Games of the Heart (19 page)

“She okay?” Kirby asked quietly, knowing exactly what Fin was doing.

“What do you think?” Fin answered and watched Kirb’s mouth twist to the side.

Shit, he also had to look out for his brother. Kirb and Ma were tight. But Kirb was only fifteen. He had no clue how to deal either.

Fin looked back at his mother and called out, “Ma, we’re goin’ to school.”

She jumped so big he saw it and Fin felt his mouth get tight.

Then she turned, her face still that pale it had been now for weeks, her eyes weird and vacant.

Then she seemed to sort her shit out and called back, “Okay.”

Fin stopped himself from rolling his eyes. Instead, he hoisted his book bag on his shoulder and he and Kirb moved to the front door.

“Do you…uh,” she called after them, they both stopped and looked back, “have, uh…your homework done?”

Too late to ask now, we’re going to fucking school,
Finley thought.

But what he said was, “Yeah,” and it was the truth.

“Yeah, Ma,” Kirb said too and Finley knew that was the truth because he rode his brother’s ass last night to get it done.

“Okay, boys, have a good day at school,” their Ma told them and Finley thought she sounded like a robot.

“You have a good day too, Ma,” Kirb replied.

Fin didn’t bother. He just went out the door and got in Gramps’s old pickup that he left behind when he and Gram moved to Florida. Dad had kept it running and had given it to him last year when he got his license.

He loved that fucking truck. It was the shit. Beat up, rusted and totally fucking cool. Aunt Dusty thought the same thing. That was because Aunt Dusty was totally fucking cool too.

The truck had a bench seat. Trucks didn’t have bench seats anymore. That was too bad and he was happy as fuck his did. By the watering hole on The Back Forty, Fin had done Marisa, Julie
and
Tamara on that bench seat last summer (not all together, obviously). That bench seat was perfect.

He drove his brother to school and did the class gig.

It was at lunch when she made her approach.

He was surprised. Clarisse Haines was a cool customer. Fin had had her in his sights for a while. She was a little young for him but that didn’t mean she wasn’t fucking pretty. She was. Tall, great tits already and her hair and eyes were a-fucking-mazing.

But there was something about her. She was like,
aloof
or something. Like she was there but she wasn’t. He didn’t know if she didn’t want to be there or if she was in her head or if she just got that she was better than that place and was doing her time.

She totally was better than The ‘Burg. Honest to God, she could be a model. That was how pretty she was. He totally could see her finishing school and going to New York City or somewhere and being in magazines.

And she dressed great.

“Uh, hey Fin,” she said when she got to him and he liked it that she couldn’t meet his eyes.

She was into him.

“Yo, Rees,” he replied and her eyes skittered through his.

Yeah, fuck yeah. She was into him.

He grinned.

“Can we, uh,” her eyes went through his crew at the table around him then came back to him, “talk private?”

“I can talk private with you, Rees,” his friend Dylan said and Fin sliced his eyes to Dylan.

No way was Dyl going to cut into this action. And Dyl was a total player, he’d try.

Dyl caught his look and Dyl knew Fin could wipe the floor with him even though Dyl talked a lot about how awesome his bod was.

When his eyes went back to Clarisse he saw her looking at Dylan like she was trying not to gag and he just stopped himself from bursting out laughing.

What he did do was get up and mutter, “Yeah, let’s go.”

She looked up at him and nodded.

They moved away but Fin turned back to his crew and at least two of them, not surprisingly Dylan being one of them, had their mouths open to say something smart. They caught one look at Fin and closed their mouths.

Fin led her to the hall, through the benches and to the foot of the stairs where there wasn’t anyone close.

“What’s up, Rees?” he asked when he stopped close to her. Close enough to smell something, her perfume or shampoo. Whatever it was, it smelled like berries.

He liked it.

She looked up at him again and said softly, “I’m really sorry about your Dad, Fin.”

That came as a surprise, like a sock to the gut but God, how could it hurt and feel good at the same time?

“Thanks,” he muttered.

“And I don’t wanna, I mean…you gotta have a lot on your mind and everything so I don’t wanna lay more on you,” she went on, the pain subsided and he felt his brows draw together.

“What?” he asked.

“I…well, I think your aunt, her name is Dusty?” This was a question and she stopped there.

“Yeah, I have an Aunt Dusty. What about her?”

“I think…” she hesitated then finished, “she was seein’ my Dad.”

Finley stared at her.

Holy shit.

Holy fucking
shit.

God, he knew all about Aunt Dusty and Clarisse’s Dad. Back in the day, his Dad told him, Aunt Dusty and Mr. Haines were tight, like, tighter than Mr. Haines was with his Aunt Debbie and he was dating her (this did not surprise Finley).

Mr. Haines was a friend of his Dad’s. The dude was cool. Fin always liked him. He had that thing going on where he was a Dad, definitely, but he was also a cop and had that cop vibe. Not the strutty asshole one, the badass, cool guy one, which was awesome. To top that, he was around in a good Dad way. Always at No’s basketball games but not one of those parents who shouted or got up in their kids’ or the coaches’ shit. And he let No have a garage band which was an awesome thing to do. And Fin had seen him walking with his arm around Clarisse’s shoulders and they were always smiling or laughing.

Mr. Haines was like
his
Dad.

But he also knew that Mr. Haines had been with his Aunt Debbie in high school. This he didn’t get. Then again, he couldn’t imagine anyone with his Aunt Debbie and totally not someone as cool as Mr. Haines. And last, he got the sense his Dad wanted his Aunt Dusty to have a go at Mr. Haines. He was always mentioning him to her when she was around or when they talked on the phone. Too much. It was weird. Aunt Dusty lived in freaking Texas. It wasn’t like she could make an easy play. Still, it seemed Dad was pushing for it. Then again, Dad and Aunt Dusty were tight and Dad liked family around. Even Aunt Debbie. So he’d push something like that to get Aunt Dusty home.

God, this was fucking
awesome.
If Aunt Dusty was with Mr. Haines, she’d move home and help out.

“They broke up.”

These words came from Clarisse and he focused on her.

“What?” he repeated.

“I don’t know what happened. I…I just heard Dad talkin’ to her once and it seemed all good then I heard him talkin’ to his partner at work and he said it was done.”

Shit.

“I…well,” she turned and pulled her book bag around to her front then dug in it. She came out with some girl-covered books and held them between him and her. “These are your aunt’s. It’s kinda weird, I know, to read them and there’s some bad stuff in them that’s kinda, um…creepy and upsetting. She wrote them a long time ago. She was, well…into my Dad back then and, well, I don’t know what went on but the way she was into him then it makes it sad that they hooked up and then, um…didn’t stay that way.”

Fin stared at the books.

Clarisse kept talking.

“I…I think that, um…well, actually, I
know
that if she was closer, Dad would, uh…try to get in there again, I mean, uh…with your aunt.” She stopped and Fin’s eyes went to hers so she went on again and fast, her cheeks getting pink. “Sorry. You think this is weird.”

“You’re tryin’ to get them back together?” he asked.

“I know, it’s weird,” she started to step away muttering, “forget it.”

He reached out, caught her hand tight and she froze. All except for her head which jerked back to look at him.

He kept hold of her hand and said quietly, “It isn’t weird, Rees.”

She blinked then whispered, “Is she, um…cool? I mean, her diaries make her seem cool but she wrote them a long time ago.”

Fin kept holding her hand as he grinned and replied, “Oh yeah, Aunt Dusty is the shit. Totally.”

She seemed to relax like this was good news and she was relieved.

Then she carried on, “I know she lives far away and I don’t know how to get her back. I don’t know how long it would take Dad to –”

Fin grinned, squeezed her hand and cut her off. “I know how to get her back.”

“You do?” she whispered.

Her whisper and her eyes getting big like that was really fucking cute.

“I do,” he said soft.

“Oh.” She was still whispering and the way she did it was even cuter.

“Can I have those?” he asked, tipping his head down to the books.

She tensed again and shook her head. “I don’t know. They’re kind of personal and maybe, because she’s your aunt, you shouldn’t know what’s in them. And I don’t know why my Dad has them and he notices stuff. If they’re gone for a long time, he’ll notice. Definitely.”

“I’ll read them and I swear I won’t say a word to anyone. And I’ll do it quick and get them back to you. Promise. Cool?”

She bit her lip and considered this awhile. Then she offered the books to him.

He let her hand go and took them.

Then he said, “You gotta give me your number.”

“What?” she breathed and he grinned.

She was totally fucking into him.

“Your cell, Rees. So we can plan.”

“Oh. Okay.”

He dug his cell out of his back pocket. She dug hers out of her purse. He programmed in her number. She did the same with his.

The bell rang and Fin told her, “I’ll call you.”

“Uh…okay.”

He smiled at her and her eyes dropped to his mouth.

That wasn’t cute. That was something else altogether.

“This’ll be cool,” he promised and her eyes went back to his.

She nodded.

“Later, Rees,” he said, still smiling.

“Later, Fin,” she replied then she turned and moved away.

She was fourteen and a freshman. Out of his zone.

But he decided to expand his zone as he walked to his locker.

* * * * *

Fin shoved the journals into his book bag. It was late. He’d just finished reading them.

His skin felt strange, like it was prickly and his palms were sweating.

This was because his Aunt Dusty was the shit. He loved her. She loved him and Kirb and their Dad and their Ma and she showed it in ways he always liked. And he knew she’d done what she could so Aunt Debbie wouldn’t take over when Dad died but Aunt Debbie got her way as usual and he knew it ticked Aunt Dusty off. Not because she was just ticked. But because she’d done what his Ma should do, and, seriously, also his Gram, and tried to do right by his Dad, Fin and Kirb after Dad died. She just was up against Aunt Debbie who his Dad said more than once was a ball buster and since Aunt Dusty didn’t have balls, Aunt Debbie rolled right over her.

And that crazy, fucking psycho serial killer had touched her.

His Aunt Dusty.

And that made him feel sick to his stomach just as it made him feel like punching his fist through a wall.

He couldn’t do the last because if he did his Ma would lose what was left of her marbles.

So he had to tamp it down, bury it deep and sort out the rest of the shit in that journal.

Because, if what Clarisse said was true and his Aunt Dusty hooked up with Mr. Haines, that was a long fucking time coming.

And if they broke up, that sucked huge.

And Clarisse was right and she didn’t even know how right she was.

This needed to happen.

It needed to happen so Aunt Dusty would move home, help with his Ma, help with the farm and Fin wouldn’t be facing all this shit alone.

It needed to happen because Aunt Dusty loved that land like Dad, like Fin and Ma had no hope of talking Aunt Debbie down if she wanted to sell it. But Aunt Dusty would sell it over her dead body. It sucked to think that thought but he knew it was fucking true. She might have lost on the whole gig around Dad’s funeral. But she wouldn’t stand for Fin losing his legacy. No fucking way. She’d fight to the death and Fin knew it.

It needed to happen because Mr. Haines was once with his Aunt Debbie and it might not be nice but it was the truth that he liked the idea of Mr. Haines and Aunt Dusty being happy together and Aunt Debbie having to live with that. She’d hate it. Like, a lot. And Fin liked that.

And it needed to happen because it was a little weird reading it but there was no denying his Aunt Dusty really,
really
liked Mr. Haines. And the way she did, he knew, he didn’t know how but he still knew that kind of feeling didn’t die.