by Jill Shalvis
“Do I need to be?”
Jake’s smile spread.
Shit.
“Got the new jerseys,” Jake said. “You work fast.”
Finn shrugged like no big deal. It’d only cost an arm and a leg and a huge favor to get them done in one day.
“I like the SF Tours across the backs,” Jake said.
“Good.”
“Could’ve done without the O’Rileys on the breast.”
Finn smiled and didn’t respond. He was looking forward to seeing his name on Pru’s breast.
“What’s going on with you two?” Jake wanted to know.
“You ask her?”
“Hell no. I like living.”
This gave Finn some satisfaction—that she’d kept what was between them to herself. But then again, that could be because she didn’t think there was anything between them.
“I meant what I said yesterday,” Jake said.
“About the death and dismemberment?”
“About you and her not becoming a thing.”
That’s when Finn felt it, a low level of electro-current hummed through him. Turning, he leveled his eyes on Pru and watched as she found him from across the field and tripped over her own feet.
He read her lips and smiled because she was swearing to herself as she picked up speed.
“Sorry I’m late!” she exclaimed breathlessly, like maybe once she’d seen them talking, she’d run over as fast as she could. Hand to her chest, the other holding onto Thor’s leash, she divided a look between them. “So . . . what’s going on?”
Finn opened his mouth but Jake beat him to the punch. “Game’s about to start. Head or tails for home advantage.”
Pru slid him a long look and then leveled that same look on Finn, who tried his best to look innocent. And he was actually pretty sure he was innocent since he had no idea what was going on any more than she did.
“Tails,” she finally said. “It’s always tails.”
It was heads.
And . . . they had their asses handed to them like last time. But Kasey got a two base hit, and Abby caught a fly ball, and Pru got two base hits.
And once again, Finn had the time of his life.
Afterward, they all made their way back to O’Riley’s. Sean immediately pulled him aside.
“Your girlfriend’s wearing your name on her breast. Nicely done. You’re faster than I gave you credit for, Grandpa.”
“The entire team is wearing our logo, not just Pru,” Finn said.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You didn’t deny the girlfriend thing,” Sean noted.
Finn didn’t take the bait and Sean sighed. “Yeah, yeah, you’re still pissed off at me. Newsflash, I’m pissed off too.”
“I didn’t do shit to you.”
“I know,” Sean said. “I meant I was pissed off at me. For disappointing you.”
Finn stilled and then shook his head. “I know you didn’t mean to disappoint me.”
“But I did. And not only that, I let you down. I let us down.” Sean paused. “Earlier today, I handled the liquor license problem with Pru’s help.”
And then Sean told him the entire story of how Pru had been waiting for him and had smoothed the way with ease.
While Finn was still processing that, marveling over the lengths that she’d gone to help without mentioning it or wanting any credit for it, Sean went on.
“After that I went to pay the property taxes. I was there at their offices when they opened at ten.”
“Wow,” Finn said. “I didn’t know you’ve even seen ten a.m.”
Sean shoved his hands into his pocket and looked a little sheepish. “Yeah, I know. It was a first, and believe me it wasn’t pretty. And it was worse than having to go to the damn DMV office, too. Got there right on time and had to take a number. Sixty-nine.” He flashed a small smile. “I held up my ticket but no one else in the place was amused. The old lady who had number seventy flipped me the bird. She looked like this sweet little old granny and there she was, telling me I’m number one, can you believe it?”
In spite of himself, Finn laughed. “It’s true. You are number one.”
Sean’s smile faded. “I know.”
Regret slashed through Finn. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah, you did,” Sean said. “And I deserve it. I’m a fuckup, right?”
“Okay, I’m officially taking that back.”
For a beat, Sean’s expression went unguarded and filled with relief, making Finn feel even worse. There were times, lots of them, when he wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around Sean’s neck and squeeze.
But more than that, he wanted to never be like his dad. Ever. “So . . . how much were the late fees and penalties on the tax bill?”
Sean grimaced. “You remember Jacklyn?”
“The stripper you dated for a whole weekend last year?” Finn asked.
“Exotic dancer. And she doesn’t do that anymore.”
Oh shit. “Sean, tell me she doesn’t now work at the property tax office.”
Another grimace. “Well I could tell you that, but it’d be a lie.”
Sean had done his charm-the-panties-off-the-girl and then pulled his also usual I’m-moving-to-Iceland. Or maybe it’d been it’s-not-you-it’s-me. Either way, he’d dumped her. The only reason Finn even remembered was because Jacklyn had then pulled the crazy card.
She’d stalked Sean. It hadn’t been all that hard either, Sean had no sense of secret and always put himself out there, one hundred percent. It probably hadn’t taken any effort at all for her to find out about the pub.
She’d come in and had climbed on top of one of the tables, stripping and crying at the same time, telling everyone what a scumbag Sean was.
It’d been a spectacle of massive proportions.
“What happened?” Finn asked. “She refused to let you pay up?”
“Not exactly,” Sean said.
“Then what exactly?”
Sean looked . . . embarrassed? Impossible, he never got embarrassed. “She said I could renew on one condition,” he said. “If I got up on her counter and did a striptease like she’d done at my place of work.”
“Well, you gotta hand it to her,” Finn said. “It’s ingenious.”
“Diabolical, you mean,” Sean said.
“Whatever, but your next sentence better be ‘so I totally got up on that counter and did a striptease for her.’”
“Did I mention the place was full?” Sean asked. “And that there were old ladies in there? Old ladies, Finn. I took one look at them and things . . . shriveled.”
“And?” Finn asked.
“And . . . I didn’t want to take my clothes off with shrinkage going on!”
Finn pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, but it didn’t work. His brain was still leaking out. Slowly and painfully. “Fine, I’ll go down there and talk to her and straighten things out.”
“Because that’s what you do,” Sean said. “You straighten things out. I fuck it all and you come along and clean it back up again, right?”
“Sean—”
“No. I’m done with that shit, Finn,” Sean said. “I’m done being the idiot baby brother who needs saving. For once, for fucking once, I want to do the right thing. I want to save you.” He shook his head. “No, I didn’t get up on the counter. But I apologized to her for being a dick. And then I paid the penalties and late fees, all from my personal account. Our property taxes are current and will stay that way, and it won’t happen again.”
“Wow,” Finn said. “That’s great. And thanks.” He paused. “From your personal account, huh?”
“Yeah and that hurt, man.” Sean rubbed his chest like he was physically pained. “It hurt bad.”
Finn smiled. “Also good.”
“Now about your girlfriend,” Sean said.
Finn raised a brow. He knew Sean was fishing. He had baited the hook and was going to keep saying �
�girlfriend” until he got a rise out of Finn.
Not going to happen.
“I like her,” Sean said quietly.
Again, not what Finn had expected. He’d do just about anything for Sean, and had. But he didn’t think he could walk away from Pru.
Not even for his brother.
Sean shook his head. “No, man, I mean I like her for you.”
The scary part was that they’d finally agreed on something because Finn liked Pru for him too. So much so that at the end of the night—which was really three in the morning, he found himself outside her front door. Not wanting to scare her to death with the late hour, he texted her.
You up?
It took her less than a minute to respond.
Is this a booty call?
He stared down at the words and felt like the biggest kind of asshole on the planet. He was in the middle of texting back an apology when she texted him again.
Cuz I want it to be . . .
He was still smiling when her next text came in:
There’s a key hidden on the top of the doorjamb.
He let himself in, crawled into bed with her and pulled her warm, sleeping form in close.
“Finn?” she murmured sleepily, not opening her eyes.
Well, who the hell else? “Shh,” he said, brushing his mouth over her temple. “Go back to sleep.”
“But there’s a man in my bed.” She still hadn’t opened her eyes, but she did wind her arms around him tight, pressing her deliciously soft curves up against his body, sliding one of her legs in between his. “Mmm,” she said. “A hard man . . .”
And quickly getting harder. “I didn’t mean for this to be a booty call—”
“Finn?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.” And she rocked against him so that his thigh rasped over the damp heat between hers, taking what she wanted from him.
He loved that she’d figured out that her confidence and belief in herself was as sexy to him as her gorgeous body.
“Mm,” she hummed in pleasure, rocking against him, making him even harder. “I wonder what to do about this . . .” she mused.
He rolled, tucking her beneath him, and buried himself deep. “Let me show you.”
Chapter 19
#JustLikeThat
Typically as summer progressed and more tourists poured into San Francisco, Pru got buried in work. This summer was no different. She worked long days, during which time she dedicated most of her daydreams to one certain sexy Finn O’Riley and what he looked like in her bed.
And what he did to her in it . . .
“What are you thinking about?” Jake asked her at the end of a shift while she was doing paperwork. “You keep sighing.”
“Um . . .” She struggled to come up with something not X-rated. “I’m thinking about how much of a slave driver you are.”
“Uh huh,” he said, not fooled. “You tell Finn yet?”
“I’m getting there,” she said, her stomach tightening in panic and anxiety at the thought.
“Pru—”
“I know, I know!” She blew out a breath. “You don’t have to say it. I’m stalling. Big time.”
His voice was quiet, almost gentle. “You’re really into him.”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
His hand slipped into hers and he squeezed her fingers. “You want a chance with him.”
She nodded again.
“Chica, to have that chance, you’ve got to tell him before your window of opportunity closes and things go too far.” He waited until she looked at him. “Before you sleep with him or—”
Oh boy.
“—I’ve got this,” she said. “I know what I’m doing.” But they both knew she had no idea what she was doing.
That night, Elle and Willa dragged Pru out for “ladies’” night.
They surprised her when they ended up at a lovely spa, snacking on cute little sandwiches and tea before deciding on their individual treatments.
Pru stared at the spa’s menu, a little panicked over the luxury that she couldn’t really afford.
“It’s my treat,” Elle said, covering the prices with her hand. “This was my idea. I owe Willa a birthday present.”
Willa smiled. “Cuz I can’t afford it either.”
“But it’s not my birthday,” Pru said.
“Pretend,” Elle said. “I want a mani/pedi and a Brazilian, and I don’t like to primp alone.”
Which is how Pru ended up with a mani/pedi and her very first Brazilian.
The next day it rained all day long. Pru joked to Jake that after eight long hours on the water—in the rain—she felt like Noah.
Jake felt no mercy at all. “Make the money now, chica. Come wintertime you’ll be whining like Thor does for that mini chow across the street, the one who’s got fifty pounds on him and would squash him like a grape if given the chance.”
So she worked.
At the end of another crazy day, she changed out of her uniform into a sundress and left Pier 39. She was Thor-less. After a stunt where he’d rolled in pigeon poo for some mysterious reason that only made sense to himself, Jake had once again taken him to the South Bark Mutt Shop for grooming.
All Pru wanted to do was to go home and crawl into her bed. For once she was too tired to even dream about having Finn in that bed with her. She wouldn’t be able to lift a finger. Or a tongue.
Not that she’d mind if he insisted on doing all the work . . .
But that fantasy would have to wait. She had an errand to run before getting home, hence the sundress. She wanted to look nice for her weekly visit.
She walked up the steps to the home where her grandpa lived and signed in to see him.
Michelle, the front desk receptionist waved at her. Michelle had worked there forever, so they were old friends.
“How is he today?” Pru asked her.
Michelle’s easy smile faded. “Not gonna lie, it’s a rough one, honey. He’s agitated. He didn’t like his lunch, he didn’t like the weather, he didn’t like wearing pants, the list goes on. He’s feeling mean as a snake. You want to come back another day?”
But they both knew that the bad days far outweighed the good ones now, so there was no use in waiting or she might never see him. “I’ll be fine.”
Michelle nodded, eyes warm, mouth a little worried. “Holler if you need anything.”
Pru took a deep breath, waved at Paul the orderly in the hallway, and entered her grandpa’s room.
He was watching Jeopardy! and yelling at the TV. “Who is Queen Victoria, you jackass!” He picked up his cane and waved that too. “Who is Queen Victoria!”
“Hi, grandpa,” Pru said.
“No one ever listens to me,” he went on, dropping his cane to shake his fist at the TV. “No one ever listens.”
Pru moved into his line of sight and picked up the cane for him, wondering if he would know her today. “It’s me, Pru—”
“You,” he snapped, narrowing his eyes on her, snatching the cane from her hands. “You’ve got some nerve coming here, Missy, into my home.”
“It’s good to see you, Grandpa. You sound good, your cold’s gone from last week, huh? How are you feeling?”
“I’m not telling you shit. You were a terrible influence on my son. You encouraged him to be a good time, to party, when you knew—” He jabbed the cane at her for emphasis. “It’s your fault he’s dead. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
This hit her hard but she did her best to ignore the hurtful words. “Grandpa, it’s Prudence.” She purposely kept her voice low and calm so that maybe he would do the same.
No go.
“Oh I knew who you are. I knew you for what you were the first day I saw you,” he said, “when Steven first brought you home. He said ‘this is Vicky and I love her,’ and I took one look into your laughing eyes and I knew. All you wanted to do was have fun and you didn’t care what fell by the wayside. Well, I’ll tell you what, our busines
s fell by the wayside because he wanted to spend time with you, not that you even noticed. Our business went into the ground because of you, because you didn’t care if he had to work—”
“Dad worked,” Pru said. “He worked a lot. Mom just tried to get him to enjoy life when she could because he did work so hard—”
“You were trouble with a capital T, that’s what you were,” he snapped out. “And you still are. Told you that then and I’ll tell you again. You’re Trouble to the very bone.”
She’d frozen to the spot. She’d had no idea that her grandpa had called her mom Trouble, that he thought she’d been a bad influence on her dad simply because she’d wanted him to have a life outside of work.
The irony of this was not lost on her.
What was lost on her was how long she must have stood there, mouth open, gaping, letting old wounds reopen and fester because her grandpa grabbed something from the tray by his bed and chucked it at her.
She ducked and a fork skidded across the floor.
“Okay,” she said, raising her hands. “That wasn’t nice. Grandpa, I’m not my mom. I’m not Vicky. I’m your granddaughter Pru—”
“I don’t have a granddaughter!” A piece of toast came hurtling her way, which she also dodged. “You killed him, Vicky. You killed him dead, so go rot in hell.”
The words spilled from him, cruel and harsh and this stopped her cold so that she didn’t duck quickly enough the next time.
His mug caught her on the cheek.
“Ouch, dammit!” she said straightening, holding her face. “You’ve got to listen to me—I’m not Vicky!” She went hands on hips. “Grandpa, you are not two years old, you need to stop with the temper tantrums!”
“That’s right,” he yelled. “I’m not two, I’m a million and two. I’m old and alone, and it’s all your fault!”
Up until that very moment she’d somehow managed to separate herself from what he was saying, but suddenly she couldn’t. Suddenly she wasn’t feeling strong and in charge and on top of her life. She was just a girl who’d lost her parents, who had a grandpa whose elevator didn’t go to the top floor. She was doing the best she could with what she had, but it wasn’t adequate.