For a second, neither of us moves or speaks. It feels good to feel close to someone like this―I don’t mean in the sexual sense. God knows I get my share of tail. But as close as am to her and my family, we don’t really touch each other. Probably because I don’t let anyone touch me. Not since . . .
Kill’s heavy feet crunching against the snow gives me an excuse to glance up. I smirk when his stare bounces between me and Sofia. If I wasn’t his brother, he probably wouldn’t like me so close to his girl. But Sofia has always been just that: Kill’s girl, even when they were too young to know what love really is.
“Sorry,” I tell him. “I told her to quit fondling my ass, but she can’t seem to help herself.”
The stare he pegs me with would have sent anyone else running. Me, I just laugh.
“You’re lucky I trust her,” he warns.
“Don’t you trust me?” I ask, my grin widening.
“Not even a little bit,” he says.
“Behave, Finn,” Sofia says. She pats my hand and reaches for the last tray of food, a fresh blush coating her cheeks. It doesn’t take much for her to blush, something Kill can’t seem to get enough of.
He grins as he approaches her. “I got it, princess,” he tells her, lifting the tray away from her with one hand. He places his free arm around her waist, stopping to kiss her before leading her forward.
I tuck my tray of food and slam the rear doors of his truck shut. “So what were you saying, Sofia? Something about my irresistible ass.”
“You’re pissing me off, Finn,” Kill says.
It’s what he claims, but even with his back to me I know by now he’s laughing.
I follow them down the stone path that leads to Teo and Evie’s, Sofia’s brother and sister-in-law. Teo has killed it in the automotive repair industry, but he’s never forgotten his friends. Every now and then, they have a bunch of people over for dinner. Tonight is one of those nights, I’m only hoping Sol will show.
Sol . . . yeah. I haven’t been able to shake this sexy woman with the even sexier smile from my mind―not since seeing her at the clinic, and especially not after flirting with her at the diner. When I’m attracted to a woman and start talking to her, it doesn’t take long for her to warm up to me, and it sure as anything doesn’t take long for us to end up in bed. That’s not the case with Sol, and in a way it’s new territory.
Women like me. I know how to make them laugh and feel good. Call it a gift. The part where I end up pissing them off, call that a need to move on. I don’t let women get too close, but that goes for everyone I know. I’ve had a few relationships here and there between hot make-out sessions and one night stands, but nothing that’s ever really meant anything and that’s how I like it. My brothers were pretty much the same way. But they had “daddy” issues. Me. I wish our cheating and absent father was all the shit I had to deal with.
“Hey,” Teo says, bending forward to kiss his sister. His baby girl, Lynnie is pressed against him, taking everything in. “How’s it going, Finn?” he asks.
I shake his hand. “Aside from prying your sister off me in the driveway? Pretty damn good, man,” I tell him.
“Sure you were,” Teo says with a smirk, laughing when Kill mutters, “Christ.”
I kick the snow off my boots and step inside. “Where’s your pretty wife?” I ask. And your hot cousin?
“Kitchen,” he answers as we make our way inside. He puts Lynnie down in the foyer. The little blondie grabs on to her father’s finger and shuffles forward.
“She’s walking already?” Kill asks him.
“Yeah. It’s the only way to keep up with her big brother,” he answers.
Teo’s house is a huge classic colonial with beautiful wood floors and plaster walls. The kind of house that tells people you made it big with a hell of a lot of work. Lynnie lets go of Teo the minute she catches sight of her mama in the kitchen, her chubby little legs rushing her forward.
“Hi,” Evie sings, scooping her up, even though she has their son Mattie perched on her opposite hip.
“Ev. What are you doing?” Teo says, charging forward.
We place the food on the counter, but my attention stays on Teo, knowing something’s up.
Both kids leap into his arms the minute he reaches for them. Lynnie’s giddy, and kicking out her legs as if she wasn’t just with him. Mattie clutches his neck like he’s been gone forever.
“Babe,” Evie protests. “They always want you. Give me a moment to have some Mommy time.”
“You can have Mommy time on the floor. They’re too heavy for you now that―” The way he cuts himself off causes an immediate silence.
“Now that what?” Kill asks, grinning.
Teo smirks at Evie’s blush, his big muscles bulging as he hangs tight to his kids. “Evie’s pregnant again.”
The kitchen erupts in cheers, and while I join them in the congratulations, my attention doesn’t stay on Teo and Evie. It trails to Sol who’s standing in place with two giant bottles of soda in her arms. The way she doesn’t appear shocked by the baby news, I figured she’d heard earlier. But even though she’s smiling in Teo and Evie’s direction, her focus skips to me and stays there.