Finn (Blue-Collar Billionaires 2)

“She’s in the hospital right now.”

That gets her attention. She stops her buffing and looks over her shoulder at me. “I’m sorry. Claire was always so sweet. Is she going to be okay?"

"I honestly don't know. She has a particularly aggressive type of cancer. We've flown in specialists and we're trying to find something that will help her. Something that will keep it from spreading. But I honestly don't know."

She's watching me closely. Her eyes on me feel like a balm to nerves that are suddenly raw. "I really hope you find something that will help her."

"Yeah, me too."

"What about your brother? Is Tank still around?” Suddenly she pauses and leans against the couch for a moment. Her eyes close and only then do I notice the shadows beneath. I recognize the signs of exhaustion. I see them everyday in the mirror.

"Rissa?"

She opens her eyes immediately and starts moving again. "Yes?"

"Did you eat this morning?"

She shakes her head. "No, I didn't have time to stop for anything. But I ate last night when I got home. That wasn't that long ago."

I narrow my eyes at her. "How was that not that long ago? Unless you ate in the middle of the night?"

"Well, yeah. I usually get home a little after midnight and eat before I go to bed."

"Midnight? Late night partying?"

She gives me a disgusted look. "Working. Do you seriously think taking care of you is my only job?"

Due to the extensive research Patrick Stevens did on her business, I'm well aware of how many other clients she has. Not that I want her to know that. So I hadn't thought I was her only job but I had thought that once I hired her, she'd assign her previous work to someone else.

"Wait so you’re cleaning my place until noon and then what, you go to another cleaning job in the evenings. Which means you get home late every night? When do you sleep?"

“Sleep is optional at this time in my life. Paying my bills isn’t.” Suddenly she bolts straight up. Then holds up a black thong with the tips of her gloved fingers.

“Are these yours?”

Oh hell. I actually forgot I left those there for her to find. Suddenly my plans seem petty and juvenile, especially in light of what we were just talking about. But then I remember watching her walk away and into Andrew Carrington's arms.

She didn't just hurt me when she gave me my ring back. She crushed my pride by making me watch her with the guy who taunted me for being trailer trash. The guy who'd looked down on us both at one time. Before she grew up and he noticed how beautiful she was.

So I shrug, as if finding some random woman’s thong in my couch is an everyday occurrence. Then I smile knowing it’ll just piss her off.

“Well, in that case I won’t bother saving them.” She shoves them deep into the trash bag at her side and resumes looking through the cushions. She pulls out a condom wrapper and tosses it in the trash bag as well. There’s no mean looks or snide remarks but I can feel her shutting down the longer the silence stretches on.

I feel the loss of the connection acutely. For a moment, it felt the way things used to feel between us. Easy. Like we could talk about anything. It’s the kind of thing you take for granted until it’s gone. Until you spend years having unimportant conversations with people who don’t matter and remember what it was like to have someone who really heard you.

"Rissa. You should eat something. You know you get migraines when you don't eat."

She shoves something else into the trash bag. "I'm fine, Finn. You don't need to worry about me. I'm not your responsibility."

I open my mouth to say something. I’m not even sure what, but before I can get it out, the sound of the vacuum drowns out anything else I might have wanted to say.

Rissa doesn’t look my way again.

* * * * *

“Hello? Finn, are you here?”

My eyes open at the sound of her voice. Confused, I turn to look at the time. After Rissa left, I went to visit Mom and then came back home to take a hot bath. My leg was aching so took a few pain pills and let the jets in my soaker tub work their magic. I look down at my state of undress. I hadn’t bothered putting clothes back on rather had just pulled on a pair of boxers and settled in the chair to watch a little television. I must have fallen asleep.