“Now that we’re past the jet lag, absolutely.”
Flynn saw the reverend out. When he got back to the kitchen, Kennedy had poured her own cup of coffee and was nibbling on a cookie.
“I’m glad I caught you while Pru was tied up. I wanted to talk to you.”
Flynn tensed. “Is this the part where you reef me for getting involved with your sister?”
“No. You’re both single, consenting adults. Given her history, you aren’t the kind of guy I’d have put her with. But it’s not my choice. Concerns about Pru’s emotional well being aside, I wouldn’t have a problem with this at all, if not for how it could impact Ari.”
“We’re doing everything we can to rectify that situation.”
“I know. I know you are. And I appreciate that more than I can say. But you’ve stuck this out for weeks now. You’ve endured the background checks and other invasions of your privacy. It wouldn’t be a shock at all if you realized that this was all more than you were prepared to deal with.”
Flynn narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you can break off this farce of an engagement no harm, no foul. The social worker isn’t going to hold that against Pru. Maybe the woman will think poorly of you, but you won’t be around for that to matter. Then things go back to exactly what they were meant to be, with Pru finishing the home study and adoption, and you can get back to your life.”
He stared at her. “That simple?”
Kennedy spread her hands. “That simple. You both panicked and overcomplicated the situation. But there’s no need for the charade.”
Because, of course, she couldn’t see it as anything more than that. She couldn’t imagine a circumstance where this was what he truly wanted. “So I’m just to walk away like everyone else in her life? I’m supposed to be the man who can do that, after promising I’d stand by her through all of this?”
“It was a promise made under extreme circumstances. She’ll understand.”
The genuine kindness and empathy in Kennedy’s expression had temper flaring. She honestly thought she was saving him here. “Fuck that. I’m not walking out on her. I’m not going to walk away from responsibility like her father did.”
Kennedy blinked. “She told you about him?”
“She did. And about your less than flattering comparison between us.”
Kennedy shook her head. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just worried about the situation. I know you went into this with the best of intentions, but you’re not really prepared to stay here for real, and I have to think about what that’s going to do to her, and to Ari when you’re gone.”
He didn’t know which part pissed him off more. That she didn’t seem to think he could find Pru important enough to stick for or that she legitimately thought he could take this escape clause she was offering with any kind of a clear conscience. “What if I am prepared to stay?”
“You’re not serious. You’ve never wanted to stay anywhere, ever.”
That had been true for more years than Flynn cared to admit. But didn’t a man have the right to change? Didn’t he deserve an opportunity to be more than what he’d been? To be different? “Maybe I want this. Did you ever think of that? Maybe it suits me. She suits me. I’ve slipped back into this life, and in some ways, it’s like I never left it. The good parts, the parts I’m good at, like seein’ to guests’ comfort and makin’ them feel at home. And not the bad parts, like feelin’ like I never had a choice about my own future.”
“Flynn, you left this life because you didn’t want it. You told me that yourself, time and time again.”
Was this what Pru felt, fighting to be something other than what her sisters had always believed her to be? This chafing of everyone’s expectations against her own desires? “Did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s different for me now, as a grown ass man, to make the choice?” That was, he realized, what had been missing when he was growing up. The ability to choose.
“I’m trying to give you the choice,” Kennedy insisted. “I’m trying to give you both a choice.”
He felt as if she were trying to take it away from him, as if she were trying to take Pru and Ari and the life they’d made off the board as viable options. It just made him want to hold on tighter. “Even if I wasn’t comin’ to realize that keepin’ an inn is just in my blood, your sister’s under my skin, and I’d choose her anyway. I’d choose her over anything else.”
Kennedy frowned, clearly not sure how to respond. “Flynn, I don’t think—”
“No, you’re not thinking. Not past the surface. You lived the gypsy life, and you know what it is to come home again. And you also know what it is to have no one believin’ in you that you’ll stay.”
“It’s not the same,” she insisted.
“Can’t you see that it is? I found home with her. With them both. The story of how we met may be lie, but the rest is God’s truth, and I’d thank you to have a little goddamn faith—in me and in her.”
Kennedy stared at him. “You’re in love with her.”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?” he demanded. When she only continued to stare, he raked a hand through his hair. “Did that possibility really never occur to you?”