Chapter 21
Finn woke up feeling very weird and almost guilty. That was not the way he envisioned having dinner with Tess. He really felt like an intruder last night. It felt totally different than the lunch he had enjoyed with Tess and Jodi and Matt and their kids. That had been so light and easy. The dinner felt very forced and awkward and he felt that way too much family history had been shared with him.
It was obvious to Finn that Tess and Stevie had been through a great deal together and their bond must run very deep. Their relationship was interesting. From what Finn had learned last night, they were married to brothers at one point. Stevie's husband died while she was pregnant with Xander. Tess was divorced from the other brother. He was obviously still alive and remarried. Finn also gathered that he did not live anywhere nearby because Claire talked about facetiming with her father and having to go visit him. Finn also remembered the fact that Tess's ex had another kid with a different woman at some point. He wasn't sure if that was while he was married to Tess or not. Claire's dad also apparently was seriously injured by a bull at some point in his life, but still worked on a, what was the word she used, Estancia? Was that Spanish? He also guessed that Nick had really hurt Tess by the way she seemed to shut down every time he was mentioned, but he noticed that she tried to hide that hurt from Claire. It was obvious that Tess didn't want Claire to hate her father even though he had obviously really hurt Tess. Finn respected that immensely. It seemed to him like it may be a difficult situation that Tess didn't want brought up to a total stranger. He felt guilty for knowing such personal information about her when she didn't offer it.
Then there was the whole thing about her and Jodi not knowing each other as kids. That confused him too because, having witnessed them together, Finn saw that they were extremely close. He couldn't believe they didn't grow up together.
He was sorry for having accidentally intruded into Tess's personal life like that. He wanted to learn more about her. Hell, he was completely fascinated by her, but he wanted it to be on her terms. Finn wanted to wait until she was ready to share that type of information because she wanted him to know and not because teenagers were bickering and oversharing.
He wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to embarrass Tess any further, but he wanted her to know that it was okay. He wanted to let her know that everyone has baggage they carry with them. Learning her baggage didn't turn him off. Instead, it made him want to know her even more. He wanted to be the man to help make her life easier. She must be an extremely strong woman to get through all of that and still be out there living her life, Finn thought.