"You've been clean for over a hundred days." I swallowed my own bitterness, and it burned all the way down my throat and emptied into my stomach. "I'm sure you'll make it another one hundred days."
"Then let's go out and do something. Go to a club and dance while I still look like I'm hot instead of a balloon."
"Fine. Let's go out."
"Fine."
We stared at each other, and I blinked first, leaving her in the living room to go hide in my bedroom. I just wanted to crawl under the covers and rewind the clock. As I was shoving a pillow over my head, the phone rang. I looked at the screen, and the caller ID said Finn.
"Hey, sweetness." His low voice, tender with emotion, was like a cooling cloth.
"Oh, Finn," I choked out.
"Should I come back? I didn't want to leave, but you seemed anxious to send me on my way. You stressed?"
His concern was melting me. "It's the baby. When we were at the store today, there were so many things they sell for babies. I didn't realize half the things we needed. And the cost. It was so expensive."
"I wish you'd called me. I would have went with you. Helped you out."
"You mean financially. It's not your responsibility."
He hesitated. "Maybe not, but I'd still like to help you out.
"I appreciate that. I really do, but—"
"I'm doing it for you, not for anyone else," he interrupted. "In fact, I wouldn't have come over if you hadn't been home."
"How'd you now I was here?"
"Ivy told me. I asked actually. I wasn't going to come over if you weren't there."
"We’re a mess."
"Everyone's a mess. Remember when you found me in the café?"
I did. He’d looked like someone had taken a melon baller to his chest and scooped out his heart. I knew what that felt like—how loss made your whole body ache. Even teeth ached, and nothing could take it away.
"I feel like we get over one hurdle, only to face another. Ivy gets out of prison. She falls off the wagon. She climbs back on. She's clean for a hundred days, and then we find out she's pregnant."
"Tell me what I can do. Give me a task. Anything."
He wanted to help out. It wasn't just words. It was important to him, which was why he’d raced over to help put a crib together for a kid that wasn't even his.
"She wants to go out. She needs to have some fun. She hasn't been out having a good time with friends or meeting people because of her sobriety. I should've brought her to the concert with us."
"Then let's have a party. My roommates have a friend in town, and we've been having parties nonstop. Bring her over, and we'll all help watch her for you."
"I don't know, Finn."
"Come on. Besides, we need a little time. You and me. These lunch hour meet ups aren't doing it for me."
"Me, either," I admitted.
"You could stay over. You both could. Adam's staying in the carriage house, and there's a sofa she could sleep on in there."
Unstated was that I could sleep in his bed, which I not only wanted, but needed.
"Okay."
"Great." Satisfaction infused his voice. "Tomorrow night. Bring a toothbrush. It's all you're going to need."
•••
"You been here before?" Ivy asked me when I parked the Honda several cars down from the driveway.
"No."
"It's enormous. He must have inherited a shit ton from his dad. How much money does Finn have these days?"
I thought it was a rhetorical question, and even if it wasn't, I wouldn't know. O'Malley Construction was one of the biggest commercial builders in the city, but Finn himself flipped houses, and I had no idea what kind of money you could make from that. And I didn't care.
"He bought the house before his dad died," I told her.
She raised her eyebrows and looked down at the big modern house with interest. The driveway was sloped, and as we walked toward the house, there were rubber tarps lining the side. At the base of the driveway a few guys were shooting hoops, and the front door was open.
Music blared, and people seemed to be everywhere. It was only nine. Ivy declared no one went to a party before the sun set, but apparently she hadn't been to one of Finn's.
The entrance of the house looked to be two stories tall. On the left were a set of closed doors, and on the right was an open area with two large sofas facing each other. Beyond that was a long walnut table with a matching bench running the length of it on one side and chairs on the other. A guy was lying on the table, and girls were spraying whipped cream on his body and licking it off.
This time it was me raising my eyebrows.
Past the whipped cream buffet to the right was a large white and steel kitchen and to the left was a great room with a big sectional and a huge television. I didn't know they made televisions that big. Out through the French doors, we saw a patio and beyond that the pool.