Page 22 of Passion Restored

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?”

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