Free Saved by the Bride by Fiona Lowe

that
was plain wrong. She was the person who didn’t belong.
    He immediately closed the gap between him and his father. “Dad,
what the hell is she doing here?”
    Sean had mostly been an absent father from the time Finn was
twelve, although there’d been occasions when he’d come down on him as the
heavy-handed father complete with the lash of his Irish temper. As a teenager
Finn had taught himself to ride out the lectures, telling himself there was no
point in reacting because Sean would vanish again soon enough. By the time Finn
joined the company at twenty-five, he only viewed his father as a business
associate and Sean had done the same. It worked for both of them.
    But right now, Sean’s mouth was thinned in disapproval and he
was looking more like a father than he had in years. “This is my home, Finnegan,
and Annika’s my guest. Inviting her over for lunch after what happened was the
least I could do.” He folded his arms tightly across his faded, blue Chicago
Cubs T-shirt. “I had an interesting morning in court on Monday, and as a result
I’ve spoken to my secretary about not filtering my mail. Now it’s your turn to
explain. It seems you chose to leave out a few pertinent facts about the night
she came into the house.”
    No way was he feeling any guilt over that . “She outright lied.”
    Silver hair glinted in the sunshine and Sean sighed. “She bent
the truth. Some of us do it from time to time.”
    A sliver of something close to anger tried to pierce his now
well-constructed disconnection from Sean as a father—a detachment which had
started the day Sean had left his mother for Dana’s predecessor. “You’d know
that better than me.”
    Sean stiffened and his eyes flashed but when he spoke it was
back to business, just as Finn preferred. “You need to sit down with her and
discuss the Whitetail warehouses.”
    He’d rather swim with sharks than sit down again with Annika of
the big blue eyes and the long, long legs. “I could do that but seeing as you
bought the warehouses as a business investment, that makes them your baby. I
know how much you like to run things your way so it’s best you talk to her.”
    His father’s mouth twitched. “I would, except I’m on
vacation.”
    He dismissed that in a heartbeat. “You do deals from the lake
every year.”
    “Not this year. I’m spending the entire summer here, and I’ll
return to my desk in September.” Sean tilted his head and gave one of his
penetrating long looks. “You can finally have what you’ve been wanting for a
year now, a shot at running the business. I’m giving you two months.”
    For the second time in two days his father left him speechless.
The earliest memory Finn had of him was in a suit and walking out the door to
the office. Sean Callahan was synonymous with work, and even when the setting
was recreational, Sean kept working. The fact he was handing over the reins for
sixty days in the middle of a production mess was unheard of and totally
unexpected. It was also immensely exciting.
    An uncomfortable thought took hold despite the fact he and Sean
weren’t close, and his question shot out abrupt and terse. “Are you sick?”
    Sean shook his head and thumped his chest. “No, the doctor gave
me a clean bill of health at my physical last week.”
    Now it was official—Sean’s offer made no sense. “Then what the
hell are you going to do all summer?”
    His father gave him a bemused look and extended his arm out
toward the lake. “What do you think I’m going to do? Sail, canoe, read. The
choices are endless.”
    “You’ll be bored in two days.” Finn plowed his hand through his
hair trying to interpret what was going on. “You realize that if word gets out
you’re doing this the share prices are going to plummet?”
    The savvy businessman’s eyes took on a calculating glint. “It
won’t get out. As you pointed out I usually run the company from here every
summer so no business analyst or journalist is