“I hope so,” I whispered, wishing to God he could tell me himself.
“Hey, I have to go.” She grimaced into the camera. “The in-laws are here.”
“Have a great Thanksgiving, Tash.” I blew her a kiss. “Send my love to the fam.”
“Happy Thanksgiving, lovely. Call me again soon…after you go out with that doc!”
I remained in my room for the rest of the weekend. Liam was inundated with both family and friends visiting, so I kept my distance. If he was happy, I was happy—for him, that is.
“Where’s Finn?” I asked when Amy answered my video-call Sunday evening.
“I don’t know what went wrong, Cass. He was having a great day, then all of a sudden…bam! He burst into tears at dinner and hasn’t come out of his room since.”
My heart threatened to crumble. “Did you follow the recipe I sent?”
“Yes! Every part…except we had to swap the bow-tie pasta for penne because Dad didn’t have any.”
I closed my eyes. Dom and Finn loved bow-tie pasta.
Her mouth parted. “I’m so sorry, Cass. If I’d known it was that important, I would’ve run out to the store.”
“It’s not your fault, Ames. It’s mine. I knew this would be hard on him.”
“What should I do?”
“Let me speak to him.”
“I’ll try…” She moved toward Finn’s room. “Hey, squirt, your mom’s on the phone.”
“I don’t care! I don’t want to speak to her!”
“Come on, buddy.”
“If she really wanted to be here, she would be here!”
I gasped at the pain in his voice. Perhaps he wasn’t as mature as I thought. “Ames, put the phone on his desk and give us a moment.”
Amy quietly opened the door, placed the phone on his desk with the camera pointed toward the bed, then bolted out of the room like she’d lit a fuse.
Finn lay on his bed with his head buried in his pillow.
“Finny…”
Finn’s tears slowed as he glanced around the room, but when his eyes settled on the phone, he slammed his head back down with a wail.
“I’m sorry I’m not there with you.” I could feel his pain through the screen.
“I just want things to go back to the way they were.”
“That’s why I’m here, baby. This job is going to make that happen for us.”
“It won’t bring Dad back.”
A sharp pain sliced through my chest. “N…no…I know.” I stumbled over my words. “But we’re going to be okay.”
With a sniffle, he turned his puffy eyes to the camera. “But what if you have to go away again?”
“This is a one-off, Finn. Once we’re settled in our new place in LA, you’re stuck with me.”