The doorbell rang, and Georgia left to go see who it was. We were still talking and laughing as we pushed to our feet to start clearing the plates.
“Umm, Reese. Carl is here to see you. He’s in the front entryway.”
What the fuck?
This guy had some nerve.
“How did he get through the gate?” Maddox hissed, arms crossed over his chest as he pulled out his phone to check the camera.
“I left the gate open while everyone was arriving.” Georgia shrugged. “I must have forgotten to close it.”
“I’ve got it. Thank you,” Reese said as she glanced over at me.
“We’ve got it,” I said, my voice firm. This guy thought he could crash Thanksgiving because he was now single?
Not a fucking chance.
“You don’t have to do this,” Reese whispered as she looked up at me. “I can ask him to leave.”
“You shouldn’t have to.” I intertwined my fingers with hers, and we walked down the hallway toward the entrance.
Dr. Dipweasal stood in the foyer, holding a giant bouquet of flowers, looking unusually disheveled. His shirt was untucked, and his eyes were bloodshot. My family was in the bar business, so I could spot an intoxicated person a mile away.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, dropping Reese’s hand as I moved in front of her. “You come to my sister’s house with flowers for my girlfriend on Thanksgiving?”
Carl looked between Reese and me, and he cleared his throat. “Reese and I usually spend Thanksgiving together.”
“Really? Were you with her last year when you cut her off for moving to London? And now you break up with your girlfriend less than twenty-four hours ago and you think you have a right to come here and disrupt our dinner?”
He glared at me, holding his chin high. “Reese, do you think you could step outside and speak to me for a minute?”
It was the moment of truth. Was she going to side with this guy like she always had? I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.
“Carl, you shouldn’t have come here. Are you drunk?”
“I’m a mess. I’m lost without you. So yeah, I had dinner with my family, and I drank a lot. And here I am.”
“You need to leave.” She shook her head. “How did you get here?”
“I took an Uber, but he left. I was kind of hoping you’d give me a ride home.”
That was it for me. He’d thought my girlfriend was going to leave with him?
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” I stormed toward him, pushing him up against the door.
“I can handle this!” Reese shouted, and I could hear the quake in her voice.
“Finn, he’s drunk. Not a fair fight, brother,” Hugh said, his voice coming from behind me.
“We’ll give you a ride home,” my father said, as he and Cage stepped up beside Hugh.
“Reese, can we talk first?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I hissed.
“For fuck’s sake,” Cage said. “Take the ride before you get a fist to the face. And after my brother strikes, there are a lot more of us standing behind him. Don’t push your luck. You’re lucky we’re offering you a ride.”
My father held up his keys and clapped me on the shoulder. “Go have some pie. We’ll be back shortly.”
Hugh, Cage, and my dad escorted Carl out of the house, and I turned to see Reese standing there with a tear running down her cheek.
As far as I was concerned, that would be the last tear she ever shed over that bastard.
twenty-two
Reese
It had been two weeks since the fiasco at Thanksgiving. I’d never seen Finn so angry. His mother had made a comment about what a great actor he was, making it clear that nobody there believed there wasn’t more going on between us.
And they’d be right.
But I didn’t know what exactly this was, and neither did he.
I’d been angry at Carl for coming there the way he had. It was disrespectful to Finn, and I’d told him as much when I’d finished the renovation of his office that following week.
Thankfully, there was no reason for me to be around him anymore, and I needed this time to figure out what I wanted.
Because at the end of the day, whether Finn wanted the same things I did didn’t really matter. Because he’d shown me that there was a different kind of love than I’d realized.
I didn’t know if he felt what I felt.
I didn’t want to put that pressure on him.
He knew exactly who I was and what I wanted out of this life. That was the reason he’d always hated Carl. He knew that he didn’t love me the way that I deserved to be loved. I couldn’t see it then, but I saw it now.