Her Fierce SEAL: Midnight Delta Book 6 by Caitlyn O'Leary Page A

about the woman.  Is she smart?  Is she pretty?  Is she good enough for you?”  Ah, now that was the Evie Crandall he was used to. 
    “Mom, I’m trying to help this young girl.  It’s complicated.  I’m working with a private investigator.  She’s the one I went out with.  It was just a one-time thing.  We won’t be going on a date again.”  Wasn’t that a depressing thought?  No more strawberry lip gloss for him.
    “You won’t see her again?” Evie asked.
    “No, I’ll see her.  I’m seeing her today as a matter of fact.  I just won’t go on another date with her.”  Finn could practically hear his mother thinking.
    “Finn honey, can I get a promise from you?”
    “Is it important?”
    “It is to me,” she said with determination.
    “I’ll try, Mom.”
    “Don’t hang up for five minutes.  Give me five minutes.  Okay, sweetie?”  Fuck, this was going to be painful.
    “All right.”
    “I’ve put some things together.  I think I know where your head is at.”  God, he sure as hell hoped not.
    “First, there was that bitch Ginger you dated while you were taking those college courses.”  Finn had to work hard not to crush the phone he was holding.  “She made you think that it was your fault she lost the baby.”
    “You know the truth.”
    “Did I say you could talk yet?” Her voice was sharp.  He shut up.  “Dammit, Finn. She was drinking.  How many times had you begged her to stop drinking while she was pregnant?  It was her fault, not yours!”
    “I should have been able to get her to stop–”
    “She was a party girl. She had been looking for someone to sink her claws into, and force them to marry her.  She got pregnant on purpose!”
    He had never heard his Mom so vehement.  Yeah, she had always told him that he wasn’t to blame for Ginger losing the baby.  But this was the first time she told him exactly how she felt about her.
    “Mom, I get what you’re saying.  But that was still my son who died.”
    “And he was my grandson,” Evie said quietly.  “I mourn for him, and say prayers for him every single day.  But I refuse to let my living son bury himself with him.  Dammit, you did nothing wrong.”
    “Your time is almost up.”
    “Then there is your latest mission.  I know it was bad because I have had every member of your team come over to my house.  Hell, even Drake is walking on eggshells.  But he’s the easiest.”
    “What do you mean?”  Drake damn well better have kept his mouth shut.
    “I mean he’s like a mother hen.  He’s so worried about you.  He said you take too much to heart and that if there were such a thing as guilt pie, you would eat the whole thing.  The man really understands you.”
    “I understand what I am, and am not, responsible for.”
    “No, you really don’t, Finn.  You’ve always thought you were responsible for the Western Hemisphere, and you’re not.  You need to be more like Declan.  Now that boy will try to fix the Western Hemisphere, but he knows he’s not responsible for it, and if it’s fucked up, it wasn’t his fault.”
    In his almost thirty years of life, he had never heard his mom drop the F-Bomb.
    “So to sum things up Finn, because I’ve been keeping track of time, you are a good man.  There has been some crap that has been shoved your way, but I need you to stop feeling like you were responsible for it.  You weren’t.  You are a good man.  You are a good man.”  Oh God, she was crying.
    “Mom.”
    “I’ve got to go, honey.  Please think about what I’ve said.  I’m begging you.”
    “I will, Mom.”

Chapter Five
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    F inn strode across the grass towards the picnic benches.  The others hadn’t noticed his arrival, which amazed Angie.  How could they not?  Finn’s presence was so formidable, she fantasized that the oak trees swayed toward him as he walked by.
    “He’s got your motor running, doesn’t he girly?” her grandfather’s