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“I don’t know,” she admitted, struggling hard not to sound whiny. “He doesn’t have a job. He goes out until all hours of the night. I have no idea what he’s doing with his life. The only thing I know is that he will not be lounging around my house doing nothing from now on. I refuse to let him tank his whole future out of laziness.”
She said that now, but she’d never been great at getting Cal to do what she wanted. There had always been an air of “you’re not my mother” whenever he pushed back against her rules. Unlike Ali, who’d been a dream to parent.
“You’ve done your best,” Finn said. “Maybe he just needs a firm hand. Maybe Mark should handle this one.”
She snorted. “Mark is not the firm hand. Ever since he left for the west coast, his relationship with Cal has been strained. It’s awkward whenever he’s around.”
Cal and his teenage attitude had major issues where Mark was concerned. Yet he had never vocalized his troubles. Why had she never thought to ask? Had she been too caught up in her own difficulties to see his?
“I just don’t know what to do anymore. Cal obviously needs something I’m not giving him.”
Finn lowered his gaze. “Maybe I can help.”
She stared up into the blue depths of his eyes. “How?” This was her problem to deal with.
“Tell him either he goes to school or he comes to work for me.”
He was going to give Cal a job? He was saving the day. Again. This man was truly a saint. But…
“Finn, I can’t ask you to hire him.”
“You’re not asking, and we’ve been looking for a new line chef. We can make do until he’s ready to move up.”
Move up? Was he kidding? What did Cal know about cooking, or even a kitchen? She’d been doing everything for her siblings since the day they moved in. “Finn. The kid wouldn’t know how to boil water.”
“That’s the point. It will be like his personal Cooking for the Future program.”
Finn’s late foster mother, Vivian Madewood, had started the program when she realized just how much the culinary arts had helped Finn and his three foster brothers succeed. Now he and his brothers took turns leading the program.
“It will teach him discipline and how to handle authority, and make s
ure he’s not lazing around your house all day.”
Veronica’s throat tightened and she blinked away tears. “You would do that for me?”
“I would do it for Cal and you.” He paused and looked away, shoving his hands in the pockets of his black-checkered pants. “Don’t you know after all these years I would do anything for you?”
An overwhelming weight lifted from her shoulders. Maybe what she’d needed all along was simply an offer of help—the knowledge that someone was there for her. To pick up the slack when things got rough. Knowing Finn was on her side, that she had him to lean on, changed the game, and suddenly she didn’t feel quite so selfish pursuing her own dreams.
Cal was an adult. He didn’t need a mommy any more. And maybe that was her biggest mistake. She was trying to be something she was not, someone he didn’t need.
“What do you get out of this?” she asked Finn.
His lip curved. “Let’s just say you owe me the fulfillment of a promise.”
She sighed, her desire at war with the practicality of her family obligations. “Unfortunately, I have more important things to worry about now than figuring out what turns you on.”
He winked. “Then I’ll make it real easy for you, V. I only have one fantasy. Anything else would just be icing on the cake.”
Icing. Cake. Her mind fastened on the words. Oh, hell.
The wedding. Her shoulders tightened at the thought of all the details she had yet to work out. The sudden surge of trepidation that spiked her heart rate at the mere mention of fantasies had nothing to do with the sexual tension in her body. Honest.
“Speaking of cake, you’re making the wedding cake, too, right? I don’t—”
“Veronica.” His tone meant business. And not wedding business.
“Um…yeah?”
