The question is like a direct strike to the chest.
I don’t know what makes me answer. Maybe it’s how candid and open Finley has been tonight. Maybe it’s because we’re standing in the narrow space of the hallway, under the watchful eyes of her family history.
I take a breath and then meet her eyes, her inquisitive gaze that was once challenging and is now thoughtful.
The words fall out, stark and succinct and brutally honest. “No one.”
I walk past her and into my room, shutting the door on her bewildered expression.
ChapterEleven
Finley
“Why are you calling me so early on a Saturday?” Mindy’s voice is bleary with sleep.
“It’s nine o’clock.” I never get to sleep in past seven.
She groans. “I didn’t get home till two this morning.”
I lean back in the office chair, my foot bouncing. “You didn’t have to answer the phone.”
She yawns. “You know I always will when it’s you.”
“I do. And I appreciate it.”
Blankets rustle in the background. “What’s going on?”
I page through some mail on the desk. Bills, that’s what’s going on. Second notices, final invoices, pay-now-or-we’ll-make-you-fish-meal type of letters.
Wincing, I shove them to the side and lean forward to click on an incoming email. “Not too much. Just working and giving you a call to see what you’re doing for Easter.”
I’m making an attempt at multitasking while I talk to Mindy on speakerphone.
“Easter?” Her tired voice turns incredulous. “Come on, Fin, what’s this really about?”
“I’m serious. I want to try to get all of us together, maybe even Piper.”
“ButEaster?” She laughs. “We don’t go to church, and we’re too old to decorate eggs or have an egg hunt or anything like that.”
“We’re never too old to be a family together. It will be fun.” I inject enthusiasm into my voice as if it will help even though I know it’s more likely the chair I’m sitting in will sprout arms and do cartwheels around the room. We haven’t all been in the same room in more than a year.
“I’ll put it on my calendar.” She chuckles. “But I doubt this dream will be realized. It would require prying Piper from the paws of that . . .Ben.” His name is a curse word. “Not to mention getting Taylor to leave whatever hippie-dippie bullshit she’s meandered her way into.”
Her voice cuts out when another call beeps on the line.
It’s Reed. Again. Ugh.I still can’t pay the tax bill.I’m glad we aren’t dating anymore. It would just make everything that much more awkward.
I send him to voicemail, where he can linger along with all the other debtors calling and looking for their due. I keep talking. “Taylor saw Piper last month. She said she seemed okay.”
“Like Taylor could tell? Seriously. Ben looks like someone you’d see on the ID channel.”
“I’m not sure what we can do about it.”
“I know.” She releases a weak sigh. “She’s a grown woman. The last time we talked, I told her point-blank she should leave him. Now she won’t respond to my calls or texts.”
“Same here. When I bring him up at all, it makes her withdraw more, which doesn’t accomplish anything.”
“You can’t help someone if they don’t think they need it.”