It took Dakota a second to realize what Aurelia was saying. Something about not wanting to hurt Stephen, that she didn’t want him to have regrets. The look on his face when he said he could never regret their relationship stunned Dakota.
“I didn’t realize,” she began, then pressed her lips together. Oh, crap. So much for them being the quiet couple. When no one was looking, they’d gone ahead and gotten involved. If she didn’t know better, she would swear they’d fallen in love.
Finn wasn’t going to be happy about that.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw him staring intently at the screen. Before she could figure out what to say, or even if she should say anything, the topic of the conversation shifted.
“I knew Finn expected me to go into the family business. I didn’t know how to tell him I didn’t want that.”
Finn handed her the popcorn bowl and stood. “Well, hell.”
Dakota set the bowl on the coffee table and rose. “Take a breath,” she said. “This can’t be news.”
Finn glared at her. “Of course it’s news. We’ve been talking about this for years. When Stephen finishes college he’s coming into the family business. That was always the way it was going to be.”
She didn’t actually believe that. From what she could tell, Stephen had never shown any interest in the family business. He was majoring in engineering in college. If he wanted to join forces with his brother, wouldn’t he have been studying business or something flying-related?
“You’re not upset because he doesn’t want to be in the family business,” she said gently. “It’s that he didn’t tell you himself. You had to find out this way.”
“Sure, that’s some of it. Why the hell couldn’t he come talk to me? I’m his brother. Why wouldn’t he tell me the truth?”
She put her hand on his arm. “Maybe because you’re not interested in the truth. You only want to hear the story you want to hear. I suspect both your brothers have been telling you things for a long time. They didn’t decide to come here on a whim. They’ve been looking for a way out for a while. The show offered them that in an easy way.”
“You don’t know as much as you think you know.” His voice was low and angry, although she had a feeling he was more angry at himself than at her.
“I know you’re pushing them. I know you’ve been pushing them for a long time. You want to run their lives because you believe it’s the only way to keep them safe.” She drew in a breath. “Finn, you’ve done an amazing job with your brothers. Everyone can see it. There is no arbitrary line that you cross that says it’s okay to stop worrying. That it’s okay to stop taking care of them. That’s what you’re looking for. Someone somewhere to tell you it’s okay to let go.”
He shook off her hand and backed up a couple of steps. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do. Let them be. You’ve given them everything they need to be successful. Trust yourself and trust them.”
“Even if that means not finishing college?”
“Yes.”
“Not possible.” He shoved his hands into his jeans pocket.
“So what are you going to do?” she asked. “Force Stephen into the family business? Are you going to guilt him into it? That’s not you. You don’t want him living a life of duty, doing things because he has to.”
“That’s what I had,” Finn growled. “Nobody asked me what I wanted. Nobody gave a damn about my life. One day my parents were alive and everything was fine. The next they were dead. I was there. Did you know that? I was flying the plane when it crashed. There was a storm and my mother didn’t want to fly, so we were going to wait. But she was worried about my brothers, so we took off anyway. The plane was hit by lightning and we went down. They were both injured. I had to hike out, and by the time I got back with help, they were dead.”
He’d never told her how his parents had died beyond the fact that it had been a plane crash, and she hadn’t thought to ask for details. She’d assumed it had been some kind of accident but nothing this bad. Nothing he’d been a part of. No wonder he held himself together so tightly. No wonder he didn’t want to get involved or have more responsibility.
Everything made sense now. His intensity with his brothers. His concern about their future and safety. He was trying to control fate, and that wasn’t possible.
She stepped in front of him and stared into his dark blue eyes. “You did what you had to do. You took care of your own. Your parents would have been very proud of you.”
He started to turn away, but she grabbed the front of his shirt and held him in place.
“You’re right,” she said. “No one asked you if you wanted to take on that responsibility. You did it because they’re your family and it was the right thing to do. You understood that. Just like you know, deep in your heart, that you don’t want Stephen in the business if he doesn’t want to be there.”