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We rounded the corner, and came to a complete stop.
“Oh no,” Rory whispered. “How did we not notice he wasn’t with us?”
“Son-of-a-bitch!” I cried out while my eyes swept over the destruction of the campsite. When my glare landed on the black-and-white dog, I pointed to him and he quickly sat. “I’m going to kill you!”
Suddenly Rory screamed from behind me, “Finn, no! It’s not that bad!”
Flash jumped up and took off running to the other side of the tent. I’d have caught him if I hadn’t tripped over the large stick that appeared out of nowhere.
“Finn!” Rory called out. “Oh my goodness. Are you okay?”
She kneeled down to me. “Your leg is cut, but it’s not deep,” she said, then giggled.
I jumped up. “You think this is funny?”
Flash barked, and I glared at him again.
“Finn. Take a deep breath and blow it out. It’s not that bad.”
I stared at her with an open mouth. “Not that bad? Look at it, Rory.”
I did a three-sixty while flailing my arms about. “He destroyed it! He even chewed up the lights!”
Glaring back at Flash, I shouted, “I hope your shit lights up for weeks, you little bastard!”
Chapter 42
Finn
Who signed us up for this?
Harmony opened the door and gave us a huge grin. “Perfect timing. Presley just got a bath and and she smells extra yummy.”
I knew it was wrong, but I pushed Rory out of the way before she could get to Preston first and take the baby from him.
I heard her laughing behind me as I walked up to my brother.
“Give her to me. Now.”
Preston narrowed his eyes at me. “You can’t demand my daughter from me, dude.”
“I can and I just did. Give her up. You get her all the time, Preston.”
Giving me a dirty look, he stated, “She’s my daughter. Back the fuck off, Finn.”
“Preston!” Harmony said as she slapped him on the head. “Don’t talk like that in front of Presley.”
Preston rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t understand me.”
“Harmony, tell your greedy husband to give up the baby before I challenge him to a round of Monopoly.”
“Monopoly?” Preston asked with a smile while Harmony gasped.
“No! Not Monopoly!” Harmony cried out.
Rory walked up to the baby and smiled at her while asking, “I don’t get it. What’s wrong with Monopoly?”
Quickly pulling Rory away from us, Harmony stated, “Don’t ever ask them to play that game, challenge them to it, or even hint that you could win at it. You’ll be stuck for hours. In Monopoly, the Wards are a play-until-only-one-person-is-standing kind of family.”
Preston stood and gently placed his daughter into Rory’s hands while my jaw dropped to the floor.
“How…why…We’re blood, dude! You gave her to Rory first?”
Preston shot me a dirty look. “I like her better than I do you.”
I shot him the middle finger and turned my attention to Rory. “Let me have her.”
“Not yet,” she said as she rocked the baby back and forth. Soon Rory softly started to sing to her, and I had to grab onto something to keep my legs from giving out.
“You’re such a beautiful girl. Yes you are. Look at how big you’ve grown. Oh my, look at those blue eyes.”
“Care to share what you’re thinking right this second, Finn?” Harmony whispered.
Dragging my eyes off Rory, I took Harmony in. She looked so much more rested than she had earlier today. “I’m not thinking anything.”
“Uh-huh. So you’ve got that goofy look in your eyes and you’re wobbling on your legs because…?”
I didn’t want to blurt out to Harmony how I wished that this was our child Rory was holding. The idea alone should have had me running for the hills, but strangely, it didn’t. I was even a tad bit jealous of Preston. He had the very thing I found myself longing for.
A family.
“Want to feed her before she goes down, since you guys showed up late?”
I couldn’t help but notice how Harmony looked at Rory. Almost as if she thought it was Rory who’d made us late.
“Flash destroyed the campground. Dad and I had to take everything down while Rory and Mom cleaned up the campsite. Looks like our camping trip is over.”
“Well, that’s a bummer. You guys gonna head back into Boston tonight?” Preston asked while handing me a bottle.
I glanced over to Rory, who nodded. “Probably,” I said.
Preston flashed me a big grin. “Well, you know you can stay here. We have a guest bedroom.”
Laughing, I took Presley from Rory. “You just want to be able to stroll in late tonight, that’s all.”
“Hell yeah, that’s what it is.”
Harmony playfully hit Preston’s stomach. You couldn’t help but feel happy for them. When Preston draped his arm over Harmony’s shoulders, I felt a ping of jealousy. I was going to push Rory a little harder about moving in with me. I wanted to be around her as much as I possibly could. Things were starting to pick up more in Wes and my solar business, which meant that on my days off I’d be working on that as well. If Rory lived with me, I’d see more of her.
