Passion Restored

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “You’re an idiot.”

  Owen glared at Murphy but didn’t say anything. Instead, he took a sip of his beer and did his best to ignore his younger brother. They were supposed to be having a guys night in, where they didn’t have to talk about anything important, and they could just watch whatever game was on TV, drink beer, eat things too greasy for men their age, and goof around.

  Apparently, Murphy had other ideas.

  “You’re a little bit of an idiot,” Jake put in from his side, and Owen held himself back from punching the guy. After all, his collarbone still hurt, and he didn’t want to be called something worse than an idiot.

  “So he tripped over his own two feet in the middle of his lawn while his hot neighbor watched, that doesn’t make him that much of an idiot,” Graham defended. Though Owen wasn’t sure if that statement was truly a defense at all.

  “I don’t know why I told you guys that story,” Owen grumbled.

  “Because I caught the new bruise on your side when you reached up for the crackers,” Murphy said. “I mean, seriously, if you’re going to bruise yourself the minute we leave you alone, maybe you should come back and stay with one of us.”

  Owen flipped them off and took another sip of his beer. “Shut up. I invited you guys over to watch the game, not piss me off.”

  “Pissing you off is a side benefit we all enjoy,” Jake added lazily.

  “And you still haven’t told us what happened after Liz nursed you back to health after your fall.” Owen glared at Graham for that statement and did his best to keep his expression neutral.

  “You totally got some,” Murphy said with a grin. “Maybe not all of it, but you got some of it.”

  Owen closed his eyes and counted to ten. Maybe when he opened his eyes, he’d have a new set of brothers that wouldn’t annoy him as much. Fat chance.

  “I’d say he at least kissed her,” Jake said. “Not much else, though, or he’d be a shit ton more relaxed than he is now.”

  Graham chuckled. “Yeah, he’s too grumpy to have that just lubed look.”

  “Fuck all of you.”

  “Yeah, just a taste, I think,” Murphy said as if he were some wise man in the ways of women. “It’s okay, bro. You still have time to make a move before she sees how boring you truly are and laughs you off.”

  “Again, fuck all of you.” Owen chugged the rest of his beer and rolled to his feet off the couch, ignoring the aches and pains in his side. “I need another beer. You guys can get your own if you want more because I’m done with the lot of you. And when I get back, we’re watching the damn game, and we’re not talking about my fucking sex life anymore. Got me?”

  “You say that as if you have a sex life,” Jake said with a grin. “I mean, I know not everyone has the kind of sex life I have, but I would have thought you’d eventually get half of what I have.”

  Graham punched Jake in the shoulder, and Owen grinned. “Stop bragging,” Graham grumbled. “But in reality, Blake is more than enough. No triads for me.”

  “Blake would probably cut anyone who got close to you to even angle for a triad,” Murphy drawled.

  “True enough,” Graham said with a smile.

  Owen just shook his head and went into the fridge to get four more beers. He might have said they could get their own, but he wasn’t that much of an ass. For now anyway. If they kept talking about Owen’s lack of sex life, he might just force them all to drink water and get out of his house early.

  There was truly only so much teasing a man could take.

  “So when do we get to meet this new client of ours?” Graham asked as Owen sank back down onto the couch, handing out the beers as he did.

  Owen rubbed a hand over the scruff he should probably shave off soon for the next few meetings they had. While he liked his beard, ink, and piercings, not everyone they worked with wanted to see it all the time. His ink was easy to hide under clothes, and he always took out his brow ring for new clients. His other piercings were a little lower, so no one noticed them. As for the beard, he tried to shave it off every once in a while for certain clients that seemed to want a cleaner, fancier company representative to work with. Owen would do anything it took to get the job done, so he’d shave off the damn beard if he had to.

  He’d just make sure he grew it out again when he went down on Liz. He had a feeling she’d like the scrape of his facial hair on her inner thighs as she rode his face.

  Owen swallowed hard and did his best not to shift his position on the couch. No more thinking down that path tonight.

  “Uh, probably in the next week or so. Since it’s the whole street rather than a single project home, it’s taking a bit to get things settled. It’ll take the whole crew and then some to work on it in my estimation. Which is good because we have the opening coming up as long as we stay on schedule.” They’d gotten off that schedule a bit with Owen’s accident and Murphy’s stitches, but they had all been working their asses off to make sure they kept their current clients happy.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re working on it since we’ve all been so busy,” Murphy said as he took a bite of a chip with salsa. “Though this guy seems like he has a stick up his ass.”

  Owen didn’t correct them. Clive Roland was a first-class asshole, who only liked the best of the best. It was Owen’s job to show him that Gallagher Brothers Restoration was what he needed.

  “The final paperwork should be signed within the next couple of weeks. Roland is just taking his sweet time with us.”

  Graham shook his head. “With Blake’s family place in the books, we already have the high-end work we need. Anyone who sees the place after we worked on it should know what we can do. We got a few high-end clients after we finished it up, and people took notice. I don’t know why this Roland guy is taking his time. If he doesn’t think we’re good enough now, then it’s because he has an idea of perfection that doesn’t exist. We’re the best at what we do, and he should know it. If he doesn’t, then we don’t need him. We can find plenty of new jobs.”

  Owen bit his tongue so he wouldn’t say something he didn’t mean. This job wasn’t just because Roland’s company was one that could set the Gallaghers up for life. This was also one that Owen had been setting up himself because the others were busy. He needed this to work so he could show them that he could do more than organize their desks.

  He didn’t know why this one mattered more than the others in some respects, but he was going to do his best to make it work. As it was, they’d already had to turn down a couple of last-minute clients in preparation for Roland. If they didn’t get this big job, they were going to be screwed in those months where they’d have to find new jobs for the company that might not exist. However, Owen didn’t want to think about that now because he needed to remain positive. The job was almost complete in the books, and he would just have to work with that.

  “We’ll get this done,” Owen said calmly. “We always do.”

  “Hell yeah, we do,” Murphy said, ignoring the tension in the room. Or maybe his too-observant brother had caught on easily and wanted to move them in a new direction. Either way, Owen was grateful. “Hey, Jake, why isn’t Border hanging out with us?”

  Jake smiled before taking a sip of his drink. “It’s Maya and Border’s date night, and while I’d usually be hanging out at home with Noah while they go out, you guys wanted to do this instead.”

  “Hence why Blake is juggling Noah and Rowan right now,” Graham put in, though he grinned as he said it. “Rowan is trying to show us how good of a big sister she can be. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t care if she gets a baby brother or sister as long as it’s soon.”

  Owen studied his older brother’s face. “So is it gonna be soon?”

  Graham shrugged, but laughter danced in his eyes. “Maybe.”

  Murphy leaned forward with Jake. “Are we going to be uncles again?”

  There was a casual seriousness in his tone that Owen felt, as well. The eldest Gallagher had been ma
rried once before and had also had a beautiful baby girl. When she’d died, Graham’s marriage had fallen apart and so had Graham. The fact that he was now a loving father to Rowan and had even legally adopted her when he married Blake was a big thing. Now having him speak of a new baby was a huge thing, and Owen honestly couldn’t be happier for his big brother. If anyone deserved that kind of happiness, it was Graham.

  “Not yet,” Graham answered. “We’re still practicing.”

  Owen rolled his eyes, and the others laughed. “I’d have thought you guys would be worn out practicing by now,” he added dryly.

  “Never too much practicing,” Graham said with a laugh.

  Owen shook his head and leaned back into the couch as his brothers continued to joke around about making babies and other things he never would have thought they’d talk about as a group. The four of them had really started to grow up and reach the next level in recent years, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit behind. He’d planned so much of his life, of his brothers’ lives, and yet he didn’t have a family to call his own.

  Liz’s face entered his mind, and he held back a frown. One kiss, one very hot and steamy kiss, did not make a relationship or a family. She was still too skittish around him, and he knew to even get her to go on a date with him was going to take a lot of work. But that’s what Owen did. He planned and made things happen. Maybe with the right plan, the right list, he’d find a way into Liz’s life and see what happened next.

  That was if he could make the timing work. He still had his old clients, this new one, and the idea that someone out there had actually hit him with their car. It would all be a little too much for some people, but not Owen. He would make it work. And when he did, maybe, just maybe, he’d get to kiss Liz again.

  He smiled into his beer as Jake and Murphy started yelling at each other and the TV. When Jake threw a fake punch at their little brother, Murphy tackled him to the ground. Owen took that time to make sure everyone’s beer was firmly on a coaster and watched as Jake and Murphy wrestled on the floor the way they had for decades.

  Some things might change in their lives, but not everything. They were Gallagher brothers through and through, after all.

  6

  Liz wanted nothing more than to take a long bath before sleeping for the next fourteen hours, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t be happening today. She’d worked an overnight shift since the administration office had been changing things around for the past month, and her body wasn’t used to it yet. And she had a feeling by the time she did find a way to make it work mentally, they’d change her right back to days. Considering that had already happened twice, she knew she’d just have to live on coffee until the bosses figured out the budgets and how not to screw people around. People’s lives depended on her, so yawning during an exam was out of the question.

  She shuffled into the kitchen around noon and went straight for the coffee pot. She still needed to shower and do something about the rat’s nest she called hair, but coffee was required first.

  Tessa stood at the kitchen island, her jeans low on her hips as she danced to whatever song played on her headphones. She had a spoon in her hand, and her eyes were closed as she shimmied and shook, something halfway between cooking and whatever dance she called that movement.

  Liz held back a smile as she went to her coffee, brushing by Tessa on the way. After her friend stopped screaming, Liz poured herself a cup and smiled.

  “Good morning.”

  “Holy shit, woman,” Tessa panted as she pulled her earbuds out of her ears. “Warn a bitch before scaring the shit of out her lurking around like that.”

  Liz flipped her friend off as she took a sip of the manna that would keep her looking alive the rest of the day. “I don’t lurk.”

  “You sure as hell didn’t make a sound when you came in.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You had your music up so loud, you wouldn’t have heard me yell your name. Though I don’t know why you had your eyes closed as you danced. Maybe to make sure you didn’t have to see yourself, hmm?”

  This time it was Tessa who flipped her off. “I hate you, and I dance a hell of a lot better than you.” She pointed at her hips. “These hips don’t lie. I have moves. You amble and try to grind or whatever, even though you have way better curves than I do.”

  “I don’t amble. Nor do I try to grind.” Liz took another sip. “I grind just fine. Or at least I did when I actually danced.”

  Tessa rolled her eyes. “You need to start taking time for yourself or you’re going to work yourself to the bone.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Liz argued. “Plus, we have to finish getting the house set up, and I haven’t even looked at the yard. We’re hitting the months where we need to start planning things for the spring now that the heavy snow has stopped.”

  “First, it’s Denver, honey. The snow won’t stop until June even though it’ll fake us out for a month or so with hot weather. That’s how it works here. As you’ve lived in this area your whole live, you know that. And second, you need to live beyond this house and your work. Shake your ass in public and drink a little too much.”

  “Are you saying I should go out dancing? Because I don’t know of any places near here other than a few bars. And we aren’t twenty-one anymore. We have responsibilities.”

  Tessa rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we do. And because we do, we need to let off some steam. That’s why today we’re going over to Owen’s house because Murphy invited us over.”

  “Why is Murphy inviting us over to Owen’s house and not Owen?”

  “Because Owen is throwing a party and wants us over there. Murphy just happened to be the one to call me.”

  Liz froze. She hadn’t seen Owen since the kiss-that-shall-not-be-mentioned in his kitchen, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him yet. Hell, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to face him. She could still feel the way his hand had gripped her hip, the way his tongue had dominated, the way his teeth had bit into her lip, making her want to climb up his body and never let go.

  Tessa gave her a curious look, and Liz did her best not to press her thighs together since she knew she was already wet just thinking about Owen’s mouth on her.

  Damn Gallagher.

  “What are you thinking about that’s making your cheeks all red like that, hmm?” Tessa asked. “Because, honey, if it’s making you look that embarrassed or turned on, I need details. And then you need to go finish what you started because I know you haven’t been laid recently.”

  “Tessa!” Liz closed her eyes and pinched her nose. “Stop doing that.” Tessa had always been able to tell when Liz had finally had sex with the man she was dating, and she hated it. Not that she hated that Tessa knew, she didn’t, but Liz hated that she could never tell with Tessa. Her friend was better at putting on a mask than anyone Liz knew.

  “What? I’m just saying. And let me guess, it was Mr. Tall and Organized, right? Did Owen put his big hands on you?” Tessa’s eyes danced as she finished mixing mustard into the potato salad Liz just now realized she’d been making. “How was it? No, don’t tell me. I can totally guess from the way you want to kill me right now. He was hot, demanding, and ready to get you off right where you were. Only he didn’t, because if he had, you’d be a lot more relaxed right now. So either something interrupted you or one of you ran. I’m going to say you because you’re not talking about it and you look like you want to murder me right now.”

  Liz set down her empty coffee cup and took a deep breath. “I hate how you do that. You are totally in the wrong line of work. You could work for the police with the way you see things.” She let out that breath. “Anyway, yes, Owen and I kissed. That was it. It was a mistake and won’t be happening again.”

  “Why the hell not?” Tessa demanded as she put the potato salad into the fridge. “He’s single. You’re single. You both give off those ‘fuck me’ vibes that only call to one another, and he’s hot.”

  Liz rinsed out her cup
and blew out a breath. “We don’t give off those ‘fuck me’ vibes. And it’s not like you’ve seen us together that much to know.”

  “I wasn’t that drunk at the bar, Liz. I clearly remember the way you two kept looking at each other that night. Of course, you were glaring, and he was looking at you like a guppy in water, his mouth moving but no words coming out. Either way, though, I felt the flames. He’s hot for you. You’re hot for him. Just do him already.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “No, I’m someone who likes sex. You used to be that person too until you started working as much as you do.”

  Liz glared. “You work as much as I do these days.”

  Tessa raised a brow. “Yeah, but I let off steam.”

  To the point sometimes it worried Liz, but she didn’t say that. Tessa was her own person and could do what she needed to, but that didn’t mean Liz wouldn’t remain uncomfortable with some of it.

  “He was a patient. His brother was a patient. I’m not going to sleep with him. Or Murphy.”

  Tessa snorted. “I know you’re not going to sleep with Murphy. There wasn’t chemistry there. But you and Owen?” She fanned her face. “Oh, Momma. But, Liz darling, they were your patients for five minutes and never will be again. I know you. If for some reason they come into the ER again, you’ll hand them over to another nurse. You wouldn’t make things sticky.”

  “And if I do that, then Lisa and Nancy will have just one more reason to put me on edge since Lisa is fighting for the same position as me, and Nancy is in just as much trouble.” Liz let her head fall back, her temples pounding. “How did I end up in high school again?”

  “People are always going to act like they’re fucking immature pricks who don’t know how to deal with others. That’s how life is. But you don’t have to let them win. You’re the best nurse there by far, and Lisa knows it. You’re not going to lose your job because you happen to sleep with your neighbor. You’re not his nurse anymore, and you will never treat him again in that hospital. If you’re worried that it might get sticky that he’s your neighbor, don’t. We hardly ever see him, and the Gallaghers seem like nice people. They’re not going to fuck us over.”