Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
F inn stepped toward his tiny kitchen and switched on the overhead light.
He’d showered, thrown on a t-shirt and sweats.
Last night’s shift had been difficult, on top of the two before.
He wanted to make himself an omelette and sleep.
His time in the ER solidified his desire to work in Family Medicine.
He loved helping people, but he wanted the connection that came from seeing the same patients year after year.
He wanted to make a difference in their health and longevity, to prevent visits to the ER.
A knock on his apartment door forced him to change direction.
Thorne Finch stood outside with a canvas grocery bag in one hand. “Hey.”
There was no reason for Thorne to show up at Finn’s without a text or phone call. Why was he here now? Unless?—
A chill went through him. “Something wrong? Is Rose…is she okay?”
Thorne didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed his way into the apartment. Finn had no choice but to step aside.
Something was wrong. Finn shut the door behind him, raked a hand through his hair, and motioned to the couch. “Sit anywhere.”
Thorne looked around the room. The stacked boxes were hard to ignore. “What a shithole.”
Finn didn’t defend the state of his place. “Tell me. Is she okay?”
He shrugged one shoulder. He set his canvas bag on the trunk in the middle of the room. It made a heavy thump on the old wood. “Do you have coffee?”
Thorne didn’t wait for an answer. He found the kitchen himself. He returned, holding a steaming mug. Then headed to the nearby kitchen chairs and sat down backwards.
After a sip, he grimaced. “You need to buy better beans. These suck.”
Finn had no response. Why was he here?
Thorne drank a bit more. His expression gave away nothing. He grimaced, then motioned. “Sit down, Finn. Let’s talk about my sister.”
Like hell he was sitting down. Not till he knew what this was about. Never had he felt threatened by Rose’s brothers. He didn’t now. He leaned against the closest wall, folded his arms, and waited.
Thorne eyed him as if he were something to be torn apart. He’d always been bigger and stronger than Finn, the most aggressive player on their high school soccer team. He wore that scowl that had intimidated many a player way back.
He lifted the mug again as if he were toasting his refusal. “Fine. I got a question. You’re going to answer. No bullshit.”
Finn moved both his hands to his sides, thinking keeping them free might be smart.
“What are your plans related to my baby sister?”
“Plans? Baby sister?” He knew now that Rose wasn’t fully Thorne’s baby sister. Did they still call each other?—
Thorne seemed taken aback by his words. “Did she tell you—?” He broke off. “She did. She fucking told you.”
Finn gave a nod.
“Didn’t expect she’d want to see you, much less tell you anything, until you showed up at brunch.”
“We’ve talked. She told me the truth about her mother.” Thorne was the last person he wanted to talk to regarding Rose. He tended to get defensive about his sisters. Finn knew the man packed a mean punch. He’d witnessed it a few times back in school.
Thorne said, “She must trust you.”
“I believe so.” After what they’d shared, he hoped she felt more than trust.
“She also tell you we don’t give a fuck what a document says?”
Finn got his own cup of crap coffee and took a chair, figuring it was now safe to do so. “She left that out. She was…”
Thorne closed his eyes, anguish clear. “She was crying.”
“A little.”
“My baby sis never cries. The other two could open their own waterworks, but not Rose.”
Finn knew. He could count on his fingers the number of times he’d seen her cry. Most of them had been these past weeks.
Thorne looked at him directly. “I hate to see her cry.”
“So do I.”
“Then you’ll understand why I’m here. Your plans?”
Finn knew there was no right answer. He knew how he felt toward Rose. Pa was right to worry. He’d fallen for her again. It was possible he’d never stopped. He didn’t know how she felt about him, though.
Disapproval etched across Thorne’s face. “I see.”
“See what?” The need to defend himself rose alongside annoyance. It was a familiar feeling back when Thorne took his team captain role too seriously. He’d told them there was no space for losers on the trophy stage, to play their damn positions with everything they had.
There was no stage inside his apartment. As for plans, and Rose…
“It’s not your business, Thorne.”
His hands formed into fists. “After Brentwood, I made it my business.”
“Don’t compare me to that asshole.”
“I’ll ask again. Why do you keep coming back to town?”
“Pa asked me to get the house ready to sell.”
“Sure.” Thorne quirked one eyebrow, waiting.
“I’m not talking about her with you,” said Finn. “It’s Rose. She’s not just any girl.”
“She’s not, which is why I give a shit. I told you before—if you hurt her, I’ll break more than just your nose.”
“I said I would never hurt her.”
“You got one strike against you on that.”
He did. He and Rose had had that conversation. She wouldn’t have slept with him if she was still upset. “That’s between me and Rose.”
He eyed the bag sitting on the trunk. “Why are you here, Thorne?”
His unwanted guest smirked and slapped the side of the canvas bag. “I’m here to make things clear for you, one of those Christmas ghosts from the creepy Scrooge book we all had to read in school.” He pushed the bag towards him. “Take a look.”
Finn stood and peered in. It held multiple books. The top one had kids on the cover. “You brought me books?”
“I brought you Rose’s books. I suggest you read all of them.”
He knew she wrote books after their encounter in the bookstore. Learned at her family brunch that she wrote for children.
Finn pulled out the top book, read the title, then the author's name at the bottom. The Mystery of the Hidden Playground by Everson Briar .
She’d used her middle name. He then saw the smaller words at the bottom?—
Criminy Mysteries
She hadn’t…
Thorne’s smirk said it all. “I didn’t believe her, but I can tell by your face. You didn’t know what she wrote.”
Finn shook his head. He pulled out four more. All hardbacks.
“You need to read them.”
Finn could only nod. He’d find the time, between shifts and studying the latest writings assigned by the chief resident.
Thorne left soon after. Finn made his omelette. In between bites, he laid the books out on the old trunk on top of all his medical textbooks. They barely fit. All five hardbacks.
Criminy Mysteries
Had Rose really written these? Stupid question to ask himself when the evidence lay in front of him. But why?
He put his plate in the dishwasher, poured the remaining coffee into his mug, and nuked it. He scratched the back of his neck as he drank his bad coffee and studied the books, their covers. One had a fence on it.
The Mystery of the Hidden Playground.
He sat, placed his mug by his feet, and reached for the book.
The playground had been fenced all the way around with no gate. A couple of boards had been loose. Enough for them to slip through. He remembered holding onto the merry-go-round, running as fast as he could, then pulling himself on, spinning round and round alongside a toothless, grinning Rose.
His fingers stiffened as he opened the cover, turned the first two pages. And then swore.
For my best friend, a boy who once thought girls were disgusting.
Three hours later, he was halfway through the second book. Her words made him laugh.
The broken windows they hadn’t noticed until an older man walked by and accused them of breaking them. Phone calls had gone to his folks and Ms. Magnolia.
The two of them denied it, of course. Innocent until proven guilty. It’s what Rose always used with Ms. Magnolia. The two of them would never break a window. But they had to prove it. That had taken a bit of work since they’d both been grounded for a week after.
He finished the second and went to bed.
After his next shift and another round of sleep, he picked up the third.