Molly’s fingers curled into the blonde’s hair, tugging her head back to deepen the kiss. Okay, fine. Maybe three.
“You noticed them too, huh?” Will slammed his bottle onto the bar with a little too much force. “Can’t they just leave it alone?”
To be fair, if Molly was his girl, Finn wouldn’t leave her alone, either. His heart quickened. If anyone else in the world saw him lusting after Mini Mo, he wouldn’t care. But if Will ever found out… it didn’t bear thinking about. “Uh, noticed who?”
“Those assholes leering over my sister.”
Considering Finn was one of the assholes leering over Will’s sister, he had no room to judge. “Oh yeah. I’m keeping an eye on them so they don’t overstep.” Thank you, alibi.
“Why does she have to be so… so…?”
“Molly?”
“Ugh.” Will face-palmed.
“She’s in college, man. It’s what we do. Step out from under our parents’ shadows, figure out who we are, what we like, and go at it like rabbits.” He winked at Will, but his still-aching dick reminded him that he wanted to go at Molly-fucking-Morrison like a goddamn rabbit. “We aren’t all born fully grown with a newspaper in our hand, mister stick-in-the-mud.”
“I’m heading back to the dorms.” Will stood and picked up his coat from the stool.
Finn sighed. He’d struck a nerve. “Want me to keep an eye on her?” His stomach clenched. The watchful eye he wanted to keep on her and the eye Will would want him to keep on her weren’t the same kind of watchful eye at all. He should feel guiltier, right? But he’d already given his loyalty to his best friend. He’d taken one for the brotherhood and hung his heart on a hook at the back of the closet. Just ‘cause he couldn’t pursue Ms. Morrison, didn’t mean he couldn’t think about her.
He’d never get to enjoy Molly’s porcelain skin or the curves of her tits or her self-proclaimed flat ass. What he wouldn’t give to chow down on that ass like he was in a motherfuckin’ hotdog eating contest. Finn had chosen his side. He was Team Will all the way. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to be Team Molly, too.
And from the assholes she had a tendency to bang, one might think Will would even relish a decent guy like Finn taking care of his sister.
If only wishing made it so.
“Nah, like you said, she’s a big girl, she can take care of herself. She probably loves having an audience.”
A growl threatened to break free from Finn’s mouth at the derision coating Will’s words. Instead, he held up a hand. “We don’t kink shame in this family, William.” Whatever the hell kinda kinks Molly Morrison had, Finnegan Aiden O’Brien volunteered as tribute.
“We absolutely kink shame when it involves my little sister.”
“She’s only ten months younger, man.”
Will made it sound like she was sixteen or something. Her eyes flickered open as though she felt Finn’s stare, but she didn’t stop kissing her date. Then, without missing a beat, she paused to throw a wicked grin and wink at him, closed her eyes again, and kept kissing.
Molly Morrison was definitely not a baby anymore.
***
Finn unlocked the door to the eerily quiet hockey house, stepped inside, and toed off his shoes – taking care not to step in any of the fresh snow that fell from the soles as he put them on the rack. The silence and darkness meant only one thing – the team were off engaged in drunken debauchery on someone else’s front lawn. There was zero chance they were all tucked up safe and sound in bed.
Men’s college hockey teams were limited to eighteen scholarships. Linc and Russ lived together in the dorms – well, lived together was a stretch. Russ split his time between the campus housing and his mom’s so he could see his little girl, Jude.
Will was an RA in one of the dorms because he claimed he needed the “peace and quiet.” How a dorm room was any quieter than the hockey house was yet to be seen, but the straight A, 4.0 GPA team captain and computer science whizz got whatever the hell he wanted.
If it was anyone else on the team, Finn might have wondered if he wanted space from his brothers to hide a girlfriend or something more salacious, but since Will’s spare time was consumed by school, hockey, and gaming… Finn knew better.
Austin lived in an apartment off campus, thanks to his rich parent benefactors and a healthy bank account. Finn lived in the eight bedroom hockey house with a bunch of his teammates. Best thing about the hockey house was that even if he hadn’t been a senior, he was well liked so he got the biggest room and dibs on what chores he wanted – or more importantly, didn’t.
A shiver passed through him as he made his way into the kitchen and yanked open the fridge. February in Minnesota was frigid AF. It had snowed every day for almost two weeks, and a not-so-small part of him wished he’d picked up a delicious warm body from the bar to keep him company.
While the darkness in his chest urged him to grab another beer or something stronger from the top shelf, he reached for the quarter-full gallon of milk and chugged it down. He hated February. His brother’s birthday and the anniversary of his death fell within a few days of each other.
How could so much grief be crammed into such a short month? It didn’t help that he couldn’t escape the icy grief coating his life by stepping out into the warm sunshine.
Liam’s absence was felt year-round, but it hurt all the more in February. He raked his palms over his face and through his hair.Shake it off, Obi.
