The Finn Factor

“Sure,” I said sweetly. I grabbed a ball of orange wool and knelt behind him, making sure to press close to his back. Then, with one arm over each of his shoulders, I wound the wool around his forearms and tied a knot to make the first stitch, explaining the process as I went. “To cast on, you need to make a row of basic stitches.”

I leant over even farther, pressing my breasts into his shoulder blades, and picked up his wrists. His breath caught, but it was such a slight change that I might have missed it had my ears been any farther away from his mouth. I was pretty certain Amelia wouldn’t have noticed the undertones of what was happening.

Once we had the first row of stitches, I moved one of his hands through a loop and told him to grab the wool and pull it back through. And, as I was explaining, I rubbed ever so slightly against his back. He tensed but was obviously trying to keep his reactions under wraps. I had to admit seeing Fi

The doorbell rang and Fi

When the door opened his face lit up. “Hey, Billie.”

There was something that looked almost…complete in Fi

Billie raised an eyebrow. “You get into some kinky stuff while I was gone, Fi

Amelia ran over and, all arms and legs, launched herself at her sister. “Billie, I’m so glad you’re home. Fi

Fi

“Who’s Harvey?” Billie said, slinging an arm around Amelia.

“Harvey’s our dog. Wait till you meet him. Even the vet said he was clever.”

Billie turned to Fi

Fi

“Hey, Scarlett,” she said and plopped down on the sofa behind me.

I started rolling the orange wool back up from its crisscrossing trail across the room. “Hi, Billie. Great to see you.”

“So,” Billie said, her jet black bangs falling in her eyes. “Let me get this straight, now that I have more information to go along with the little you shared on the phone. In the short time since I was last home, Amelia got kicked out of school, you guys got a dog, there are hippies camping out in the backyard, Fi

I’m having crazy-good sex with your brother every chance I get. “Um, I went to a silversmithing class with Fi

“Why not?” Billie said with a laugh. “So what else did I miss?”

Amelia crawled into the seat next to her sister, watching her with hero worship. “Harvey has a sore paw but Fi

Billie blinked huge brown eyes. “Yeah, I’m going to need a drink to cope with all of that information.” She turned to me. “Don’t suppose you have the ingredients for your famous mojitos?”

“Sure,” I said and stood, taking in Fi

Amelia jumped up and stood beside me. “Can I have one this time?”

“You’ll have to ask Fi

Before she could even ask he said, “Nope,” and continued trying to disentangle his hands.

“Come on,” I said, dragging Amelia into the kitchen with me. “I’ll make you a virgin mojito. You’ll love it.”

Chapter Thirteen

Fi

My birthday party was in full swing. My sisters, Scarlett, her parents, and I were all under the trees in the backyard, drinking Amelia’s homemade lemonade and passing around platefuls of something John and Jane had made that was completely inedible. Harvey—wearing a party hat—was doing a great business in gobbling food passed to him under the chairs.

I’d done well on the present front—Billie had tracked down a handmade miniature lyre, Amelia had bought me some aftershave and arm-knitted a dark red scarf, and John and Jane had given me a velvet pouch filled with rocks and gemstones from the area that was once Mesopotamia. All in all, besides the hunger from having to pass my lunch to Harvey, I was having a good day.

“Give him your present now,” Amelia said to Scarlett.

“Okay, hang on,” she said, and disappeared into the house.

Billie gri

The whole group spent the next three minutes discussing more and more outrageous options, when they all knew full well Scarlett would be giving me a teddy bear painting because Scarlett always gave me a teddy bear painting for birthdays and Christmases. Strangely, I was looking forward to it this year, even though I still thought it was cheesy. The whole concept had finally grown on me.

When she reemerged, she was carrying a canvas, draped with a sheet, that she handed to me. I took it, and she kissed my cheek.

“Happy birthday, Fi

She didn’t linger, which was a shame, but I’d claim a proper birthday kiss later, once we were alone. Even so, the barely-there kiss woke my entire body up so, for self-preservation, I focused on the painting. “Thanks.”

Holding the canvas high so everyone could see, I pulled the sheet away to reveal my teddy bear. Except it wasn’t a teddy. It was Harvey, his black and white body depicted in strong brushstrokes, though his face was rendered softly, in exquisite detail.

“Harvey!” Amelia said and the dog himself rushed to her side. “You’re in a painting. You’re famous!”

Billie and Scarlett’s parents were making other comments that included his name, so Harvey was ru

In the commotion, I turned to Scarlett. “Thank you. It’s incredibly beautiful. But…no teddy bear?”

“You said you didn’t even like teddy bears,” she said, smiling too sweetly.

“I say that every time, and you still give them to me. You say I need them.”

She shrugged. “I found something you needed more.”

I needed a picture of someone else’s dog in my bedroom? Only in the mind of Scarlett could that make sense. Besides, I’d seen my real birthday painting. Amelia reached for the canvas and I passed it to her, then crossed my arms over my chest. “I saw you painting a teddy bear in your art attic.”

“I changed my mind a couple of nights ago and stayed up late,” she said, as if it was no big deal to create a new painting from scratch over a couple of nights and still make it amazing. “I think I’ll give the teddy to Amelia instead.”