She gave him a grin, he dropped his hand then she moved toward the barn. Layla stood there looking indecisive and Mike lifted a hand and pointed at Dusty’s departing figure so Layla turned and trotted after Mike’s woman.
He moved to the house. Dusty had texted Fin and he’d told her he was in from the fields to eat lunch. She asked him to stay because Mike wanted a word. When Mike walked in the backdoor, he saw Fin at the sink downing a Coke, waiting for him.
Fin dropped his hand, his eyes on Mike and muttered, “Yo, Mr. Haines. Everything cool?”
Mike noted his eyes were alert but his posture relaxed. Rees and No were with their mother that weekend which was one of the few times that every available minute Fin had was not with Mike’s daughter. Still, he had no doubt they communicated profusely during these times as they did any other time they were forced to be apart. So Mike knew that Fin probably knew more about the state of his daughter at that very moment than Mike did.
“Yeah, everything’s cool. Just need a few words with you,” Mike told him, advancing but stopping four feet away and leaning a hip against the counter. He rested a hand in the counter, locked eyes with Fin and asked quietly, “All going okay with your Mom?”
Fin nodded. “We woke her shit…uh, I mean, seems the other night we woke her up.”
Mike let the swearing pass and nodded back, muttering, “Good.” Then he went on, “You should know, been workin’ with some of my boys at the Station as well as a few other friends who are kickin’ in. Seems we may have some leverage on your Aunt Debbie and Bernie McGrath. Things will get hot the next week or two but what we got, it’s lookin’ good the rest of that will cool down.”
As he spoke, Fin’s alert gaze got heated as well as intense but he simply jerked his chin up when Mike finished and murmured, “Thanks for that, Mr. Haines. Don’t know if I can –”
“Nothin’ for you to do. Dusty’s my woman which means she’s in the family so you’re in the family. Family steps up for family so if you’re shufflin’ markers you owe in your head, stop. This is life, Fin. You take, later there’ll be a time you give. It’s just the way it is. Let it go.”
Fin held his eyes then he jerked his chin up again.
Mike drew in breath.
Was he going to fucking do this?
He looked at the boy who was mostly a man in front of him, flashes going through his head of him studying with Mike’s girl, smiling at Mike’s girl, holding her hand, opening the car door for her, leading her into Swank’s with his hand light on the small of her back.
Fuck, he was going to fucking do this.
“I know you know that I’ve got a rule about Rees not car dating until she’s sixteen,” Mike stated.
That peaked Fin’s interest as well as made his body shift in a way that appeared uncomfortable.
But Fin sucked it up and responded, “Yeah. I know. It’s cool. Things are good as they are.”
“I’m lifting that rule.”
Mike watched Fin’s body go solid.
He wanted it, time alone with Mike’s daughter.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Mike pulled in another breath and, low, he said, “I’m doin’ this because I’ve been watchin’ you with her and I trust you. You’ve given indication you care about her. You’ve stepped up for her. You protected her. You kept your shit in the situation with those kids and caused no more trouble, makin’ a mature decision which is another way of protectin’ her rather than putting her further out there. I’m doin’ this because I know you won’t screw me if I do. And by that, I mean, my daughter is fifteen. It is not lost on me you have some experience. So I’m gonna lay it out for you, Fin. She cares about you, she trusts you but she’s too damned young to go there with you. Not now. Not in two months. Not in ten. Not even after that. I’m lettin’ you both have this because I know you won’t disrespect her and, in doin’ so, disrespect me. And if I find that I’m wrong about that, there’s nothin’ I’ll be able to do to change it. But I’ll be really fuckin’ disappointed.”
When he was finished, Mike was shocked as shit to see that Finley Holliday wasn’t grateful. He wasn’t embarrassed. He wasn’t uncomfortable.
He was pissed way the fuck off.
“We’re talkin’ about Reesee,” he growled and Mike held his eyes.
“Yeah, Fin,” Mike agreed.
“You’re a cop. You’re a Dad. You’re a guy. You know,” Fins stated, his voice still low, harsh, pissed.
“Fin –”
“You’ve seen me with her and you know you do not have to say that shit to me,” Fin ground out.
Jesus.
“I’m her father. It’s my job to be thorough,” Mike returned.
“Well, you been thorough,” Fin shot back. “So I’ll tell you it means somethin’ to me you trust me with her because you can. You know my Dad. You’re with my aunt. You know the Hollidays so you get me. There are all the other girls then there’s Reesee and bein’ her Dad and all, you know that too.”
Mike fought back his lips twitching and he replied, “Yeah, I know all that.”