Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (86 page)

“Lass,
can I talk te ye now?” Finlay asked when they were all seated.
This time, he was sure to have the seat right next to her. The seat
on the other side, was of course, taken by Angel, then Cedric,
leaving Tanner to sit on the left side of Finlay.

“What,
Finlay? What?” Morgan was laughing, but she was serious. It had
been at least the sixth time Fin had asked to speak to her. “Just
spill it,” she slurred, giving him a firm poke in his chest
that he quickly swatted away.

Finlay
looked around the table, his brows tightening in the center as he did
so. “Fook it. 'Ere goes.” He took a deep breath, looked
toward Morgan and began, “I told ye that I had a baby, aye?”
Morgan nodded, and Angel leaned in close, propping his chin on his
interlocked fingers. The next part, he had been sworn to secrecy to
never tell, but circumstances were...different. “It...Cameron
is his name...Cameron wisnae mine.” He spoke slowly, but his
thick accent made his words run together as they always did when he
drank. “And the mum...she made me promise I would nae tell a
soul because the father was a real bastard. I told her I'd take care
of the wee lad.”

One
of Morgan's hands came to her mouth and the other one fell over
Finlay's hand. “Fin....I don't know what...I'm sorry.”
A single tear fell over her cheek too quickly for Finlay to catch. He
gently smoothed it away as he continued. “I should have told
ye everything. I didn't. I'm sorry, Love. I'm so verra sorry. It
was a lot te take in and I should have told ye,” he repeated
again. “The mum was very ill and I had this tiny weein in me
hoose while she was getting better...but...she didnae get well
and...” Finlay looked down at his lap then back up to Morgan
with a heavy pain that filled his eyes. “Cameron's mum passed
away and the lad is staying with family now.”

The
reality of the whole situation hit Morgan hard and her shoulders
shook as the pain left her body in heavy sobs. She didn't cry over
the misunderstanding, her heart broke as she felt the entire truth.
Finlay owed her nothing, and she had made him feel as if he did. He
had his own life before her, and still did, and somehow she had
turned his difficult situation into a pity fest for herself. Guilt.
It was eating her alive as Finlay pulled her close and tucked her
face gently into the crook of his neck.

“I'm
sorry, Fin. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put you through any of
this. I'm sor...”

“Shhh
Love. I told ye that I love ye, yer a part of me now. I owe ye....
everything.” His sweet words did nothing to help, in fact, it
made it that much worse. “No more of that. Ye hear me?”
His large hands moved to either side of her face and he forced
her to look at him. “I love ye. With all that I am, Morgan
Holland, I love ye.” She had no time to react.

“Sweet
Mother of Mary! That was some beautiful shit, Finny Boo Boo.”
Angel wiped his own tears and sniffed loudly. Morgan began to laugh,
while still crying, and that made everyone else at the table laugh,
except for one.

“Excuse
me.” Tanner stood quickly and walked directly toward the
restroom. Morgan didn't pay attention to the commotion, nor did she
acknowledge that Angel followed right behind Tanner. She could only
smile, and look into the handsome face of the man that she had
tormented for so long.

“Now,
no more talk of the wee bairn, he's in a good place now and he'll be
fine,” his head dropped slightly as he brushed his lips over
Morgan's, “and no more apologizes,” another soft kiss,
“and most of all,” his lips moved to her damp eyelashes
and he kissed the final tears away, “no more pain for either of
us, aye?” Morgan nodded and placed her forehead against his
cheek. Their closeness was enough, and no more words on the topic
were spoken.

Cedric
looked at everything in the diner as he avoided the private moment,
and wondered what was currently happening in the men's room. That
scene, he decided, would also be avoided. Instead, he motioned for a
server and quietly ordered enough food for a small army. He no
longer cared what everyone wanted, he just knew that feeding the
emotional lot might help in getting everyone back on the happy train.

Angel
had stormed in closely behind Tanner, and even though the Aussie had
made it clear that he did not want company in there, Angel was in no
hurry to leave. The curly-haired man carefully gathered four brown
paper towels from the dispenser and laid them next to each other
across the sink, one by one, as to not soil his expensive jeans, then
sat cross-legged on the porcelain piece. He rested one elbow on his
leg and his chin on his fist and flashed a wide smile to Tanner.

“Why
are ya in here? Get off the damn sink and go back out there with your
friends.” Tanner didn't mean to snap at Angel, he had nothing
to do with the the cuddlefucks at the table, but he was in no mood to
talk about it.

“They're
your friends too, Tan Man.” Angel kicked his foot as he spoke,
as neither of his legs touched the ground.

“I
just...fuck!” Tanner ran his hands through his hair and quickly
paced to the other side of the bathroom, past the five stalls, then
back to the spot in front of Angel.

“We
all know you
fuck
and from what I've heard, you...”
Angel was cut off by a loud groan from Tanner. “Did you just
stop the words coming out of my mothafuckin' mouth with a
mothafuckin' growl? Boo, don't you be growling at me!”

Tanner's
mouth twitched with a smile, but he turned his back on the Brazilian
before he could notice. “Angel...is it selfish to just want her
for myself? I know she has her friends, and I don't care if she drank
wine because he was drinking it, or if he holds her hand while we're
walking down the street, but I can't sit there while the two of them
are professing their fucking love to each other.”

“Yeah,
that's pretty mothafuckin' selfish.” Angel jumped down from the
sink, and walked over to Tanner, and placed a hand on his back. “But
I didn't say you're wrong. Look Boo, you know for a fact that the
Sticky Bitch out there loves you.”

“But
for the first time, I'm wondering if...” Tanner couldn't speak
the words. He was starting to wonder if she loved Finlay in a
different kind of way, and it shook his confidence in a way it had
never been rattled. Everything he'd known for a fact was now being
questioned.

“Your
ass is wondering which of you she's going to choose.” Angel
wasn't asking Tanner, he stated it as if it were a well known fact.
Tanner shrugged, then nodded.

“Yeah.
I guess that's pretty much it.”

“Tan
Mothafuckin' Man, you're going to listen and you're going to listen
good. She loves you and she loves Fin Stick. End. Of. Mother.
Fucking. Story. There is no secret of figuring out who she loves
more, Boo. She loves both of your crazy, stalker,
making-plans-to-suit-yourselves, jealous...don't make that face,
you're jealous, don't you even lie...mothafuckers. Now, I could be
wrong, but I'm pretty sure neither of y'all met her under dating
circumstances and I'm pretty damn sure neither of you have put a ring
on her, now perfectly manicured, ring finger. You can love her, and
she's going to love you. But, she's going to love him too. Don't rush
it, boo, just enjoy it. Nobody has to choose anything. If you want to
date, you go on with yourself and you go date...but don't you be
getting your little emotionals all tangled up at my girl because she
is giving Finlay some attention. And this is just me talking, but
that is some serious mothafuckin' bullshit going on out there and I
think the big leprechaun needed to talk it out.” Angel had
seemingly spoken everything in one breath, making his words fly out
of his lips in a very quick rant, but Tanner understood every word.

“I
fucking hate it when you're right, mate.” He gave Angel a firm
slap on his back and nodded, “I suppose I overreacted. It's
just hard to see the woman I love more than anything in this world
tell another man that she loves him.” Angel was about to cut
him off, but Tanner continued. “I know, I know they love each
other, but it's still hard. But I guess Fin must feel the same way
about me.”

Angel
snorted. “Boo, he is ten times worse.” The two of them
laughed as they left the bathroom and back at the table, things had
calmed down and non-alcoholic drinks were sitting in front of every
chair. The two men found their places and joined in on a conversation
about the food Cedric had ordered. It turned out to be a lot of food,
but it also turned out that the five of them were much more hungry
than they thought and every last french fry was devoured.

There
was no more drama that night. Finlay had cleared the air with Morgan,
Tanner and Finlay both understood that Morgan didn't have to choose
either of them that day, that month, or even that year, and Morgan
was at the most peace she'd been in, in months. It was a wonderful
night, and it only ended when the sun was beginning to rise and they
all found their hotel rooms just before dawn.

*****

The
rest of the week went much of the same way. Morgan divided her time
in Paris between all of the men, and even with her monthly curse upon
her, she managed to have one of the best weeks of her life with all
of her loves.

One
full day with Finlay provided more details about Cameron and the
situation that he'd put himself in, and Morgan's heart was even more
settled about the whole ordeal. However, her guilt was still
something that she had to work through, putting the man through hell
over his past wasn't one of her finest moments, but Finlay also knew
that he should have told her sooner, so the guilt was worked out on
both of their parts.

Tanner's
heart was still hurting since the realization that Morgan and Finlay
were in love, but his day with her proved that nothing had changed
between them, and their shared love was still intact and stronger
than ever. It also helped that when he saw Angel through the week,
the trouble-maker always did his best to put Tanner and Morgan in
close proximity. It was clear that Angel liked Finlay, but it was
more than obvious that he didn't want his Sticky Buns to get too
attached to anyone. It wouldn't be until later that Tanner thought
about Angel's persistence to get he and Morgan together....because
Angel saw Finlay as a bigger threat to win over his best friend...for
good.

Tanner
left Wednesday evening, and the whole gang saw him off at the
airport. Morgan promised to see him soon, and she meant it. In
fact, she planned to visit him in a few week's time, but she didn't
tell him her plans right then.

Cedric
and Finlay left the next morning, and a tearful Angel was the center
of everyone's world until the two men were finally boarding their
flights. Morgan was a bit bothered that her time was spent consoling
her best friend, but saying goodbye to Finlay was always difficult,
so it at least eased the pain of letting him go. Finlay, she
silently promised, would be seen very soon as well.

The
only two left were Angel and Morgan. Paris would be blessed with
their presence for one more day, and they planned to get the very
most of their precious time together.

Chapter
Seven

“Eryk
Baran, and we're not doing this right now.” Morgan had just
closed her laptop to keep Angel from snooping around her next client.
Angel, who never took 'no' for an answer, had the computer in his
hands and was running for the bathroom before Morgan could barely
blink. “Angel! You said we were going to have lunch! You can
judge Eryk later...let's go!” Morgan was outside the bathroom
door with her both hands wrapped around the locked knob. All she
received in response was giggling from the other side. “Open
this door right now!” More giggling. Morgan let out a long
defeated puff of air, and ran her hands through her hair. “Fine.
Five minutes of judging, then we're eating.” The door flew
open quickly and Angel ran past her, and didn't stop until he was
cross-legged in the center of her bed.

“Good,
because a bitch couldn't sign on.” Morgan's head shook slowly
as she smiled.

“You're
a real pain in the ass, ya know that?” Angel nodded quickly
and told her to sit her 'sticky ass' down beside him. “I
thought Julie Annie took all the pictures down when you picked your
man.”

“Julianne,”
she corrected, “and yeah, she did, but that only lasted up
until
someone
had picked my client for me and
someone
had
no idea what they looked like. I heard some of the other girls had
that issue too...so, I guess she decided she would keep their
profiles up, but now they change to 'not-available',” Morgan
explained, making invisible quotations in the air with her fingers.
Angel blushed and shrugged his shoulders.