“You don’t need much equipment if you know what you’re doing.”
“You’re hired. When I get to that room, I’m calling you.”
“Sold.” Before he lost his nerve, he blurted out, “Hey, so, uh, a buddy of mine owns a restaurant about an hour north of here. Nice place. Plus, less gossip.”
“That is a plus. I don’t need my ex finding any more excuses to drag me through the mud.”
“Ouch.”
“That’s Nate. Anyway, yes, dinner away from the Foothills gossip mill sounds amazing.”
“K. Can you make it tonight? Or I can swap with Pete, our other bartender, and we can do tomorrow? I’m open.”
“I’m having dinner with my brother tonight. I can do any other night, so you don’t have to switch your schedule around.”
“No problem; Pete’s flexible about that stuff, especially as it usually winds up with him getting extra hours.” He laid back on his bed, his legs extended, feet hanging off the edge. “I guess I didn’t know you had family in town.”
“I’m from Foothills originally, but my parents divorced when I was in middle school and I moved to California with my dad.” He could hear fabric moving on the other end of the line, like maybe Haley was lying on her bed too.
Too soon for phone sex?Yes, definitely yes.Real sex first. Damn, he needed to get that woman naked.
What was wrong with him? He and Trace had just broken up. In all the time they dated, he hadn’t once considered phone sex. Hadn’t once lost sleep imagining her naked, and she was attractive. But Haley… yeah, this rebound thing was a brilliant plan.
Shaking the phone sex idea from his head, he answered, “I didn’t move to Foothills until freshman year of high school. Wait, who’s your brother?”
“Brothers, but only one lives in town. Grady Mallory.”
“Damn this is a small town. Grady was a few years ahead of me, but we were on a lot of the same teams, so we hung out a lot. He’s been a good friend since I moved back. Wait, I think he said his sister just moved back to town. Married to some asshole that slept with everyone.”
Snorting on the other end, she griped at her brother, “Thanks, Grady.”
Finn winced. “That came out wrong. Really, your brother isn’t gossiping about you. He knew I just got out of a heavy relationship. Grady and Asher and Zane and Lincoln dragged me out and got me trashed. You know, what guys do when there’s a break-up. Honestly, I think Grady was trying to make me feel better by telling me about you, that it could be worse.”
“That sounds so much better than ice cream and cookie binges women are stereotyped to enjoy. Lucky me, Nate had slept with all my friends, so I quit eating for a while and binged on STD testing instead.”
“Damn, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m over it. Well, not that you ever get over that sort of thing, but I’ve got a squeaky clean bill of health and am thrilled to be far, far away from it all. Anyway. You just listed half of my favorite people from Foothills. I had such a crush on Asher growing up.”
Finn’s abdomen vibrated as he shook with laughter. “You and all the other girls. Seriously, I was being wooed by half the Pac-12 coaches, made headlines on a regular basis, but all I ever heard, even from my girlfriend, was what a hottie Asher Sutherland was. If he wasn’t my partner in advanced calc and my carpool buddy for running start classes, I would have kicked his ass. He didn’t deserve half the shit he was blamed for anyway.”
“Advanced calculus, and yet you made a career in football instead.”
“Hell yeah. Doesn’t take advanced calc to see I would have made a fraction as much money as an engineer or a professor.” He rested his hand on his bare abdomen, holding the phone to his ear with his other hand. He really needed to message Pete that he didn’t need him tonight, but he couldn’t seem to tear himself away from the phone.
“Ahab’s or Black Op?”
“What?”
“I can’t picture you getting trashed in your own establishment.”
“Oh, right. We hit Ahab’s as Grady and Zane didn’t want to risk me puking at their place. Why?”
“I’m just picturing the five of you raising hell. Two attorneys, two Navy SEALs, and a fricking hot wide receiver. Just saying, bet you guys turned some heads.”
Realizing he was still wearing nothing more than a wet towel, he immediately pictured her doing the same. Didn’t matter if she was or not, the image was too good to question. “Say wide receiver again.”
“What? Why?” She giggled on the other end.
