Her Festive Baby Bombshell

She sat down on the couch near him. “I hope you don’t mind that I ordered pizza for dinner.”

“That’s fine.” His voice was soft as though he was lost in thought.

“Tomorrow I’ll work on getting some food in the fridge.”

He didn’t say anything.

She glanced up at the large-screen television. She had to be honest, she didn’t know anything about hockey or for that matter any other sport, but she might need to if these babies were anything like their father.

“Who’s winning?”

He didn’t say anything.

What was wrong with him? Was he mad at her? She hoped not. Maybe he was just absorbed by the game. “Who’s winning?”

“What?”

“The score. What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

He didn’t know? Wasn’t he watching the game? But as she glanced at him, she noticed he was staring out the window at the snowy night. Okay, something was wrong and she couldn’t just let it fester. If he had changed his mind about her staying here, she wanted to know up front. She realized she came with a lot of baggage and if he wanted out, she couldn’t blame him.

She placed a hand on his arm. “Finn, talk to me.”

He glanced at her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Whatever’s bothering you?”

“Nothing’s bothering me.” He glanced away.

“You might have been able to tell me that a while back, but now that I know you, I don’t believe you. Something has been bothering you since we left my father’s. It’s my family, isn’t it?”

“What? No. Of course not.”

“Listen, I know those tickets are going to cost a fortune. I will pay you back.”

“No, you won’t. They are my gift. And so is your dress and whatever else you need for the ball.”

“But I couldn’t accept all of that. It... It’s too much.”

“The ball was my idea, not yours, so no arguments. Tomorrow we’ll go to this boutique I know of that should have something for you to wear. If not, we’ll keep looking.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Good. Don’t say anything. I just want you to enjoy yourself.”

“But how am I supposed to after tonight? I’m really sorry about my family. It’s complicated with them. I was less than cordial to my stepmother when she married my father. I blamed her for breaking up my parents’ marriage since he had an ongoing affair with her for a couple of years before he left my mother.”

Finn’s gaze met hers. “And your mother didn’t know?”

Holly shrugged. “She says she didn’t, but I don’t know how she couldn’t know. He was gone all the time. But maybe it was a case of she didn’t want to know so she didn’t look.”

“Sometimes we protect ourselves by only seeing as much as we can handle.”

“Maybe you’re right. But I think my mother’s happy now. I just want to keep her that way, because she did her best to be there for me and now it’s my turn to be there for her.”

“And you will be. I see how you stick by those you love.”

“You mean how I still go to my father’s house even though I’ll never be one of them?”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay. I realize this, but as much as they can grate on my nerves, I also know that for better or worse, they are my family. I just insist on taking them in small doses. And I’m so sorry I let you walk into that—I should have made it clearer to you—”

“It’s okay, Holly. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But you didn’t talk on the way home.”

“That had nothing to do with your family and everything to do with me and my poor judgment. I’m forever putting those I care about at risk.”

Wait. Where did that come from? “I don’t understand. You didn’t put me at risk.”

“Yes, I did. And it can’t happen again. We shouldn’t have been out on the roads tonight. We could have...”

“Could have what? Talk to me.”

He sighed. “Maybe if I tell you, you’ll understand why I don’t deserve to be happy.”