Chapter 14
Were those tears he’d seen on her face as she left?
The question plagued him as he went home to change his coffee-soaked pants before driving to the Curtis house to meet Mac and the others.
Finn wouldn’t be sticking around to work on that job, but he was curious about it nonetheless.
Or he had been until he ran into Chloe—again—and took another wild ride on the emotional roller coaster.
How was it that they had lived on the same tiny island for two years and never saw each other, and now she was everywhere he looked, or so it seemed.
He felt like he’d known her forever. Had it really been only a few days since the guys talked him into getting his hair cut at her salon?
Was it possible for a life to change so dramatically in the span of a few days?
He wouldn’t have thought so until it happened to him.
The others were already there when Finn arrived, and he tried to shake off his dour mood as he joined them.
“Thought you weren’t sticking around for this one,” Shane said.
“I’m not, but I’m still curious.”
“Wish we could change your mind.” Luke sounded forlorn. “Won’t be the same without you and Riley busting each other’s balls all day long.”
“But it will be quieter,” Mac said, making them laugh.
“It’s good to know I’ll be missed.” Finn would miss them and their camaraderie. They did good work together and had fun, too. Thinking about not seeing them every day only added to the glum mood he’d fallen into after the latest encounter with Chloe.
Mac led them through the Gothic-style, three-story house that sat back from the craggy bluffs of the island’s west side. The inside was dark and dreary and badly in need of an update.
“Please tell me we’re doing a full gut,” Riley said, echoing Finn’s thoughts.
“Yep, but we’re going to try to preserve some of the original details, such as the stained-glass windows on the stairway and the molding.”
“The woodwork is incredible,” Luke said.
“It really is.” Mac pointed to built-in bookcases in what must’ve been a library. “They want to restore the woodwork in here.”
Finn ran a hand over one of the bookshelves. He loved doing restoration work that brought a building that had fallen into disrepair back to life. This one had a story to tell, and he couldn’t wait to see what the guys would do with it.
His cell phone rang, and he withdrew it from his pocket to see a call from a Connecticut number he didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Nice of you to finally answer your phone.”
Missy. Fuck. “I’m at work, and I asked you to leave me alone.”
“I don’t care where you are! You’re going to talk to me right now or—”
Finn ended the call, turned off the phone and put it back in his pocket.
“What the hell was that?” Riley asked.
“Nothing.” Finn realized his hands were shaking, so he stuffed them into the front pocket of his pullover sweatshirt.
Riley’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Finn. “Was that Missy again?”
“Maybe.”
“Bro, you need to call the cops.”
“I’m not calling the cops.” She’d give up when she figured out he wasn’t going to change his mind.
Mac came over to them. “What’s going on?”
“Tell him, Finn.”
Sighing, Finn said, “My ex is hassling me. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Hassling you how?”
Riley answered for him. “She’s blowing up his phone and screaming at him. I just heard the latest call.”
“Did you block her?” Mac asked.
“Yeah, but she’s calling me from other people’s phones. I thought it might be Clint calling about work, so I took the call.”
“Maybe you ought to mention it to Blaine,” Mac said. “Just in case.”
“In case of what?”
“In case it escalates.”
“It won’t. She’s pissed, but she’ll get over it.”
Riley crossed his arms and stared him down. “She booked a wedding venue, Finn. She’s not going to just get over it.”
Mac’s eyes bugged. “She did what?”
“She booked a wedding venue for next year,” Riley said.
“Jesus. Had you talked about getting married?”
“Not once, ever.”
“Sorry, man, but that’s fucked up.”
By now, Shane and Luke had joined them, the four men forming a circle around Finn.
“Sane people don’t book weddings when the other half of the relationship doesn’t know he’s getting married,” Luke said. “I don’t think you should just blow this off like it’s no big deal.”
“I agree,” Shane said. “You need to show your phone to Blaine, tell him what she did and said. See what he thinks.”
“I thought I heard Blaine was off-island.” Finn felt sick at the thought of reporting Missy to the cops. Had it really come to that?
“He’s back with his brother Deacon, who’s apparently going to be Gansett’s new harbor master,” Mac said. “I’ll go with you to talk to him.”
“Oh. Um. Okay.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Like right now?”
Mac stared at him without a hint of the usual humor he was known for. “Right fucking now.”
Finn swallowed hard and allowed his cousin to lead him out of the house. Everything about this felt wrong. He and Missy had been friends since high school, had dated on and off for five years before he moved to Gansett. Was he really about to turn her in to the cops for harassing him?
Mac gave him a gentle shove toward the passenger seat of his truck, and Finn got in, ceding to the cousin who’d never steered him wrong and who’d always had his back, from the time Finn had been a little kid hungry for the attention of the older cousins he’d adored.
If Mac said he needed to report it, he would report it.
As Mac started the truck, Riley jumped into the backseat, settling awkwardly between the car seats belonging to Mac’s kids.
They drove to the public safety building in tense silence.
“Turn your phone back on,” Mac said right before they pulled into the parking lot where Blaine’s department-issued SUV sat in the spot reserved for the chief.
Finn turned on the phone, and it went wild, beeping with texts and messages.
“She’s persistent,” Riley said. “You gotta give her that.”
“She’s harassing him,” Mac said. “Plain and simple. If a guy was doing that to a woman, it would be a big deal. It’s no less of a big deal because a woman is doing it to a guy. Harassment is harassment, and it’s not okay.”
After Mac parked, Finn got out of the truck and followed him inside, hoping he didn’t actually throw up.
Riley squeezed his shoulder, letting him know he was there, which Finn appreciated. This totally sucked, and he wanted nothing to do with it, but his cousin was right. Her behavior was not okay.
“It’s Mac and his identical twin baby cousins,” Blaine said, grinning when he saw them coming.
All their lives, Riley and Finn had heard about their startling resemblance to Mac and his brother Adam, so Blaine’s comment was nothing new.
“What’s up, boys?” Blaine stood next to a younger man who shared his sun-streaked brown hair, golden-brown eyes and muscular build but not his friendly disposition. The other guy, who Finn assumed was his brother, glowered at Blaine behind his back. Finn wondered what his deal was.
“Tell him, Finn,” Mac said in that no-nonsense tone that had put Finn on edge earlier. Usually, Mac was all about the nonsense.
“I told my ex at home that we were over for good, and she kind of lost it a little.”
“Not a little,” Riley said. “A lot. Show him the phone.”
Finn unlocked the phone and showed Blaine the texts and voicemails he’d received from Missy. “I haven’t read them all—”
“You probably should have.” Blaine’s expression grew serious as he scrolled through them. “‘If you’ve got someone else, you’d better let her know to watch her back. I’ll fucking stab her.’ That was the most recent one.”
Alarmed, Finn immediately thought of Chloe. “I’ve been seeing Chloe Dennis.”
“I’ll have patrol keep an eye on things at the salon, and I’ll give your friend a call and let her know what kinds of charges she might be looking at if she keeps up this behavior. Is this her number?”
“No, she borrowed someone’s phone to call me after I blocked her.” He found the number in his contacts. “This is her number.”
“Unblock the number. Let’s give her a call.”
“Right now?”
“You busy doing something else?”
Finn wished he was anywhere else on earth than about to sic a cop on Missy, but she’d brought this on herself. Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he could beat back the nausea. He unblocked her number, put through the call and handed the phone to Blaine, who put it on speaker.
“It’s about fucking time you called me back.”
“It’s not Finn.”
“Who is this?”
“Chief Blaine Taylor, Gansett Island Police Department. I’m here with Finn, who showed me the texts and messages you’ve left for him, and you may not be aware that the things you’ve said in your texts could result in charges. Felony charges.”
“Did he tell you what he did? Leading me on for years and then trying to dump me right before he comes home after I waited all this time for him?”
“Ma’am, we’re not talking about what he did. We’re talking about the threats you’ve made against him in texts and voicemails that would be admissible in court should Mr. McCarthy choose to press charges.”
“Mr. McCarthy can go fuck himself!”
“Shall I take that to mean he won’t hear from you again? Because if he does, I’m sure my friends at the Connecticut state police would be happy to pick you up and take you into custody as the kinds of threats you’ve made are taken very seriously by law enforcement.”
A loud click served as her answer.
“Nice young lady,” Blaine said, handing Finn’s phone back to him.
“Yeah,” Riley said, “she’s a real prize.”
“If you hear from her again,” Blaine said, “I want you to let me know right away. I’ll make good on calling in Connecticut state police.”
“I will. Thanks, Blaine.”
“Thanks a lot,” Mac added. “I appreciate the assist.”
“Happy to help any time. This is my brother, Deacon.” Pointing to them, he said, “Deacon, you know Mac. These are his cousins, Riley and Finn.”
Deacon shook hands with them. “How you doing?”
“Better now that my brother reported his crazy ex,” Riley said.
“So you’re taking the harbor master job?” Mac asked Deacon.
“That’s his big idea. I haven’t agreed to anything.”
Blaine glared at his brother, who glared right back at him. “He’s taking the job.”
“We’ll leave you to fight that out.” Mac led Riley and Finn out of the police station. “You hear from her again, you call Blaine, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I will. Thanks, Mac.”
“I know it’s hard to go to the cops about someone who has been a friend, but you did the right thing.”
Finn knew that was true, but it still made him sick to have to do it. “Don’t tell the dads, okay? I don’t need mine up my ass about this.”
“I won’t say anything,” Mac said.
“I won’t either,” Riley said.
Mac checked his watch. “This day is getting away from me. Maddie and I are going to the food bank fundraiser tonight, so I need to get back to the Curtis place to do some measuring so I can get the materials ordered.” They got into Mac’s truck and drove back to the Curtis house, where Finn had left his truck.
“I’ll give you a hand with the measuring,” Riley said.
“I’ll see you at the fundraiser.” Knowing his cousin would also be there cemented Finn’s determination to keep the “date” he’d made last night with Chloe. “I’ve got to get the house packed up and do a few other things this afternoon.”
“Nik and I are going to the fundraiser, too,” Riley said. “I’ll see you there.”
Finn wondered if Riley had just now decided to go so he and Nikki could keep an eye on him. “Sounds good.”
After he parted with Riley and Mac, he drove home with the window down, letting in some of the warm spring breeze blowing in off the sound, where the faint outline of sailboats competing in Race Week could be seen on the horizon.
Finn tried not to think about the ugliness with Missy, the despair over Chloe or anything other than going through the motions to prepare for the move back to Connecticut.
Although, with Missy losing her mind, he had reason now to wonder if moving home was still a good idea.
One thing he knew for sure was that after meeting Chloe, he couldn’t stay on Gansett and continue to run into her everywhere he went.
That was just too painful to endure long term.
For the first time in his adult life, Finn had no idea where he belonged.