Read Online Old Enough To Know Better by Carolyn Faulkner - Free Book Online Page A

but when he’d matured, and on the rare occasions that he surrendered to his body, he always made sure that the woman knew the score in no uncertain terms.  His heart had long since been spoken for, and there was nothing here for them on that account.
    But now he was home and she was in his lap and his arms.  He could touch her, and had already spanked her, once, although it had been a somewhat dissatisfactory event, as far as he was concerned.  He wanted the whole package.  He wanted to be her husband, and everything that came with that.  When he was an adolescent and Clint had spoken to him of his love for his wife, and their special kind of relationship, he’d found himself both turned on and touched in a way he’d never expected to be.  Nothing he’d ever heard about or read had ever hit him in quite that same manner, and he knew that it was right for him.
    And, as he matured, he came to recognize that it was more than that, that it was Catherine herself that was right for him, whether or not he ever got a chance with her in this lifetime.  He’d made up his mind, before he’d entered college, that he was going to do whatever it took to make himself enough money so that he could come home one day and be around her, even if he had to include Clint in that equation.  It would be enough just to be able to see her occasionally.
    He’d heard of Clint’s illness through his mother, and had wanted to come home, but frankly, he was at a delicate spot in his business dealings, and he wasn’t sure that he could get away.  Besides, they were both very private people, and he knew that neither Cat nor Clint would have wanted anyone else hanging around them, and if they did, it wouldn’t have been him.
    When Clint had passed, he’d sent Cat a small arrangement – deliberately not of lavender roses – expressing his sympathies, but he hadn’t been able to get away for the funeral, and, in a way, he was somewhat glad of that.  Finn wasn’t at all sure he’d be able to trust himself to give her the time she needed to come to grips with his death, so he forced himself to stay away almost longer than he had intended.
    But he was back now, and he intended to claim her, in every way that was physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically possible, and Clint’s ghost was not going to get in his way.  In fact, he liked to think that Clint would be happy to turn the reins over to him, as he fully intended to love and honor – and guide her - as much and as capably as he had.
    She sniffled and sobbed, and he leaned over and fed Kleenexes to her, which she accepted gratefully.  When the heartrending sobs had subsided a bit, she raised her head a little from his chest, her hair plastered against the side of it by her tears, and said in a watery voice, “You’re still here.”
    Tears were still rolling down her cheeks, and it was all he could do not to cry himself at the sight, but he had to be strong for her.  Without loosening his hold on her one bit, Finn reached out and brushed a hunk of it out of her swollen eyes.  “Yeah, ain’t that just a bitch?”
    There didn’t seem to be anything she could do to move this mountain of a man if he wouldn’t go on his own, and he was wonderfully warm and comforting, so she let herself just put her head back down on his chest and fall asleep.
    It was very hard for Finn not to jump up and down at that small victory, but he tried to satisfy himself by merely kissing the top of her head.  To his delight, she fell asleep almost immediately, and he cursed very colorfully when, not five minutes later, the phone rang.
    He took it upon himself to answer it, knowing it was his mother by the caller ID.
    “Hi, mom.”
    “Oh, you’re still there?”
    “Yeah, I stayed and made sure she had something to eat.”
    “Good boy!”
    Finn rolled his eyes, trying to come to grips with the fact that he would never be much more than eight in his mother’s eyes.
    “How is