olives on anything?”
I stop Callie from an argument she’ll never win. “Don’t bother,” I warn. “She’s allergic to eating anything that remotely resembles a vegetable.”
Callie looks at my daughter with an appraising expression. “Hmm…we’ll see about that.”
Lex is already shaking her head and has made herself busy digging through her stuffed animals again.
I grab my keys. “All right, cheese and then pepperoni with black olives. Got it. Do you need anything before I head out?”
“God, Dad, just go already! I can help her if she needs anything, I’m starving!” Lex is on her way back to her room, as if there are any more plush toys to bring out.
“Thank you,” Callie smiles as I open the door. “And Finn?”
“Yeah?”
“I think you’re pretty, too,” she winks.
Despite the lunch rush being gone by the time I get to Wings it gives me some time to collect my thoughts that are all over the place.
I wish I could say that it helped, but honestly, I’m still just as confused about how to handle wanting to date my coworker.
Walking in the door of my apartment, I’m greeted with female laughter and the sight of Lexie dotting Callie’s cheeks with those stupid rhinestones. They both turn to me, the picture of bedazzled happiness, and all I can think is, my girls look magical.
My girl, I mean.
Singular.
Lex stands up and runs to wrap her arms tight around my waist. “Thanks for getting lunch, Dad.”
What’s this now? “Uh, yeah, no problem,” is all I manage to stutter out, on account of my brain going into full-on shock. Not that my kid is ungrateful or anything but I don’t think she’s ever thanked me for feeding her…it’s a pretty basic minimum parenting requirement. And if I hadn’t been staring at her as she walks back to sit in the living room, I would have missed the fist bump Callie gave her.
I try to keep my head from spinning like a top, grabbing plates and napkins before sitting down on the floor in front of the coffee table. I dish up two pieces for Callie when I see Lexie putting a slice of the pepperoni and black olive pizza on a plate.
“I’ve already got Miss Callie’s plate, Lex.”
“I know, this is mine,” she says casually. I snap my head to Callie, concerned that there might have been an invasion of the body snatchers situation that happened while I was gone. She refuses to make eye contact with me, instead keeping her gaze trained on my suddenly adventurous kid.
Lex stares at the slice like it might start growing arms and swing at her. But then, with a shrug and a “here goes,” she takes a bite and chews.
No one says a word. It’s like the fate of the world hangs in the balance of a tween eating something new.
She scrunches up her face and takes another nibble, still in contemplation. “I don’t think so,” she finally states. “Sorry, Miss Callie.”
“Hey, that just means more for me,” Callie exclaims and holds out her plate, happy to accept the barely-eaten piece. “But you tried it and now you know, right?”
“Right,” Lex says definitively before digging into her usual cheese.
“You, uh, okay there, Coach?” Callie asks me.
“What?”
“You’re staring, it’s kind of creepy.”
“Ugh, Dad, stop being creepy.”
“I’m not being creepy! I just…” The hardest part about kids this age is that it only takes one wrong move for me to ruin all the progress she just made in two bites. And I know it’s stupid to be so dumbfounded by something so simple.
Except it’s not. Lexie’s been a picky eater for as long as I can remember. From threats to bribery, nothing sways her.
I shake it off and try to focus on eating like a normal human man. But a quick glance towards the couch at the Greek goddess smiling at me—with a sprained ankle and a face full of sparkles—and I know she could convince me to do just about anything, too.