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“Caught up with our new friend Raleigh,” I say, keeping my voice between us. I shouldn’t like having secrets with Callahan, but Christ, I do. In my experience, having secrets hasn’t been fun since I was a kid, but sharing them with her… it makes me want to laugh like the fool I am.
His name draws a gasp from Callie. You’d think I’d be jealous, another man getting such a reaction from her, but it’s just more fuel. I’ve spent the day cataloguing all the things we missed last night, all the ways I can make him take her tonight, or make her take him.
More possibilities than we could ever exhaust, and we only have tonight to work with. I don’t want to waste another minute of it than we have to on these fools.
“You guys having a good time?” Finn sits heavily in the seat next to mine, clapping me on the back hard, jolting me back to reality.
“A blast,” I say dryly. “You?”
“Come on, man,” he says. “Even you ought to be having a good time. It’s a wedding, for God’s sake.”
“Not until tomorrow,” I say. Raleigh catches me staring at him and reddens. God, that blush. It takes a fair amount of willpower to keep from finding Callie’s hand as I watch him watch us.
“Is everything all set for tomorrow? Do they need any more help with anything?” Callie asks, being a good sister. We’d all three been sent off on small errands at different times today. Weddings were apparently a damned complicated business.
“For the moment,” says Finn. “But we’ll see how long that lasts. Remind me, if I ever get tricked into getting married.”
“Of what?” I ask. Finn tosses back the last of his drink.
“Not to,” he says with a smirk. I laugh, because I’m supposed to.
Finnegan Hale getting married. That would be a sight to see.
A touch on my ankle has me twitching in my seat. Is that—?
“You might change your mind,” says Callie, leaning forward to tease her brother. “The right person might come along. Or right people.” She glances over at the wedding party meaningfully. Finn looks over, and Callie slides the pointed toe of her shoe up and down my shin. And again.
Finn shakes his head and flags down a server carrying several flutes of champagne. He unloads them all on our table and thanks the man, passing off glasses first to Callie, then to me.
“Never,” says Finn. “Mark my words.”
We toast, because he expects it.
“Do you really mean that?” I didn’t mean to say it out loud, and Finn does a double take.
“How long have we known each other?” he says. “Of course I mean it. Too many restrictions, too many ways to screw it up. No thanks.” He shakes his head and shudders theatrically. “Better to keep it simple. Everybody knows what they’re getting into ahead of time. Managed expectations. Nobody gets hurt.”
“That sounds incredibly boring,” says Callie. She’s getting bolder, that pointed tip of her shoe sliding just under the hem of my pant leg, making me shiver. I retaliate by shifting in my chair just a hair, my thigh sliding against hers.
We’re not touching. There’re clothes and shoes between us and we’re sitting right next to her brother. So really, my dick has no business stirring right now.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
“Not boring,” says Finn. “Smart.” He taps the side of his nose, making me snort. He grins at me.
“Finnegan,” calls a gorgeous blonde from the dance floor. I recognize her from the photo he’d shown me from the bachelor party. “Come dance with me.”
Finn sighs, dramatic again, but the anticipation in his expression is clear as day. “Duty calls,” he says, tipping back the rest of his champagne.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. Speaking of duty calling. I send it to voicemail then shut the device off. I should have left the damn thing in my room.
“What was that?” Callie asks, watching me slide the phone back into my jacket pocket.
“My father,” I say. “Just business. He knows we’ll be back in a couple of days.” At her concerned look, I shake my head. “It’s fine.”
“If you’re sure.” She doesn’t look sure at all, and I’m not having that.
“I’ll tell you what I’m sure about,” I say, using the back of her chair for leverage to whisper in her ear. To anybody else in the room, it looks like I’m just trying to say something without yelling over the music. For me, it brings back memories of the stairwell, getting this close to Raleigh and not touching. Proving to all of us who’s got control. “I’m sure that the next time you want to play footsie with Finn around, I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank you so hard, you’ll feel me for days.”
