Chapter One
“Good set today, man,” Liam said, slapping me on the back.
“Thanks.” I took a swig of water, downing the rest of the bottle before dropping it in my bag. “Fuck, I’m tired.”
“Drinks tonight?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I rubbed a towel over my forehead. “I’m kind of beat after that workout.”
“You can’t skip.” He shook his head. “I just got back, and it’s not like you’re on call tonight.”
“Fine,” I huffed, knowing I couldn’t get out of it. Not that I’d want to. Asher, Tristan, and Liam were my three best friends. We got together once a week—at least when Liam was in town—to drink and shoot the shit.
“How was your inspection?” I asked.
Liam was an electrical engineer, and he worked as an independent contractor for the government agency that regulated nuclear power. He traveled a fair bit for work, though not as much as he had in the past. And when he was home, he was always working on some house or garden project.
“Good,” he answered quickly. His phone buzzed, and he glanced down at the screen. His expression immediately changed, thunderclouds rolling in. “The fuck?”
“What is it?”
“Mom needs me to swing by the shop and check on something. She can’t do it since Wren asked her to babysit tonight. Because,apparently, my sister has a date.”
I clenched my jaw so hard I thought a molar might crack. A date. Wren. My vision went spotty, and I grabbed an energy bar from my bag, hoping it would help. Though I knew it wouldn’t make a damn difference. My blood sugar wasn’t the issue.
Even so, I bit off a huge chunk, mashing it like I wanted to crush Wren’s date.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, trying to sound casual when I was anything but.
“Theproblem—” he clenched his phone as he spoke through his teeth “—is that she’s going out with Lucas McGeary.”
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, genuinely curious. Wren rarely went out, but when she did, Liam never seemed to approve of the men she dated. Not that I didn’t agree, but still. I wanted to know his reasons. “He’s got a good job, and he seems nice enough.”
“Oh no.” He shook his head, shoving things into his bag. “No. No. No. No.No. First of all,” he huffed. “Lucas is too old for her.”
I frowned. Lucas was thirty-two.Iwas thirty-two. Wren was only twenty-six. Was that really such a huge difference? Maybe when we were younger, but it didn’t matter now.
“He’s our age.”
“Exactly. Which means that I know about all the shit he pulled in high school.”
“Seriously?” I asked, laughing. “That was—what? Well over ten years ago. Pretty sure he’s matured since then. Especially if he made it through law school and passed the bar exam.” Wait. Why was I advocating for this guy?
“No. Nope.” He shook his head, and I could see the wheels turning. A plan formulating. “Nuh-uh.” He glanced at his phone again. “And they’re going to Larkspur—for adate? What is this—high school?”
“Hey! Larkspur’s nice.” White paper tablecloths, flowers, on the main street. Good food. Sounded like a pretty decent night to me. Though we had often gone there after high school games to celebrate…
“Maybe for a family night out.” He pitched his voice high and asked, “Can I bring you some crayons?”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe he’s trying to make her comfortable. Show her that he’s a family man.”
He growled. “No. Just no. Have you forgotten that he cheated on Mindy senior year?”
I sighed.Fuck.I wanted to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt, but cheating?
“Liam,” I chided. “What do you think you’re going to do? March in and tell her that she’s forbidden from seeing him?” I laughed, imagining the scene. Because as sweet as Wren was, she would bust his ass.
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “You act as if I don’t know my own sister.”
