Hold Me Close (Ryker Falls #5) - Wendy Vella Page 0,73
hand she held out to him.
“I don’t like to talk about her.”
“I know, but if today proved anything to me, it’s that talking about things makes them have less hold over us.”
“It’s a bit different, Maggs.” He released her when they reached the kitchen. “You pour the wine, and I’ll dish up the food.”
She did as he asked, and he thought about her words when she took the glasses into the living area. He’d never spoken about his mother. Never even said her name. Should he?
Taking the plates into the living area, he found her seated on the floor before the fire, back pressed to a chair. She looked good in his cabin. It felt right seeing her here, but he kept that thought to himself too.
Chapter 30
He’d shocked her when he’d opened the shower door. That shock had soon turned to something else when he’d kissed her. He made her desperate. There was no other word for it. When he touched her, she simply forgot about everything but him.
“It’s a nice place to live,” Maggie said when Fin joined her. “I like your cabin.”
“Me too. I have plans in my head for what I want to build on the land.”
“Tell me about them?”
She ate Pearl’s casserole and listened, hearing the excitement in his voice.
“I like what I do, and I’d never leave that. But I want to have my own place. I want to run stock, grow trees and vegetables. I want to try out new energy sources and run off solar power.”
“I’ve always wanted a compost worm farm.”
“Really?” He lowered his plate, having cleaned it.
“Really. When I was in England, I worked with this guy, Sidney, and he was all about recycling and reusing. He repaired everything too, instead of just throwing things away. It made me start thinking about the way I live.”
“I’m the same. I used to waste so much food.” Getting to his feet, Fin took the plates to the kitchen and brought back the wine bottle. “I’m better now.”
He then lifted her and lowered her between his legs, so his back was now resting against the chair.
“You could ask, you know.”
“It’s better to take action with you; I learned that long ago.” He wrapped his arms around her, and Maggie lay back against him.
“Stop thinking.”
“I can’t help it. So much could go wrong with what we are doing, Fin.”
“Or right.” His chin rested on the top of her head. “Maybe we should play it out and see where it takes us.”
“As soon as the town sees us being anything but polite, there will be no way back.”
“I think they’ve already guessed. Miss Marla asked me if I was sweet on you earlier.”
Maggie moaned.
“So we may as well just explore whatever the hell this is and run with it.”
Could she?
“My mother wasn’t very stable,” he said quietly. “I remember some evenings we’d have the most elaborate meals she’d spent all day preparing. Five dishes of vegetables in sauces, meats and desserts. My sister and I thought it was cool. Our father didn’t. They’d argue, and I’d hear him say that they couldn’t afford to eat that way.”
He took her wineglass and a large swallow before handing it back.
“We just thought it normal. She’d be up one day, and down the next. The downs were bad. She’d go to bed and sleep.”
“Did she have medication?”
“Yes, but sometimes she refused to take it, saying she felt better. The problem with that was when she’d start to spiral down again.”
“What was your dad like growing up?”
“He worked.”
“All the time?” His tone told her he didn’t want to discuss his father, but Maggs wasn’t giving up.
“If he wasn’t working, he was tired.”
“He never read or played with you?”
Fin took a deep breath; she felt his chest move behind her.
“Yes, he did those things. I didn’t hate him then.”
“Why do you?”
He was silent for so long, she wasn’t sure he would tell her.
“My mother was paranoid sometimes. One day she followed him, and he met a woman. She saw him kiss her. The next day, I came home from high school and my mother had overdosed.”
“No. Oh, Fin, that’s terrible.” Maggs turned to face him. “You found her?”
He nodded, and she saw the pain of that day still haunted him. Straddling him, Maggs sat on his thighs, wrapping her arms around his body. He stiffened briefly, then held her in a fierce hug, burying his face in her neck.