Chapter 17 #2
“Yes, it is, and yes, he is.” She turned over to face him.
He pushed the hair back from her face, which was flushed. Her lips were swollen, and as she ran the tip of her tongue over them, he felt a new surge of lust. That couldn’t be healthy, but he’d never felt better.
“It’s okay if you need to go to work.”
“I can sit this one out. Finn will cover for me.”
“Will he ever let you hear the end of it?”
“Nope,” he said, leaning in to kiss those swollen lips. “But you’re absolutely worth the aggravation.”
“Yeah, so, Riley’s not feeling good,” Finn said to Mac. It took all his restraint not to mention the words “sex flu.”
“Great,” Mac said, scowling and obviously skeptical of Riley’s sudden “illness.” “Now we’re down two people. I’ll call in my dad and Ned. They’ll be thrilled to have an excuse to play in the snow.”
While Mac went to make his calls, Finn helped himself to the coffee his cousin had made behind the counter at the marina restaurant.
This place held so many memories for Finn.
Some of the best times of his life had been spent here with his larger-than-life uncle and the older cousins he’d idolized as a kid.
Those had been good times, but now was better.
Hanging out with his cousins as an adult, working with Mac and having the others close by made for a satisfying life.
He liked knowing Janey was around if he needed a female perspective.
The two of them had always been close, but this was the first time they’d ever lived near each other year-round.
Clint had made him and Riley a good offer. No doubt about that. He’d be crazy not to jump on it, especially since Clint was desperate and probably willing to make some other concessions. A company truck would be nice, among other things.
But when Finn thought about leaving before the Wayfarer was finished or not working next to Mac, Shane, Luke and Riley every day, Clint’s offer didn’t look quite as good.
Riley wasn’t going anywhere as long as Nikki was around.
Finn had never seen his brother so gone over a girl.
Riley was more of a short-term kind of guy, but this thing with Nikki had long-term written all over it.
His phone chimed with a text from Missy.
I’m snowed in and lonely. Wish you were here. When are you coming home?
Finn sighed as he read the message. She was nothing if not persistent. Not sure yet. Might be here for a while.
She replied with a pout face emoji. Can I come visit?
It’s not the best time. We’re working long hours on a big new job. I wouldn’t get to see you very much. And it’s freezing here.
I miss you and I love you. I don’t know what to do.
We agreed to see other people...
Do you have someone else? Is that what’s going on??
No! I’m not seeing anyone. All I do is work and sleep. Speaking of work, I’ve got to go plow snow. Can we talk later?
Yeah, I guess.
As Finn stashed the phone in his back pocket, his uncle Mac walked in with Ned Saunders, both of them appearing delighted to have been called in to help.
They must’ve been together up the hill at Big Mac’s when Mac called them.
Finn wished he shared even a fraction of their enthusiasm. He hated plowing snow.
Big Mac came bearing gifts—a huge tray of doughnuts Auntie Linda had made for the men.
Finn began to actively drool at the sight of them.
Those doughnuts had been a cornerstone of his childhood, and the smell of them could take him back to perfect summer days, working the docks with his uncle, crabbing, Wiffle ball and doughnuts—as many as he could consume in a day without making himself sick.
To this day, the smell of sunscreen and fried dough took him right back to those blissful days.
He grabbed two off the tray and went to fill his to-go mug with coffee. You couldn’t have doughnuts without coffee.
“All right, everyone,” Mac said. “Listen up.” He handed out assignments to his father, Ned, Finn and Luke.
When Frank and Kevin arrived, they were greeted with rousing applause and teasing abuse.
“Desperate times must truly call for desperate measures if we need a shrink and a judge to plow snow,” Finn said, earning a cuff to the head from his father and then one from his uncle.
“Where’s your brother?” Kevin asked over a mouthful of doughnut.
“He’s ‘sick,’” Finn said, making air quotes with fingers covered in sugar.
“Is he now? What’re his symptoms?”
Lowering his voice, Finn said, “I believe it’s lack of sleep from an overabundance of sex, but don’t quote me on that.”
“Well, good for him,” Kevin said, grinning.
“If you say so.”
“You’re not happy for him?”
“Of course I am. I just hope he isn’t getting into something that’s going to leave him crushed if she takes off again.”
“True, but she seems equally into him.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
“Let’s go, boys,” Mac said. “We need to get this island up and running.”
“When do the ferries start up again?” Luke asked.
“Joe said they’re hoping for later this afternoon when the wind dies down,” Mac said.
The reminder that the ferries were shut down and there was no way off the island made Finn feel itchy and confined in a way he hardly ever had since he’d moved to Gansett.
It was a weird feeling to know he couldn’t leave, even if he wanted to, which he didn’t.
But still… weird. Island life wasn’t for everyone, but he’d taken to it rather swimmingly. No pun intended.
During the long lonely night with the wind howling and the snow piling up, he’d thought about Clint’s offer to come back to work for him in Connecticut for twice what he was making now, and Missy’s pleading requests that he come home to her.
As he got into his truck and secured his coffee mug in the cup holder, Finn had to admit he was tempted.
However, something was stopping him from jumping at Clint’s offer.
Perhaps it was Missy and knowing she wanted him to come home that had him hesitating.
Their relationship had been a roller coaster of ups and downs.
More downs than ups, if he was being honest. While he had genuine feelings for her and definitely missed her, he wasn’t sure he wanted to revisit that situation.
He wasn’t sure what he wanted, and the mental debate of should I stay or should I go was getting exhausting.
Did he honestly want to put down roots on the island and stay forever?
Would he wake up ten years from now and realize he’d missed out on a number of opportunities by settling for a “safe” job working for his cousin in a place where he was surrounded by family members?
Or would he be better off going back to the mainland for a few years and maybe return to the island after he got married? Gansett would be a good place to raise kids someday—someday far off in the distant future.
For now, he decided, he would stay put. He’d like to see the renovations to the Wayfarer through to the finish since that was a family effort he wanted to be part of.
When that was finished, he’d see where things stood with Clint and the job offer in Connecticut.
Missy wouldn’t be happy, but after a year and a half, what was a few more months on the island?
The third reason to stay was to keep an eye on Riley, who was off the rails over a woman for the first time ever.
Finn worried about Nikki’s troubled sister crooking her finger and Nikki running to bail her out of yet another scrape. If or when that happened, Finn would be there to deal with Riley.
In the meantime, Finn dropped his plow and went to work. The snow wasn’t going away on its own.