Finn's Christmas Dilemma (Holiday Hunks Book 3) Read online

  Trinity sprang from her seat and gave Cheryl a grateful hug. “You are the best mom anyone could ask for.”

  Chapter 9

  Caroline was delighted to hear Trinity’s decision, and even Brina, who was not completely sure she liked Finn, agreed a face-to-face was the best move. Especially since Finn dad not replied to Trinity’s text or voice mail asking him to meet and talk.

  Dressed in her favorite skinny jeans and squall jacket, her hair freshly washed, her lips and eyes with a touch of makeup, Trinity drove to Finn’s cottage and carried her box of cookies to the front door. She did not see any lights on but rang the bell anyway, then knocked as well. After a few more tries, she realized he was not home.

  He could be at his parents’ house, out with friends—or a woman—or at the dance studio. Trinity refused to quit and go back home when she was all set with an apology she’d rehearsed in her head a thousand times. She wasn’t about to go barging in on his parents, and she could not traipse around to see if he’d gone out with someone, but visiting the dance studio was indeed a possibility. And the most likely place he would be, since Casey’s show was only a few days away.

  Trinity headed to the North Cove Performing Arts Academy and pulled into the familiar lot. As she walked into the lobby, a memory of the days she used to come here to take ballet and jazz classes came rushing back to her.

  And one particular day loomed large—the day Finn came with her, and his ability to pick up the movement and do it so easily had Casey luring him into her web of dance.

  “May I help you?” a middle-aged woman sitting at the front desk asked her.

  “Yes, I’d like to speak with Finn Brogan.”

  The woman chuckled and gave her an indulgent smile. “Everyone wants to speak with Finn Brogan. Are you from the press? Is Casey expecting you?”

  “No, I’m a friend.” Suddenly she worried Finn might not acknowledge her as a friend since he hadn’t responded to her messages, so she added, “I know Casey. I used to take classes here many years ago.”

  The receptionist was not impressed. “Well, Finn is not here.”

  Trinity fumed. This woman was probably giving her the stock answer she had in reserve for all the people coming around in hopes of meeting the big star of Dance Time. Little did she know what Trinity and Finn had been doing to each other in bed the other night. Trinity was a hair from saying something like that to shock the woman out of her smug grin, but then she realized how crazy it would sound. Not to mention the fact that lots of TV and movie stars picked up women and slept with them and never intended to have a relationship with them. Including Finn Brogan, which was one reason Trinity had assumed the worst of him the other night. But she remembered her discussion with her mother and tried again.

  “Are you sure he is not here? If I give you my name—”

  “He’s gone out of town.”

  “So close to the performance?” Gimme a break.

  The woman shrugged.

  “Where did he go?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  Feeling frustrated and insignificant, Trinity snapped at the woman, saying, “Are you saying he won’t be back until the performance?”

  “He’ll be at dress rehearsal tomorrow night.”

  “Oh.” Maybe she was telling the truth. But whether she was or not, if Trinity could not get through to Finn by then, she would be back.

  On her drive home, Trinity debated sending him another text, and decided to take her mother’s advice and send one that had more feeling than thought.

  I am so sorry I misjudged you. Please forgive me.

  Just that. And it felt right.

  “How did it go?” Caroline asked as soon as she walked into their second-floor apartment.

  “In the mood for some leftover Christmas cookies?”

  “So he’s not back yet.”

  Trinity gaped at her. “How did you know he went out of town? And why did you let me go chasing after him if you knew?”

  “I didn’t know until I saw this. Come sit down.” Caroline went to her laptop that she had been using on the coffee table and gestured for Trinity to sit on the sofa. “Did you know he was going to be part of a flash dance mob at Times Square?”

  “No, I…”

  “Well, look, he’s right out in front with that sexy Broadway dancer Nolan Harkness.”

  Trinity watched the clips and saw the placards some held high and read about boys being bullied because they wanted to dance—and suddenly it hit her to the core—the depth of her abandonment of Finn in high school and how much it must have hurt him. And yet he forgave her over and over again.

  Had he finally reached his limit? Was that why he was not calling her back?

  Caroline clicked to the next slide and a video played of an interview that took place only yesterday morning on Hello All. Trinity tried to take her mind off how handsome Finn looked and focus on what they were saying.

  She beamed with pride over Finn, and she caught herself thinking, What right do I have to take any pride in Finn? He isn’t mine. Except she’d always thought of Finn as hers, or as an extension of her, or as someone who was part of her. The whole thing confused her and she had to admit she did not understand it at all. Her relationship with Finn had always defied normal labels or boundaries.

  Just as she was thinking about that, Dana Stephens asked Finn about his “latest” and Trinity’s heart clenched. She definitely did not want to hear the name of a woman he was seeing now. Neither did she want to be named as his “latest.” No, what Trinity wanted was to be his “always.”

  * * *

  Trinity entered the back door of the North Cove Performing Arts Academy and tiptoed through the hallway as if she were a thief casing the place. Truth was, she wanted to find Finn before someone like Casey saw her and asked her to leave. She knew they would be starting an important dress rehearsal soon and amid the cacophony of music and voices coming from the different studios she could feel the pre-performance tension in the air.

  “Trinity?”

  “Oh, hi, Rose.” She’d forgotten Rose was an admin here at the school. She was a cafe customer and also a neighbor Trinity had known since her childhood. Another reason to sneak in and out quickly. North Cove was a small town, and while Casey’s school drew students from all over the Fork, there would still likely be people here who knew her.

  “Are you here for the Zumba class?” Rose asked. “Because it’s been cancelled tonight. There’s a big rehearsal for the holiday show. You know we have a show running all weekend?”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “You’re coming, I assume?”

  Trinity nodded blankly, but she cringed inside. Yet another lesson about herself. She had not bought tickets or planned on doing that today while she was here. She was so self-centered all she was thinking about was whether or not Finn wanted her back. “Do you happen to know where I can find Finn?”

  Rose gave her a sweet smile. “So you two are still buddies, huh?”

  “Yep.” Trinity nodded again, hoping it would still be true.

  “Casey would know his whereabouts and she is in her office right now.”

  “Thanks, Rose.” Trinity picked up her pace and when she got close to the director’s office, rather than avoiding Casey, she decided to ask for her help in arranging a brief moment to talk to Finn.” She saw Casey just leaving and rushed toward her.

  Casey gave her a curious glance. “Trinity?”

  “Is Finn around?”

  “It’s not a good time. We have a—”

  “Please,” she blurted. “If I could just have a few minutes.”

  Casey paused and studied her a moment, then opened her office door and gestured for Trinity to go in.

  Before Trinity could even begin, Casey gave her a stern look and said, “You’re the woman who found Maya’s Instagram posts and blamed Finn for it, aren’t you?”

  So she knew. Trinity nodded her head. “So he told you?”

&n
bsp; “Yes. He and Maya had it out right here in this office.”

  “Then he isn’t involved with her?”

  “No. And I’m not sure he should get involved with you if you believed her over him.”

  “I was wrong. I know that.”

  “But you still didn’t believe him and that’s why you just asked me about her.”

  “I just needed to confirm it.”

  “How about what Finn needs? He needed a friend in high school.”

  “I know I let him down.”

  “Yes. But he was strong enough to withstand being ostracized. And now that he is a success, lo and behold, you want him back.”

  “That’s not true. I’m in love with him, always have been, but I got really mixed up. “Trinity lowered her face into her hands. “Look, I know I don’t deserve him.”

  “No, you don’t. But people can’t choose who they fall in love with and Finn is in love with you.”

  Trinity’s head snapped up. “He said…?”

  “He didn’t say that, but he told Maya she made him lose the only woman he ever wanted. And although he’s a good enough performer to come through for me, I can tell he is hurting and I hate to see him that way.”

  “I really messed this up.”

  “Well, figure out how you’re going to apologize and I’ll send him in.”

  “Do you think he’ll come if he knows it’s me?”

  “I won’t say who is in here.”

  “Thank you,” Trinity said. “Thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome, but you have to promise me you will be as strong as he is. And as loyal. And if you hurt him one more time, I will make you pay.”

  * * *

  Finn stood in the corner of Studio Two swigging from his water bottle after two run-throughs of the duet with Maya. Things had been tense when he first walked in, but then he gave her a fake cordial nod and she returned it in kind. It didn’t matter, though. When they went into the choreographed movement they had practiced day after day, the two grumbling people disappeared and they became the dance itself.

  Casey stepped into the studio and gestured for Finn to come to the door. “I need you to come to my office and speak to someone.”

  “A reporter?”

  “No, but it’s someone important, so just grab your bag and let’s go, okay?”

  “Sure.” He picked up his duffle bag and left the studio, walking alongside Casey. She opened the office door and nodded for him to go in, but then turned away.

  That was when he saw Trinity sitting there.

  “What’s this about?” he asked, keeping his distance.

  “It’s about an apology I owe you. In fact, it is years overdue.”

  Trinity stood and stepped toward him, but he stepped back. He had saved that one text she’d sent telling him she was sorry, but seeing her here in front of him, he felt more susceptible to the pull she had on him. She looked beautiful, as always, in sleek jeans and a sweater, her dewy eyes and full lips a distraction. But he was not going to let her twist him around anymore.

  He remained silent, and Trinity went on. “I know my experience with Ian, the guy I’d been engaged to, is not enough of an excuse for my not trusting you, but I tend to be a weak person, as you know. Look at how I left you high and dry when we were teens. Being born with looks I could use to make myself popular in school made me even weaker. And it got worse when I became a model and hung out with people who had no interest in anything beneath the surface.

  “I know what you were looking for when you came into my cafe. It was that spark of magic that always seemed to happen when we were together. Something I’ve never found with anyone else and never will. But it takes courage to look for that. I think it was what I was searching for in drugs and alcohol but didn’t know it. Didn’t even remember there was something I’d lost along the way.”

  She shook her head. “There is no excuse for my unfair treatment of you the other night, but it is based on the fact that I know you deserve someone much better than me. Someone stronger and steadier and more sure of herself. But knowing that’s true doesn’t stop me from loving you. And I know if you would give me another chance, just being with you would make me grow into a person I’m not ashamed of.”

  Finn was speechless. They stood there, eyes locked on each other, and finally he said, “You’re right. That is exactly what I was hoping to find when I went to your cafe. That magic that only exists when I’m with you. Yeah, let’s try again, because I love you, Trinity, and even when I really try to, I can’t stop loving you.”

  “I love you too, Finn.”

  Trinity stepped into his open arms, and he kissed away the tears now streaming from her eyes.

  Chapter 10

  Every place in the academy had some kind of fun holiday decoration, mostly Christmas but also Chanukah and Kwanzaa. The huge studio where the performance would take place had small Christmas trees on either side of the stage. The proceeds from Casey’s holiday shows always went to charity, so there was also a booth on the way to the reception room where a person could make a more substantial donation than the price of a ticket. Finn and some of the wealthier residents in the area tried to do their part.

  It was five minutes before showtime and he peeked out through a slit in the stage curtain to see Trinity in the audience with Caroline. His mom and hers sat to their left.

  Trinity had spent last night with him, not only making love but also making tentative comments about a future they hoped to have together. Living on different coasts did not help and it continued to haunt him.

  Soon the lights dimmed and Finn got that same old tickle in his stomach when the stage lights came on. Tonight the first setup created a festive Christmas atmosphere, the first dance being teens who were quite good doing a comical, fast-paced modern routine to “Winter Wonderland.”

  The pre-professional ballet company performed a couple short excerpts from The Nutcracker, and the Cove Corps that was Casey’s original performing group wowed the audience with a dynamic display of daring flips and tumbles and lifts, all done with precision to a Bruno Mars hit. Finn thought about the years he and Josh had been the top dogs with that group. Tonight Josh was on a plane to his mother’s home in Germany.

  Next came modern, ballet, jazz, and ballroom duets, trios, and small group dances, but no one could top the wheelchair ballroom ensemble that had won a national competition this past year and their suite of dances formed the finale of the first half.

  After the intermission, one of the jazz musicians performing tonight came into the greenroom complaining that all the talk during intermission was about Finn. “That’s the only reason most of them are even here.”

  “Be glad it got them here,” Casey said, rushing around to check all was well with the upcoming performers. The stage manager announced five minutes and Casey gave Finn the same hug and pat on the back that she had given him the first time he had danced onstage in public when he was a terrified fourteen-year-old.

  Unexpected emotions sprang up inside him and he turned away to mask whatever might be on his face.

  But keen-eyed Jenna got up from her split-leg stretch on the floor and gave him another hug, whispering, “She’s the reason I’m a dancer too. Someday I’ll tell you the whole story.”

  In addition to the new duet Casey choreographed for him and Maya, Finn was slated to do one of his signature solos that he’d performed on TV.

  “Finn! Places,” the stage manager said, and Finn walked onto the dark stage and took his opening pose.”

  He heard the short countdown to the sound, and he was on. Moving in a world of his own creation. His body alive in every cell. His mind attuned to the music, the space, the audience, the floor, his technique, his expression. The strange and exhilarating mix of the unknown—Would he nail the next move or miss it?—and the familiar—the body-mind memory of patterns rehearsed over and over until they flow as naturally as a river.

  When he finished, the audience went nuts, cl
apping and cheering and calling for an encore. No way would he do that. This show belonged to Casey and her flock and he was only one among them.

  He bowed several times, nodding his thanks, and ran off.

  Jenna met him in backstage, hands on her hips. “How am I supposed to follow that?”

  “Hey, you are the big deal here, not me. A world-renowned A-list ballerina? Gimme a break.”

  She gestured in the direction of the audience that was still clapping and calling for Finn. “Tell them that.”

  “Maybe I will.” He started to go forward.

  Jenna grabbed his arm. “Don’t you dare.”

  One of the techies stepped up to him. “Dave wants to know if you’re dancing a redux, Finn.”

  “No.” He gave Jenna a hug for good luck and a pat on the back to her partner, a ballet dancer he had only met tonight. They were doing a pas de deux from the Sleeping Beauty ballet. But Finn could not stay to watch. He needed to get out of his wet sweat-soaked costume and into the one for Casey’s new duet.

  He knew there were only a few short dances and a musical number between Jenna’s pas de deux and Casey’s new dance. So he headed back to the greenroom to work on keeping his muscles warm.

  Maya came up to him and said, “Can I talk to you a minute, Finn?”

  “Sure.” He got up and followed her to a quiet part of the room.

  “I just want to say how sorry I am for abusing your kind friendship. I can get very aggressive and carried away and it’s not something I am proud of.”

  “Thanks, Maya. I appreciate you saying that.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t want anything to make our duet go bad, although I know you are a consummate professional and would never let that happen.”

  “Neither would you, right?”

  “No.” She bit her lips and then went on. “You know how unpredictable this whole business is and I guess I’ve been having a difficult time and that is not your responsibility. So, I’m also sorry for that remark I made when we were arguing.”