The Scarecrow

Chapter 40

"Your parents are coming here?" Rory asked sounding surprised.

"Yeah...." Finn replied.

"Like to our house?"

"No, but they'll be in the area," he answered.

"You seem upset by this.  I thought you liked your parents?"

"Well, we get on well enough, but....." he trailed off.

"But what?"

"I haven't exactly told them about you or us," he confessed quietly.

"You haven't?  Why the hell not?" she asked sounding a little angry.

"To be honest, I didn't want any extra pressure on either of us and with the baby," he started to explain.  "It's not as if I've had a stellar track record with women in the past.  Believe it or not, I was a bit of a cad - a playboy if you will."

"You?  No way, I don't believe it!" she joked back.

"It's true.  The sweet and innocent Finn you thought you knew had a very thick black book of numbers," he continued but couldn't keep a straight face.  He began laughing.

"But seriously, we need to figure out how to handle this."

"Oh, my parents will be over the moon that I'm in a serious relationship.  I just like where we are and I don't want you to feel pressured into something because of them."

"I get that.  I like where we are, too, but I think we're at a point where we can discuss our future without feeling the pressures from our parents," she replied with a smile.

"Ok, so, we're having dinner next Saturday night," Finn said.

"I think this is a perfect opportunity for Logan to have some one-on-one time with his daughter," Rory said with a grin.

"You think he's ready for that?"

"He's going to have to be!" she replied confidently. 

The next week flew by as Rory and Finn prepared for his parents' visit.  He hired a maid service to come in for a good, thorough cleaning.  At first, Rory protested, but when she saw how amazing the place looked afterward, she had changed her mind.  She didn't realize how much she'd neglected things since Tori was born, and started feeling the pangs of guilt for not doing enough.  She tried to tell herself that it was just a temporary thing because the baby required so much of her attention, but it still weighed heavily in the back of her mind.

Finn sensed that something was bothering her, but couldn't pinpoint what it was.  He decided he couldn't keep quiet about it and needed to talk to her.

"What's wrong, Love?"

"Nothing, why do you ask?"

"You've been acting weird all week.  Is it because my parents are coming into town?" he asked.

"No, I'm actually excited to meet them.  I think it will go way better than the last time I met anyone's parents," she replied.

"Are you worried about leaving Tori with Logan?  I think he's perfectly capable -" he was interrupted before he could finish.

"Definitely not!  He is her father and he's been really great with her so far," she explained.  "I'm just not sure why you think something is wrong."

"Since earlier this week, you've seemed a little down, and I want to make sure you are ok."

"Finn, I'm fine.  I promise," she swore.

He thought about it and tried to figure out when the change happened and realized it was shortly after the maid service came in.  "Are you still upset about the maid service?"