Tension (20 page)

George slammed the door shut and raced off, fuming. “I mean, why can’t I do anything about them being on my fucking property?” He hit the steering wheel so hard it reverberated.

“I’m sorry, George.” Stella hung her head.
This is never going to end.
She checked the side mirrors; it didn’t look like they were being followed. “It’s been much better lately, though, right?”

“Kara lives in a gated community in Reston. We should be fine there.” He knew what she was thinking.

“Okay,” she whispered.

He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I love you.”

The ride was forty-five minutes and George held her hand the entire way. He pulled the SUV through a gate and waved at the security guard. Looking at the expansive homes, Stella actually had to remind herself to breathe; these houses made her parents 4000 square foot home look like a shack. George stopped in front of an enormous, beautiful brick home. There were several cars in the driveway, all very expensive. Puzzled, she looked at George. “Didn’t you tell me that you took over the bar to pay the bills?”

He swallowed. “I think I remember saying that.”

“So your bills are extremely high?” Stella couldn’t wrap her brain around the fact that George was helping pay for his sisters’ lives, let alone a house like this. She wondered how much of these bills he paid. And wasn’t Kara married?

“Extremely.” He nodded toward his sisters, who were coming down the steps to welcome them.

They opened their doors and were greeted by three women that looked like female versions of George. All three had dark brown, almost black, hair and the same grey-green eyes. She instantly recognized the tallest one from the dog park the day she ran from George. Her face flushed with embarrassment; she’d thought Kara was his new girlfriend and had run from them both.
She must think I’m a total asshole
.

He separated himself from his sisters and pulled Stella into an embrace. “Ladies, this is Stella. Stella, this is Kara, Kelly and Kate.” He looked at Stella with clear adoration.

“Hi,” Stella said a little sheepishly. “Kara, I think we’ve almost met before.”

Kara’s eyes widened. Kelly and Kate looked at their sister accusingly. They weren’t aware that Kara had met the elusive Stella before.

“You guys are kind of creepy,” Stella admitted with a strained laugh. “You could be triplets.”

“We know,” they all said in unison.

“Let’s get inside, okay?” Kara shooed them up the stairs that led to the front door.

“So, Stella. Tell me, how did you win over this guy?” Kate asked.

“A really long game of hide and go seek,” she playfully punched his stomach.

“Too long,” he answered.

“We’ve heard about you for so long. It’s nice to finally see you in person. I mean, I knew what you looked like after you got shot, but it’s nice to meet you.”

“Kelly…” George warned.

“What? I’m just saying it’s nice to finally meet the love of your life.” She smiled sarcastically at her brother.

“It’s nice to meet you, too. It’s great to meet the love of my life’s family,” she nestled into George’s side as they walked up the stairs.

“Oh, she’s good,” Kate said.

“Real good,” George answered and kissed Stella’s cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered in her ear.

Stella and George followed Kara, Kelly and Kate into Kara’s exquisite home. The house looked like it’d been professionally decorated by a contemporary magazine. Stella was looking around when she heard the quick pounding of little footsteps.

“Unca Wih!” A little girl with black corkscrew curls launched herself at George.

“Finn!” George gathered the little girl in his arms easily and kissed her, swinging her around.

“More! More!” she called, laughing as they spun around the foyer. George put her down after a few spins. “Whoa, I’m dizzy.”

“Me too,” laughed George. He bent down to be on the same level as Finn. “I want you to meet someone real important.”

Finn stared into George’s eyes, her own eyes widened. “Ewwa?”

He nodded, “Ella.” Stella looked at him and he shrugged. “She has a hard time with the ‘L’ and ‘ST’ sounds.”

Stella got down on her knees and shook Finn’s hand. “Hi.”

Finn hugged Stella eagerly. “My Unca Wih woves you.”

Stella smiled. “I sure hope so.”

“You’re pretty,” Finn said sweetly and then turned and ran back in the direction she came.

Stella stood up and looked around the room; it was full of George’s loved ones. It was clear they’d gathered in anticipation of George’s arrival. Stella stood and pulled at the hem of her dress, uncomfortable under their scrutiny.

“El, this is my mom.” George pulled her toward a woman with long salt and pepper hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Mrs. Finnegan’s apron covered her jeans and a bright blue cardigan set. She was barefoot. George hugged her with one arm and kissed her cheek. “Hey, Mom. Dinner ready?”

“Of course; you got here right in time to eat and not help do anything.” She playfully slapped his arm. “Stella, we’ve all heard so much about you.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Finnegan,” Stella said, her hand outstretched.

Ms. Finnegan looked at Stella and then pulled her into an awkward hug. “Dinner in five!” she announced, walking back into the kitchen. All of the sisters quickly followed.

“Okay, so this is John, Kara’s husband.” George pointed to a tall man with sandy blonde hair and freckles. Stella shook his hand and smiled.

George pointed at a preppy guy in his mid-twenties with light brown hair and a devious smiled. “This is Jack, he belongs to Kelly. And this guy right here,” he said, grabbing the neck of a young dark-haired guy with gorgeous green eyes. “This is Owen.”

Kate had walked from the kitchen and got involved with helping get Owen out of George’s grip. “He’s mine.” She smiled ruefully.

Stella turned her head to the side slightly at the exchange. George laughed. “We’re not sure what they are,” he said, pointing between them.

“Shut up, Will.” Kate shoved her brother. She looked at Stella. “Owen is a friend of the family’s from Ireland, but we just started dating.”

Stella smiled; at least she wouldn’t be the only one under the microscope tonight. She felt the eyes of everyone in the room on her. Suddenly, Finn came back into the room and grabbed her hand. “Ewwa’s sitting next to me!” she declared.

Throughout dinner, Finn talked endlessly to Stella about all sorts of things. She’s four, goes to preschool, her boyfriend’s name is Oliver, and she loves a princess called Sofia.

“When are you and Unca Wih getting married?” Finn asked innocently.

All eyes on the table turned to her.

“Well, he’d have to ask me first, right?” Stella laughed.

Finn turned to George. “When you asking her?”

George’s face turned a million shades of red. “Finn, don’t you know it’s supposed to be a surprise?”

“Me and Oliver are getting married,” Finn said importantly, looking around at all the adults at the table.

“Did he get you a ring?” Stella asked.

“Not a ring, but he gave me his gooeys,” Finn said defiantly.

“Wow, his gooeys! That’s something.” Stella played along like she knew what gooeys were. “Did he get down on one knee?”

“No. Why would he do that?”

“I’ve heard that’s what boys do…” Stella took a sip of her wine. “John, did Oliver ask you if he could marry Finn?”

John looked at her, amused, from the head of the table. “No.”

“Finn, Oliver needs to do better. He’s got to ask your dad,” Stella said.

“Daddy doesn’t know everything I do.” She put her little finger to her mouth as she thought. “He’d better ask my momma, though...”

The entire room erupted in laughter.

“That’s right, baby,” Kara said to her daughter.

George looked into the kitchen where all the women, including Stella, were cleaning up the dishes. He hoped she was okay. As he stalked back over to the couch where the men were watching football, he took a big gulp of his beer. He wanted his family to love her as much as he did. His mother had a fake smile all afternoon and he hoped that wasn’t because of Stella.

“Will, what’s wrong?” Jack asked.

“Nothing, why?”

“Because you haven’t taken your eyes off her for a minute since you got here. She’s fine, man. Relax.”

“Dude, she’s hotter in person than she is on TV,” Jack said and then took a sip of his beer.

“Jack, please.” George ran a hand through his hair.

“What’s the problem, Will?”

“I just want to make sure Mom loves her like I do.”

Jack and John both looked at George, astonished.

“Your mom will love her because you do. That’s all you need,” John said, turning his eyes back to the game.

“What’s not to love?” Jack laughed. “I mean, from what I’ve seen…”

“Shut the fuck up, Jack,” George warned through clenched teeth.

“What? I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.”

“I’m not thinking that,” Owen protested.

John didn’t say anything.

“You’re an awful gobshite, Jack,” Owen said, waiting for George to explode.

George got up and walked into the kitchen without a word. “Stella, you ready?” he asked. He was close to exploding. George hated thinking that half the males in the country had probably jerked off to one of the pictures of her floating around the Internet, but he certainly wasn’t going to put up with it from his family.

Kara saw his expression first and knew something was bothering him.

“No, we’re not finished cleaning,” Stella said, a question in her voice.

“It’s fine, Stella. We’ve got it. It was so nice meeting you.” Kara pulled Stella into a hug. All the other women followed Kara’s lead, embracing Stella and then George.

He held Stella’s hand and pulled her along behind him as he rushed to leave his sister’s house.

“George?” Stella asked.

“What?” he answered without slowing or looking at her.

Stella pulled her hand out of his iron grip and stopped walking. She stood waiting for him to stop. He didn’t. “What’s going on?”

“I need to leave now.” He continued walking down the stairs, out the door, and into the SUV and waited on her to join him.

Stella relented and slowly walked down the stairs. She opened the door and stood there, not getting in.

George stared straight ahead for awhile, but when he realized she was just as stubborn as he was, he glared at her. “Get in.”

“What’s going on?” she repeated.

“Get in,” he seethed.

“Not until you tell me why you’re pissed.” Stella crossed her arms over her chest. She could stay here all night.

George rubbed his hand down his face. “Fine, that fucker Jack was talking about how hot you are in all the pictures on the internet.”

“And…”

“It pisses me off. Every guy in the world looking at you like that.”

“First of all, calm down. It’s not like there are nude pictures out there. And what do you care, you have me. All that matters is that you’re the only one that gets to look at me naked. You’re the only one that can do whatever you want to me, naked.”

Stella eased herself into the SUV. “Well, that makes me feel a little better.” She leaned over and pulled his earlobe into her mouth.

“That makes me feel a lot better.” He smiled.

“Who cares if Jack likes my pictures? Your mom hates me.”

“This fight is getting old.” Stella looked up from
The Washington Post
and glared at George, taking a calming sip of her coffee.

“I agree,” he said, his teeth clenched. “I don’t understand why you’d be friends with him.”

“Because we became friends, something I’m sorely lacking since Millie is barely talking to me.”

“You could be friends with tons of different people, El. Why him?”

“Look, we’ve gone around and around about this. What do you want me to do, George? He’s my friend. You didn’t seem to have a problem with me being friends with men when you met me.”

“Patrick and Billy were your roommates, not someone you fucked.”

This argument had been continuous since Jesse had sent flowers (and not just some flowers, a whole roomful of flowers) to the rehab facility while George was visiting Stella, but it got even worse after George learned that Jesse had visited her at his house and that he played for the Falcons. She still wasn’t sure how it took him so long to make the connection between Jesse and the Falcons, but that was neither here nor there. George couldn’t get past her friendship with Jesse.

“You’re going to have to deal with it,” Stella snapped.

George had been watching ESPN and a story about the Falcons’ horrid season came up, which prompted this latest round of debate. “You know, what you really need to do is make up with Millie. You guys seemed to be doing fine a couple of weeks ago.”

She chewed at her nail. “We haven’t talked since we got the bar results. I can’t tell her the real reason I don’t want to be around Patrick. I think she may think we slept together or something.”

George sat down next to her on the couch. “Why would she think that?”

“Think about it. What are the usual reasons men and women in any sort of relationship end things? Sex.”