“Did you say ignore it?” Finn picked up a longneck bottle from the coffee table. He held the beer to his lips and took a long drink. Lowering the bottle, he added, “How the hell am I suppose to ignore a pitch like that?”
“I wasn’t talking about the game.” Jared reached for his tumbler. He’d bypassed a Saturday afternoon beer in favor of tequila.
“No work,” Finn said. “Not while we’re watching baseball. You can bitch and moan about your sugar deal when it’s over. I was up at five this morning building a model. And I can tell you this one’s a shoe-in. I’ve lined it up perfectly for you. You can fly back to New York tomorrow, and we’ll still close the deal.”
Jared shook his head. “This isn’t about work.”
“If it’s not about baseball,” Finn growled. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m trying like hell to date your sister.”
There. He’d spread his cards on the table. Now it was Finn’s turn to make the next move. Eyeing the man who’d been his best friend since before either of them fully understood what those words meant, Jared downed the rest of his tequila. Then he poured another shot. If he was going to get his ass handed to him, he wanted to be drunk. Jared boxed and lifted weights. But Finn was built like a Viking warrior. And when he fought, which didn’t happen often, Finn usually won.
I can take him.
But that was probably the tequila talking now.
Finn leaned back in the leather recliner holding his beer in one hand. His blond hair matched his sister’s coloring, but he kept his cut short. His blue eyes appeared thoughtful—for now.
“Lucy,” Jared clarified.
“I only have one sister.” Finn’s brow furrowed. “She hasn’t said a word to me.”
Jared ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve been leaving juice on her doorstep. She knows why.”
“But I don’t.” Finn set his drink on the side table. “Start at the beginning.”
Jared offered the cliffs notes version. He skimmed past the bad date that had homed in on her thighs. His friend let out a low, soft curse when Jared described Nick’s drunk dad hands. But Jared sidestepped the phrase “wild, bathroom sex,” and he didn’t go into details about how he’d pulled Lucy close when he’d rescued her.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Finn demanded when Jared paused for another tequila shot. “Leaving her juice? You need to up your game, not come on the field one level above the scum chasing her. You go all in when you’re after a company. You commit and stand by your word. That’s what Lucy deserves.” Finn leaned forward again. “Unless you’re playing with her—”
“I’m not.” Jared met Finn’s gaze. Nerves of fucking steel reinforced by tequila allowed him to say the next words. “I interrupted her lunch date yesterday and kissed the shit out of her in the storage closet. Afterward—” when I could still taste her—“she made it clear she’s not one of my affairs.”
Finn snorted.
Cheers erupted on the T.V., but his friend didn’t glance at the screen. Finn reached for the remote and turned off the game. Baseball came before business on weekends. But Jared had a feeling even Finn’s precious Marlins wouldn’t steal away his friend’s attention now.
“Affairs was her word,” Jared clarified. “Not mine.”
“You’re going all in,” Finn said, no question in his voice.
Jared nodded and reached for the tequila. “If she returns my texts.”
Lucy’s big brother leaned his head back and laughed. And hell, Jared would bet the sound resembled Finn’s warrior ancestors. “Maybe she doesn’t want you,” he said, still fucking smirking.
“She wants me,” Jared said flatly. He tossed back the shot and set the glass on the table next to the bottle. “She kissed me like she was one second away from . . . ”
Stripping off her clothes and fucking me in the closet.
Jared glanced at the tequila and then at Lucy’s brother. There wasn’t enough liquor in the sunny state of Florida to make him say those words to Finn.
“If you sleep with my sister,” Finn said softly. “You’d better be ready to make her dreams come true.”
Jared nodded. He’d known that from the minute he touched his lips to hers. If he pursued Lucy, he needed to transform her life into a fairy tale.
“But let me guess, Lucy is still twisted in knots about that jack-ass, Barrett.” Finn leaned back in his chair. “She doesn’t trust you’re in this. And shit, she doesn’t realize I’d kick your ass if you hurt her.”
“Is that a promise?” Jared asked.