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He was certain he was wrong about that now, and that he loved Fin and had been falling for her since she’d woken him with her stolen kiss. But it was stronger even than that. He was in love with her, and this was a whole new and incredible feeling, especially as he was certain she was in love with him.
He could see a future with Fin, his goals and hers meshed together. But more than that, he could see a way to build a life outside of work. He could see her as his own family. The problem was, he couldn’t tell her there was a quantum difference between loving her and being utterly, irrevocably, and forever in love with her until he could also tell her the truth.
“I’m certain to the marrow of my bones,” he said.
Dad’s steepled his fingers. “You’re certain of her?”
Fin was his wildcard. She was the hand he hadn’t expected to be dealt and the only one worth winning. He’d been practicing his whole life to claim her. He’d bet the house on her.
“I’ve met the woman I want to be with for the rest of my life. She makes me happy. I want your blessing, but I’m going to ask her to marry me whether I have it or not.”
“Would you leave the company for her?” said Dad.
He took a breath, let it go, took another. It wasn’t an unreasonable question. Dad had retirement forced on him by his stroke, otherwise he’d still be running Sherwood. Cal loved heading the company. Even when he was dispirited, even when it was more hard work than fun, it was still the best part of him because of the good he could do in the world.
But it couldn’t be the only part of him, and that’s what it had become before the lucky accident that was Fin. He didn’t have the right skills to fit in the regular world and no desire to try, but if it came down to a choice between Fin and the company, he chose Fin. There was only one answer.
“Yes.”
His parents exchanged a look. Dad shook his head. Mom got glassy-eyed. He wasn’t sure what he’d said to bring that on. He’d expected yelling from Mom. To see his father wheel himself into the garden and refuse to speak at all.
“I would have left it all for your mother.” Dad looked at his hands, then took Mom’s when she rested hers over his. “I almost did.”
Cal sat. His parents’ marriage was born of conflict, forged on the shared social justice ambitions of Sherwood using its stolen wealth wisely, and until Dad’s stroke, it had been a partnership that was loud in laughter and anger and brooding silences, in broken plates and shouted curses, in extravagant make up gifts and passionate encounters.
As a kid, it was as equally unsurprising to find his father banished to the couch for weeks as it was to find his parents dancing, barely dressed, barefoot in the garden in the rain or simply gone missing, off adventuring, leaving Cal in charge of the younger kids with no idea what to tell them about when their parents would be back.
As he got older, he’d wondered whether they’d burn out. And with the family grown, separate, look for ease outside the marriage. It hadn’t been a huge leap to understand that what he’d had with Rory was a similar relationship—unpredictable and exciting, but also exhausting.
After Dad’s stroke, everything changed. Running the company fell to Cal. The brooding silences were Dad’s as he retreated from the world, and Mom went on adventures alone. But if they’d seemed volatile in their love before, they were steadfast after. They were still a team, both terrible and wonderful together.
It’s what he’d found in Fin, that unique person who would love and be loved by him no matter what.
Dad brought the back of Mom’s hand to his lips, and their eyes locked. “If you feel the way about Fin I felt about your mom, the way I still feel about her, then you had better find out if your Finley can love you through and through.”
“You would’ve left the company for Mom?” He’d never have guessed that.
Dad rocked a flattened hand and pursed his lips, maybe; then he thumped the arms of the wheelchair. “Conned her for life.”
“He only thinks he’s not the mark,” Mom said. “Can’t you find a nice Archer, Robins, or Johns to settle down with and have a lot of random sex on the side and be done with it?”
“Your mother is the romantic in the family,” said Dad. He lost Mom’s hand from his grip as she snatched it back.
“But it’s not up to us alone. It’s a board decision,” she said. “It has to go to a vote. And that vote has to be unanimous.”
Which is why Cal had already called an extraordinary board meeting for later in the week. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance with Fin.
On his way out, Dad pulled him aside. “Let me look at you.”
He smiled. When he was five, his father could tell if he was lying with a casual glance. By fifteen, Dad needed a concentrated second to learn the truth. At twenty-five, Cal had begun to perfect his trade, and it took a full minute of Dad staring in his eyes for him to know if Cal’s heart was true. At thirty-five, Cal should have him beat, except he had no incentive to.
He bent and braced his hands on the arms of Dad’s chair. “I’m in love with Fin. I can keep her safe and make her happy. We can build a good life together.”
For his trouble, he got a grimy palm that smelled of fertilizer in his face pushing him away. “I know it. It’s all over you. Why haven’t I met her?”
“Because I want her to know the truth before I bring her here. Everyone else had to keep the con live. I want to introduce her to the one family member she can trust from the outset.”
“I don’t know where your Mom and I got you from. You were a wise old man at birth. Nothing like either of us. We want you to be happy. You have my vote. I’ll support you with the other families, and I’ll sit on Katrice, if I have to, till you get hers.”
