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“There’s Uncle Liam,” Angel said, leaning on him like she was tired. “Aw, look, he’s with Lilly. Aren’t they so cute together?”
Sullivan nudged his cousin and shook her loose. “Get off of me. I’ve had a harrowing night.” He turned and saw his father and Lilly approaching. They looked like they’d been dragged out of bed. Which he assumed they had. His dad was wearing joggers and a T-shirt. Lilly was in pajama shorts, flip flops, and an enormous hoodie that was clearly his father’s, not hers. They looked every inch the couple.
His dad and Lilly, who was one of his best friends, had only been dating for two weeks, and yet every time he saw one these days, he saw the other. They spent every free minute together, and apparently, every single night. Was it cute? Sure, he supposed it was. Was it weird? Hell, yeah.
“Are you okay?” Lilly asked, rushing over to him. She started to hug him, then reared back. “Why are your pants so tight?”
Sullivan sighed. “It was a wardrobe mixup. But otherwise, I’m fine, my lady friend is fine, everyone is fine.”
Finn was at his sister’s house for the night. Sloane and her husband Rick had bought the house Sullivan and Sloane had grown up in and were raising their baby and Rick’s teen sister there. When Sullivan worked late at the bar, a lot of times Finn spent the night. It wasn’t ideal, but Finn loved being over there with his cousins and where there was a huge yard to play in. Sullivan’s rental house was in town and the yard was a patch of hard-packed dirt with a few scrubby bushes.
Of course, now those scrubby bushes were charred beyond recognition. “This house really went up like a torch, by the way. That blaze took over in just a few minutes. Thank God Finn wasn’t home.”
The thought actually made his throat close and his vision blur. If something happened to Finn… he wouldn’t survive it.
His father squeezed his shoulder and then clapped his back in understanding. “The good news is you both got out safely. How did the fire start?” he asked.
Sullivan winced. He tried to figure out a way to minimize the stupidity. It could have happened to someone else. Arguably. It just had happened to him.
“Something fell on a candle.”
“Like what?” Lilly asked. She glanced over at the house. “It looks like it really got out of hand.”
“It was some clothing.” A pair of panties, to be specific. That he’d thrown casually over his shoulder when he’d eased them down off of She of the Tequila Tits. Before carrying her giggling and shrieking into the kitchen so he could get more salt. They’d instantly become distracted with sex on the counter, and before he knew what was happening, the smoke detector had been howling at him to get out.
So he had gotten out of her, and out of the house, in that order.
“What?” His father looked at him skeptically. “Clothing did that?”
“I think the candle lit the panties on fire, then the panties lit the lampshade on fire, then the lampshade lit the curtains… It was a process.”
“A lengthy one,” Angel said. “Guess you’re not sleeping at your place tonight.”
Sullivan sighed. He really didn’t want to drive out to Rick and Sloane’s house. He eyed his father. Sleeping on his couch in his condo just a few feet away sounded appealing, but based on the way his arm was wrapped around Lilly’s shoulder and the adoring expression on her face as she stared up at him, they needed their privacy. His father stroked his thumb over Lilly’s bottom lip while she gripped his chest with taut fingers, her head tilted back.
They seemed to have forgotten why they were outside or that anyone else existed.
Yeah, Sullivan wasn’t sleeping on their couch tonight.
He was all for their happiness, but he would probably lose the ability to get hard forever if he heard his father boning his friend.
“Can I sleep in your shop?” he asked Angel. Her shop was also only a few feet away in the opposite direction and, while stuffed full of crystals and other weird shit like BDSM tarot decks, it did have a velvet sofa. Come to think of it, he might actually want the BDSM tarot cards. Maybe they would reveal that in the future he should tie his partner up with her panties, not toss them on top of burning candles.
“Sure. But what about your friend? I’m not sure it’s a sofa built for two.”
“She’s staying in the room above the bar with a friend. I’ll walk her back over there.” Sullivan and his dad owned a bar, Tap That, and it afforded him the opportunity to meet women who were passing through Beaver Bend on their way to or from the lakes. Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, he wasn’t really sure at the moment.
“Sullivan!” Tequila Tits was shrieking into the night and heading toward him.
He winced.
Unfortunate. It was definitely unfortunate that he had access to sexy women all the time.
He needed to learn this woman’s actual name, escort her to her room, and be done with casual hookups for the foreseeable future.
“I want all of you as witnesses,” he said, pointing his finger at Axl, Angel, Lilly, and his father. “I’m giving up women. I’m done.”
Lilly gave him a nod of approval. Axl eyed him skeptically.
