When Twitch pulled her gaze from Finn’s retreating form, Emily was by her side. “Sweetie, you need to tell him about the baby.”
“I know. Not yet.”
Emily wrapped an arm around her friend and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“I’m going to lie down.” Twitch pointed her chin toward the stairs. “If they need me for anything else, I’ll be in my bedroom.”
Out of sight in the upstairs hall, Twitch braced herself with a hand on the pale yellow wall. It wasn’t Finn’s appearance that had rattled her. Well, if she was being honest with herself, his presence always made the ground beneath her feet shift, but this time, there was something else. It was his words. Words that threw her back nearly a decade. Twitch remembered the conversation with utter clarity.
She had been seventeen, and her mother had taken her into Manhattan to shop for a tenth wedding anniversary gift for her dad. After a lifetime of womanizing and overindulging, her father had gotten clean and become an exemplary husband and parent. She and her mom had gone to The Russian Tea Room for lunch, and Twitch had asked her mother, over the delicate stand of finger sandwiches, what had made her finally agree to marry him.
“Well, you know your father had his struggles. He told me over and over that he was going to clean up his act. That’s the thing with addicts; they will say whatever they need to, tell whatever lie they need to tell to get what they want. Then, after the incident with you in the car…”
Her mother had swallowed half the champagne in her flute before continuing. Twitch had no memory of the event to which her mother referred, she had been too young at the time, but she knew even the mention of it caused both of her parents great pain.
Twitch had asked how her mother had forgiven the unforgivable.
“I forgave him because that man who did those things wasn’t your father. That was the addict. The man he used to be was a man for a one-night stand. The man he is now is a husband.
“He came to me after that and said he knew nothing he told me would make a difference but that he would show me. He said I never had to look at him or talk to him again, but if it took until the day he died, he would show me he was worthy of our daughter. Of you.”
Twitch heard the low murmurs of Emily shooing people out the door. Was Finn still outside? Would he stay? What would his actions show?
Emily Bishop stood at Twitch’s kitchen island and poured coffee for herself and Very.
“Well,” Emily remarked, “that was interesting.”
“Oh, thank God.” Very took a healthy swig from her mug. “I hate being the only one that notices that shit. I mean, I think I actually heard the air crackle.”
Emily shook her head. “Nothing gets these guys riled up like a threat to the people they love.”
“Twitch told me Nathan took on an arms dealer to save you,” Very said.
Emily smiled. Her husband and children were her world. “And Tox when Calliope was threatened? Look out.”
“When do they get back?” Very asked.
“Soon. Calliope was already coming back from Zurich, and Tox, Steady, and Cam were able to catch a transport plane from Cairo.”
“Why do they call him Steady?” Very inquired over-casually.
“He’s the most even-keeled guy I’ve ever met. Nathan said it was doubly true on the guys’ SEAL squad. He said he doesn’t think Steady’s pulse goes above eighty.” Emily watched Very take her coffee cup to the sink.
“I’m going to peek in on Twitch.” With a small wave, Very slipped out of the kitchen.
Emily rinsed both mugs and placed them in the dishwasher. Something told her if anybody could get a reaction out of Steady, it would be Very.