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“You mean he’s even more perfect than I thought? Not one flaw?”
“Not a single tarnish, but if you’re more interested in bad boys, I could use a new friend,” another guy with deep dimples and a bald head said. He’d been standing at the table since she’d arrived, quietly listening.
“Easy, Cozmo, Hailey’s off-limits. Go flirt with someone else,” Finn said with more bite than she would have expected from him with his friends.
Cozmo held up his hands. “Okay, bro. I get it. But you can’t blame me.”
Hailey sipped her beer. Did Finn not want his friends to flirt with her because they were colleagues or because he considered her his to flirt with?
“Sorry. If you don’t have a ring, it’s fair to say any man in this bar will think you’re available,” Finn said.
“It’s okay. I guess technically, I am.” She set down her beer and shrugged out of her sweatshirt, unable to take the warmth any longer. Her fitness T-shirt was simple black but snug in the shoulder area and had high sleeves.
“So you were telling me something about the golden boy,” she prompted the man Finn referred to as Dalton.
The large man sat half perched on a stool but was still at least a foot taller than her. Broad shoulders and the coiled muscles of his forearms indicated his dedication to his strength, but there was an underlying sophistication to him.
He held out his hand. “Where are my manners? If I’m going to spill all the tea about our golden boy, we should be properly introduced. Dalton Hart—you can call me Hart.”
She shook his large hand and could tell he was being gentle with her much smaller one, but if he wanted, he could crush her like a bug.
“Thank you for the beer,” she said.
“Finn here was top of our BUD/S training class and annoyingly good at everything. I myself was a Division One-level athlete and not used to being beat by anyone when we met. As you can imagine, it took Finn and me some time to develop a friendship. He became the bar by which we all compared ourselves and the rabbit we all attempted to beat.”
“Doesn’t the rabbit die in that scenario?” she asked, glancing from Finn’s serious face to Dalton’s broad smile.
“Well, technically, but we just wanted to beat him at something. I don’t think anyone would have hurt him.” Dalton eyed Cozmo, whose face seemed more serious.
“Nah, not permanently anyway,” Cozmo said.
“Before we tell you something you already know, what dirt do you know about our golden boy?” Dalton asked.
She took another look at Finn, not expecting his emerald-green eyes to be gleaming back at her with something she couldn’t name. Was it interest in what she knew about him or concern over what she might say?
“Well, he’s a team player, never complains, never objectifies the women in the office, always opens doors for me, loves his mother, respects his father, and…” She paused.
“And,” Dalton prompted.
“And he likes to fight for the underdog. I even spotted him helping an old lady across the street last week.”
The group groaned.
“How can you stand it?” Dalton said.
“Everyone needs at least one person to balance out their bad,” she offered.
Dalton looked her over. “No offense, deary, but you don’t strike me as bad. No tattoos, no crazy piercings I can see.” His eyebrow wiggled, and her cheeks began to ache from smiling. “Do you have some brass knuckles in your pocket?”
“No, nothing like that, but I’m not golden, that’s for sure.” She took another long sip of her beer and then fiddled with the glass.
“Hailey is another junior attorney at our firm. She’s my competition for partner and she’s brilliant,” Finn added.
“Well then you’re screwed, Maguire, but you don’t really want to be stuck making eight figures at some private law firm anyway,” Dalton said.
Hailey was surprised to hear that, since Finn had worked for several years at the firm already. The next step was to seek a junior partnership.
Finn caught the question that hung in the air.
