Sweet Little Lies Part 3

This earned him a rude snort from Sean. Whether that was because Finn had indeed been Sean's d.a.m.n mom' since the day she'd walked out on them when they'd been three and ten, or simply because Finn was the only one of them with a lick of sense, didn't matter.

"Focus," Finn said to his now twenty-two-going-on-sixteen-year-old brother. "I found the error you made in the payroll. You somehow set everyone to time and a half."

"Oh s.h.i.+t." Sean flopped back to the couch and closed his eyes again. "Rookie mistake."

"That's it?" Finn asked. "Just oh s.h.i.+t, rookie mistake'?" He felt an eye twitch coming on. "This is a d.a.m.n partners.h.i.+p, Sean, and I need you to start acting like it. I can't do it alone."

"Hey, I told you, I don't belong behind a desk. My strength's in front of the customers and we both know it."

Finn stared at him. "There's more to running this place than making people smile."

"No s.h.i.+t." Sean cracked open an eye. "Without me out there hustling and busting my a.s.s to charm everyone into a good time every night, there'd be no payroll to f.u.c.k up."

"You think that's all this pub is, a good time?" Finn asked.

"Well, yeah." Sean stretched his long, lanky body, lying back with his hands behind his head. "What else is there?"

Finn pressed his fingers against his twitching eye so that his brains couldn't leak out, but what did he expect? Back when he'd been twenty-one, he'd been as wild as they came. And then suddenly he'd found himself in charge of fourteen-year-old Sean when their dad had gotten himself killed in a car accident. It'd been h.e.l.l, but eventually Finn had gotten his act together for both his own and Sean's sake. He'd had to.

When Sean had turned twenty-one last year, they'd opened the pub to give them both a viable future. And if Finn's other goal had been to keep Sean interested in something, anything, he couldn't very well now complain that Sean thought life was all fun and games.

"How about making a living?" Finn asked. "You know, that little thing about covering our rent and food and other expenses, like your college tuition? What are you now, a third-year soph.o.m.ore?"

"Fourth I think." Sean smiled, though it faltered some when Finn didn't return it. "Hey, I'm still trying to find my calling. This year probably. Next year tops. And then the good times really start."

"As opposed to what you're doing now?"

"Hey, we work our a.s.ses off."

"You work part-time at a pub, Sean. By the very definition of that, you're having fun every single day."

Sean snorted. "Seriously, man, we need to redefine your definition of fun. You're here twenty-four seven and you know it. You should've let Trouble show you what you're missing. She's cute, and best yet, she was game."

"Trouble?"

"Yeah, man. The new chick. Don't tell me you weren't feeling her. You made her a virgin version of our special. You don't do that for anyone else ever."

True. Also true was that he'd been drawn in by Pru's warm, s.h.i.+ny brown eyes. They matched her warm, s.h.i.+ny brown tumble of long hair, and then there was her laugh that always seemed to prove Pavlov's theory. Except Finn's reaction wasn't to drool when he heard it.

"Did you know she's a s.h.i.+p captain?" Sean asked. "I mean that's pretty bada.s.s."

Yeah, it was. She drove one of the fleet s.h.i.+ps out of Pier 39 for SF Bay Tours, a tough job to say the least. Finn's favorite part was her uniform. Snug, fitted white Captain's b.u.t.ton-down s.h.i.+rt, dark blue trousers that fit her sweet a.s.s perfectly, and kicka.s.s work boots, all of which had fueled more than a few dirty-as-f.u.c.k daydreams over the past three weeks.

He'd never forget his first glimpse of her. She'd been moving in, striding across the courtyard with a heavy box, her long legs churning up the distance, that willowy body with those sweet curves making his mouth water. She had her ma.s.s of wavy hair piled on top of her head-not that this had tamed the beast because strands had fallen into her face.

Yeah, he'd felt her from day one, and though she often sat at the end of the bar he reserved for his close-knit friends, he hadn't spoken much to her until two nights ago.

"She offered to show you a good time and you turned her down," Sean said, shaking his head in mock sadness. "And you call yourself the older brother. But yeah, you were probably right to turn her down. Would've been a waste of her efforts, seeing as you have no interest in anything remotely resembling a good time."

"I didn't turn her down."

"Flat, dude."

Finn hoped like h.e.l.l Pru hadn't taken it that way, because he sure hadn't meant it like that. "I was working."

"Always are," Sean said. "Whelp"-he stood and stretched again-"this has been fun, but gotta run. The gang's hiking Twin Peaks today. First to the top gets number one draft pick in our fantasy football league. You should come."

"I won the league last year," Finn said.

"Uh huh. Which means we'd totally try to push you off the trail and sabotage your ascent. So you should definitely come."

"Wow, sounds like a real good time," Finn said. "But there's this . . ." He pointed to his desk and the mountain of work waiting on him.

Sean rolled his eyes. "You know what all work and no play makes you, right?"

"Not poor?"

"Ha-ha. I was going to say not laid."

This was unfortunately true but Finn turned back to his desk. "Kick a.s.s out there."

"Well, duh."

Chapter 5.

#DidIDoThat?

Hours later, Finn was still at his desk when Sean sauntered back in, hot, sweaty, and grinning. He helped himself to Finn's iced soda, downing it in three gulps. "a.s.ses have been kicked," he said.

"No way did you beat Archer," Finn said. No one beat Archer at anything physical. The man was a machine.

"Nah, but I got second draft pick."

Annie, one of the three servers coming on s.h.i.+ft for the night, stuck her head in. "Already filling up out front," she told them both.

"Got your back, darlin'," Sean said and set Finn's now empty gla.s.s back onto his desk. "Always."

Annie smiled dreamily at him.

Sean winked at her and slid out of the office before Finn could remind him of their no sleeping with the hired help policy. Swearing to himself, Finn grabbed his iPad and followed. He intended to go over inventory, but was immediately waved to the far end of the bar.

Sitting at it were some of his closest friends, most of them having been linked together in one way or another for years.

Archer lifted his beer in a silent toast. The ex-cop worked on the second floor of the building running a private security and investigation firm. He and Finn went back as far as middle school. They'd gone to college together. It'd been Archer who'd been with him in their shared, tiny frat boy apartment the night the cops had come to the door-not because Finn had been caught doing something stupid, but because his dad had just died.

Next to Archer sat Willa. Bossy as h.e.l.l, nosy as h.e.l.l, and loyal as h.e.l.l, Willa would give a perfect stranger the s.h.i.+rt off her back if Finn and Archer didn't watch her like a hawk.

Spencer was there too. The mechanical engineer didn't say much, but when he did it was often so profound the rest of them just stared at him in shock and awe. Quiet, although not particularly shy or introverted, he'd recently sold his start-up for an undisclosed sum and hadn't decided on his next step. All Finn knew was that he was clearly unhappy.

Since pus.h.i.+ng Spence was like trying to push a twenty-foot-wide concrete wall over, they'd all unanimously decided to let it be for now. Finn knew he'd talk about it when he was good and ready and nothing could rush that. For now he seemed . . . well, if not miserable, at least better, and was currently stealing French fries on the sly from Elle's basket.

Elle was new to the group but had fit right in with the exception of Archer. Finn didn't know what was up, but the two of them studiously avoided each other whenever possible. Everyone but Elle was in shorts and tees, looking bedraggled, a little sweaty and a whole lot dusty. Elle hadn't gone on the hike. She didn't do dirt. Or excursion. Dressed to kill as always, she wore a royal blue sleeveless sheath and coolly slapped Spence's hand away from her fries.

He grinned in apology but the minute Elle's back was turned, he stole another. Only Spence could do that and live.

Haley was there too, an intern at the optometrist's shop on the ground floor of the building. But Finn's gaze went directly to the last person sitting there, just as dusty as everyone but Elle.

Pru.

"Got suckered into the hike up Twin Peaks, huh?" he asked.

She smiled the smile of someone who was very proud of herself.

He grinned back. "Number four?" he guessed.

Her smile widened. "Three."

Whoa. Finn turned to Spence, who shrugged. "On the way there, I calculated out who and what everyone's going to pick in the draft," Spence said. "All I needed was the fourth pick, so I didn't see any reason to go crazy out there."

"You did that on the way there," Finn repeated, a little awed.

"Actually, I worked it out in my head before we even left."

Elle looked at Spence. "Remember when you told me to tell you when you were acting like that kid that no one would want to be friends with?"

Spence just grinned and stole another fry.

"She looks so delicate," Willa said and jabbed a thumb in Pru's direction. "Totally thought I could take her." She shook her head. "She wiped the trail with me."

"You do a lot of hiking?" Finn asked Pru.

"Not lately." She lifted a shoulder and sipped at what looked like a plain soda. "I haven't had time," she said demurely. "I'm out of shape."

Archer laughed. "Don't believe that for a second. This girl can move when she's got inspiration, and apparently she takes her fantasy football seriously. You should've seen those long legs in action."

Oh, Finn had. In his s.e.xual fantasies.

"Why didn't you go?" she asked. "Didn't want to show off your long legs?"

Archer choked on beer. "I like her," he announced.

Finn didn't take his eyes off Pru. Hers were lit with amus.e.m.e.nt, which went well with the streak of dirt across her jaw. There was another over her torso, specifically her left breast. "I have great legs," he said.

"Uh huh."

"I do. Tell her," he said to the room.

Spence shrugged noncommittally. "Archer's are better."

Archer grinned. "d.a.m.n straight."

Elle let out a rare smile. "I like her too," she said to Archer.

"It's not about my legs," Finn said to Pru. s.h.i.+t, and now he sounded defensive.

"Maybe you should prove it," she said casually and Archer choked again.

Willa bounced up and down in her seat, clapping. "It's like Christmas!"

"We're keeping her, right?" Spence asked.

"Hey," Sean said, bringing them another pitcher of beer. "If a lady wanted to see my legs, I'd show her. Just sayin'."

a.s.shole.

Pru turned expectantly back to Finn and he had to laugh. "What, right here?" he asked in disbelief.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because . . ." Jesus. How had he lost control of this conversation? "I am not dropping trou right here," he said stiffly, and great, because now he sounded like he had a stick up his a.s.s.

"Maybe he hasn't shaved," Willa said. "That'd keep me from dropping trou. I only shaved from my knees down. My thighs are as hairy as a lumberjack's chest, which is why I'm wearing capris and not short shorts. You are all welcome."

Elle nodded like this made perfect sense.

"Gonna have to prove it to the lady," Archer said ever so helpfully to Finn. "Drop 'em."

He was an a.s.shole too.

Willa grinned and tapped her hands on the bar in rhythm and began to chant. "Drop 'em, drop 'em . . ."

The others joined in. s.h.i.+t. They were all a.s.sholes.

Pru leaned in over the bar and gave him a come here gesture. He s.h.i.+fted close and met her halfway, stilling when she put her mouth to his ear.

"No one but me can see behind the bar," she whispered.

It took a moment to compute her words because at first all he could concentrate on was the feel of her lips on his ear. When she exhaled, her warm breath caressed his skin and he had to remind himself that he was in a crowded bar, surrounded by his idiot friends.

She smiled enticingly.