Finally Finn (Los Rancheros #4) (11 page)

“I'm Fandy Potreyas, lead guitarist form the
band Rolling Bridges.” Oh shit, there’s me.

“I’m Sadie Dinah, former lead singer of the
band Chimera.” Danny’s big body fills my TV next.

“And my name is Daniel Walsh. I don’t have a
band . . . that’s kind of depressing, actually. Why don’t I have a
band? Where’s my manager at? We need to straighten this out right
now.”

The screen changes as everyone laughs at
Danny to the three of us sitting together.

“We’re looking for the next superstar,” Danny
says.

“And we know that superstars have to have
three things,” Fandy reads from the prompter.

“Determination,” I supply.

“Talent,” Danny says.

“And stage presence,” we say together. The
next scene has cut the TV into three different screens. Danny and
Fandy are at either side of the stage giving their interviews and
in the center is me, wandering around the empty set between them.
The boy’s voices are on top of each other, so that you can
understand what they’re saying if you focus on one, but not both at
the same time.

The second I hit the first chord on the
electric guitar, both men turn their faces to the center, and
quickly excuse themselves. The cameras are shooting from up high,
moving in arcs I never noticed when it was actually happening.

Watching myself on TV, judging every move I
make, I have to admit that we couldn’t have done any better, even
if we did practice. We are a cohesive unit in that moment. Danny
rocks the rap parts perfectly, Fandy is amazing at harmony and a
God on the guitar. As for me, well, I look fucking hot. My voice is
smoky, it breaks at times, but that only adds to the rock image of
me in all leather.

I feel Finn’s hand in my hair as he pushes my
head to the side and into his. His lips end up by my ear. “I wanted
you so bad that day. Still the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he
whispers.

I smile from ear to ear and rub my cheek
against his.

After the performance, the stage goes dark
when we’re hugging and laughing with each other. It shows the
meeting where we are all going over the rules, and agenda of the
show. Fandy, Danny, and I clearly state that we want to be the ones
watching the performances, no one else.

Cut to my house, giving the guys beer and
pizza in our pajamas and getting comfortable on the couch. My eyes
leave the TV when I notice Danny texting on his phone. My butt
vibrates so I shift to get it.

Danny: I liked that one.

It’s the group text from before. Fandy pulls
his phone out next.

Fandy: We have to narrow it down from 100 to
20.

“Hey, can someone write the kids’ names down
when we say? We have to get the number down for live shows,” I ask
the group during the first commercial.

“Yeah, sure thing. We’ll get you all of the
videos that they have on the website and put it together for you,”
someone in the back says.

The rest of the show is mostly the
contestants, some subpar, some fantastic, and our remarks
afterwards. Thank God none of us are really mean people. We don’t
say anything maliciously. The episode closes with us singing “Let
It Go” and again I’m shocked to hear how my voice sounds.

“Tweets are coming in. ‘Triple Threat, more
like triple hotties. Who knew there were so many hot boys on
YouTube?’ ”

“ ‘Where did this show come from? Daniel
Walsh. I. Die.’ ”

“ ‘Who knew that druggie could sing? I’d bang
her.’ ”

“Oh, well that’s just fantastic. Little ears,
dumbass,” I yell over my shoulder. The crowd laughs and I shrug,
looking down at the girls. Their eyes are huge. “What?”

“You have the best voice I’ve ever
heard!”

“You’re my favorite singer ever!”

“Can you come to our school and sing in our
class?”

“Wait, what? No. And I’m not that great.
There’s a lot better singers out there, trust me.”

“But you’re our Aunt Sadie. That makes you
the best singer there is.”

I sigh as my heart melts. “Thanks, kid.” I
pull them to me, squeezing them until they giggle. Finn leans down
and kisses all three of us on the top of our heads.

It’s kind of a perfect night, all things
considered.

MONDAY

“I just don’t understand how you would think
that this is okay,” I yell. The kids are home from school, Finn is
gone to be with his dad, and my Twitter is blowing up because of a
picture I supposedly posted the night of the debut episode. The
numbers came back great, our show being the second most watched of
the night.

Immediately interview requests started coming
in and Jacque has been running ragged. I may have to bite the
bullet and hire another publicist.

“I thought it was a good move. Everyone knows
that Daniel Walsh and Rolling Bridges are pretty much open books.
The fans eat that up.”

“You should have cleared it with the room,
and especially me, since you posted it from my account. I have to
be able to trust you, Jacque.”

“You’re right, I know. I really didn’t think
it was a big deal.” He sounds suitably guilty.

“It wouldn’t be if the kids weren’t there.
That’s a gross invasion of privacy. All of our kids were
there.”

“Our kids now, huh?” I wave that away.

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do. I’m sorry. Are the other guys
mad about it?”

“Danny and Fandy aren’t. Finn might have you
six feet under before dinner.” I chuckle evilly at the thought.

“Shit. It’s going to come out. I don’t get
the big deal.” Jacque’s voice is getting defensive and I don’t like
it.

“It’s called respect, asshole.” I hang up,
tossing the phone down.

“Who are you cussing at, Aunt Sadie?” Hannah
asks from the kitchen counter. I kiss her hair, inhaling her sweet,
bubblegum scent.

“Jacque. Don’t listen to me being
grumpy.”

“What did he do?”

“Something Uncle Finn didn’t want him to
do.”

“Is he in trouble?” she asks as she reaches
over for a piece of the pepper I’m cutting. I have to say I’ve come
a long way in the month that I’ve been watching the girls. I even
buy vegetables and shit. On purpose.

“Not yet. He thought he was doing something
to help, but didn’t think it through.” I hand over another piece
then add the rest to the top of a salad.

“Hmm. Oh,
Monster High
’s on!” she
leaves me hanging, and I’m disappointed. Kids have really good
advice sometimes.

We eat dinner watching DVDs of all of the
performances of the contestants. When a knock sounds at the front
door, I’m immediately scared to death. People don’t just pop by
unannounced in this neighborhood. Grabbing a knife from the
kitchen, I look through the peephole in the door.

It’s a man, he’s got longer brown hair and
shifts from foot to foot nervously.

“Who is it?”

“Um, my name is Aiden, I’m—”

“Daddy!” the girls yell together and jump off
of the couch. I unlock the door and step aside as the kids rush the
man as soon as he gets in the door.

I watch Aiden’s eyes close as he hugs his
daughters. When he straightens, he puts out a hand. “I’m Aiden
Brennick.”

“Sadie Dinah.”

“I hope it’s okay that I stopped by. I
haven’t seen the girls in so long, and I just got back from
Arizona.”

“How is your dad?” I ask, shutting the
door.

“Great. He’s getting transferred soon, that’s
why I came back.” I nod, feeling uncomfortable.

“Have you seen Grandpa? Does he miss us?”
Bridgette asks.

“Of course he does. He asks about you all the
time. When he gets here you’ll get to see him in the hospital.”

“Oh, we love going to the hospital. The
people are so nice. Will you come with us, Daddy?” Hannah asks,
pulling him into the living room.

“Oh. No. Daddy can’t go, but I’m sure Uncle
Finn will take you a bunch,” Aiden says weakly, clearing his
throat.

“Are you hungry, Aiden? I can make you a
plate,” I offer, not knowing what else to do. I’m in his old house,
with his kids. It’s weird.

“Please don’t go to any trouble, Sadie. I
just wanted to see the girls for a minute. I’ll get out of your
hair.” I open my mouth to reply but the kids beat me to it.

“No, please stay, Daddy!”

“We’re watching people sing on the TV for
Aunt Sadie’s show.” He looks back at me uncertainly, his eyes the
same grey, but lacking the steel behind them.

“Please stay. They miss you,” I say with a
shrug.

“Okay, then. Thank you.” He settles into the
couch and listens to the kids as they try to tell him every single
thing they did since he left. I watch his hands on the back of the
couch as I make a plate. They shake. His face is engaged with the
kids, but his hands say that he’s freaking out.

“Aiden, would you like a glass of wine? I’m
sorry I don’t have any beer.” He looks over the couch to me and
clears his throat again.

“Th— Thank you. Yes, that sounds good.”

I bring him a plate of salad, pot roast, and
mashed potatoes, the real kind because I know how to do that shit
now. Then I sit in the recliner and press play again.

The videos last well after bedtime, and Aiden
puts them to bed with a few prompts from me, like to brush their
teeth. I take more notes about the contestants as he reads them a
story. To my surprise, Aiden doesn’t head out right away. We open
another bottle and watch the rest of the DVD. Now that the kids
aren’t in the room, he relaxes immensely. He has great advice and
suggestions about who needs to work on what, singing wise. I have
to admit he has a great ear and I can see how he built a record
label from the ground up into a complete success. Of the one
hundred contestants I check off fifty-four then send the list off
to Danny and Fandy to compare notes, before locking up when Aiden
leaves.

There are texts from Finn, but I ignore them
to fall into bed, the room spinning as I fall asleep.

“Hey, babe.”

“Who is it, Aunt Sadie?” one of the girls ask
from the back seat.

“Uncle Finn,” I answer over my shoulder.

“Hi, Uncle Finn!”

“I love you, Uncle Finn.”

“I love them, too,” he says, hearing them
yell.

“He says he hates you and Bridgette is his
favorite,” I toss to the back.

“Hey!”

“Yay!”

“Was that really necessary, babe?” Finn
rumbles in my ear.

“They weren’t fighting nearly enough today.
I’m just trying to help them out.” I smile, changing lanes and
adjusting the Bluetooth headset in my ear.

“I tried texting you last night.”

“Oh, yeah. Aiden stopped by and we were
watching the
Triple Threat
stuff. I didn’t think to check
messages after that. It was pretty late.” I chomp down on a french
fry and check the connection to make sure I didn’t disconnect the
call. He hasn’t said anything. “Finn?”

“Aiden was at the house?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I answer slowly. “Is he not supposed
to be?”

“No, that’s fine. I just didn’t think he
would go there right away.” He clears his throat. “Did he stay
long?”

I’m starting to get that Finn is
uncomfortable with Aiden being around me. “Yeah, he had dinner. He
had some good advice with the show auditions. Is there a problem?”
I take my exit and make my way toward the studio.

“No, there’s no problem. Listen, since Aiden
is there, maybe he can watch the kids so that I can be at the
concert when you announce the top twenty.”

“That would be great, babe. Listen, I have to
go. I’ll call you later.”

BATTY

“Alright, I’ll set it up.” I pull the phone
away and look at the screen. My stomach drops. She already hung up.
I move my neck, trying to loosen this suffocating feeling from my
throat.

I close my eyes and let my head fall back
against the hard wall with a thunk. I do it again. This wouldn’t
happen again. Not with Sadie. I’m being crazy.

No matter how many times I say it, that
feeling doesn’t go away.

“You okay, son?” Dad asks. I open my eyes and
give the old man what I hope passes as a grin and not a
grimace.

“Yeah, Pop. It’s time to go home.”

MONDAY

It’s concert day. We’ve invited the fifty
contestants to be a part of the audience. They have no idea we’re
about to call them onstage to perform and then narrow down their
number to twenty.

It’s been a week since Aiden showed up. To my
surprise, he’s shown up every night for dinner and to tuck the kids
in. We didn’t talk much, just watched TV until it was time for bed.
He always leaves without a word, which is strange, but then he is a
strange dude.

Standing in my dressing room, I clear my
throat nervously and take a sip of the honey tea someone left
before everyone piled out. I have to admit, they did an excellent
job. It’s been so long since I’ve worn heels, I feel especially
sexy all dolled up. My hair is French braided starting at one
temple and goes around to my ear on the other side, and then hangs
in big curls all the way to my elbows.

White skinny jeans and the black corset
tuxedo jacket complete with tails in the back make the most of my
skinny body, actually giving me hips and boobs. The black heeled
boots go half way up my calf and are suede. The whole thing is
going to be hot as fuck under the lights and when we’re performing,
but I’m not complaining.

I pull the jacket down and smooth it over my
stomach. There’s a knock.

“Come in!”

I see Finn open the door swiftly, before his
eyes roam my body, slowing his movements considerably. “Damn, baby.
I’ve missed you so much.” He closes the door with a loud click that
seems to echo in the room.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I say, feeling his
gaze like a touch and shiver.

Finn moves his hands to my shoulders then
slides his palms down to my hands and interlocks our fingers. “I
wouldn’t miss this for anything. I know you’re nervous, but you’re
going to be amazing.”