Page 5 of Driving Whiskey Wild
“Great.” He crossed his arms. “Go out with me.”
She laughed.
“Not the response I was looking for,” he grumbled.
“How can you even ask me that after everything that just happened?”
He splayed his hands and felt a smile creep across his lips. “You put up a few roadblocks, and I’m navigating around them.”
“Roadblocks?” Her shoulders dropped. “Okay, listen, we’re not going to go out. Like, ever.”
“Yes, we are, Finlay. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day you’re going to go out with me.”
“No, I’m not.”
Refusing to play this game, he looked around the parking lot, zeroing in on a pale-pink Suburban parked by the road, and stifled a laugh. “That yours?”
“Don’t laugh. It’s for my catering company. I have to stand out. I want people to take notice and wonder why there’s a big pink truck on the road.”
“You don’t need a pink vehicle to stand out. All you need to do is flash that traffic-stopping smile of yours.”
“Bullet,” she said softly, and headed toward her truck.
“You do have trouble with honesty, don’t you?”
She turned and glared at him. “No.”
“Bullshit.”
“Do you always curse?”
He shrugged. “Only when I feel like it.”
She studied him for a long moment, her big blue eyes moving from his face to his chest and down his arms. He wondered what she was looking for. Just as he was about to ask, she said, “Are we clear about everything now?”
“I am, but you obviously have a few things clouding your vision.” He reached for her keys, and when she lifted her hand up, as if she could hold them out of his reach, he smiled and covered her hand with his. “Keys, lollipop.”
She huffed out a breath and let go. As he opened her door, she said, “Lollipop?”
He wasn’t about to tell her that he’d like to lick her all over. “Best type of sugar rush there is.”
“I’m not sure if I should slap you or thank you.”
As she climbed into the van, he put a hand on her back, and she glared at him.
“Put that scowl away, lollipop. If you think I’m not going to help you into your truck, you’re wrong. And as far as slapping goes, if that’s what you’re into, you can try it. But don’t be surprised if that gorgeous ass of yours sees its turn.”
She turned bright red. “I can’t believe you talk like that.”
“Like what? Oh, right. You have that thing about honesty. A proper girl like you? I’d think you were all about honesty. Where are you headed?”
She settled into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Out.”
“Drinking?” He couldn’t imagine her drinking anything stronger than a Shirley Temple, but he felt the need to know she was safe.
“After tonight? Most definitely.”
He imagined her in a bar and immediately envisioned sleazy guys trying to pick her up. “Give me your phone.”
“What? No.”
“Jesus.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “What’s your phone number?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m your boss and I should have it.”
She rattled off her number and he sent her a text. Her phone dinged from within her purse.
“Now you have my number in case you need me.” He put his hands on the roof of her car and leaned in, purposefully encroaching on her personal freaking space. “Or if you want me.”
She blinked up at him, cheeks flushing, eyes heating.
Yeah, that’s right, lollipop. I want to get so deep in your personal space you won’t be able to tell where I begin and you end. “I’m only a phone call away.”
Chapter Three
WITH A TINY straw between her lips, Finlay leaned closer to Gemma, simultaneously draining the last of her strawberry lemonade vodka and trying to hear her talking over the blaring music. She’d always thought it was funny that the club was called Whispers when it was never quiet. She had been there a few times since she’d moved back to Peaceful Harbor, and there had been a live band playing each and every time. Tonight she was with Penny and Dixie, who were dancing in their chairs, and Gemma and Crystal, who were talking about their weddings. She took in Dixie’s long, flame-red hair and tattooed shoulders and arms and Crystal’s black leather miniskirt and boots. Her jet-black hair hung thick and shiny over her shoulders. Penny had come from work at her ice cream shop, looking sweet and sexy in a pair of jeans and a striped top. And then there were Gemma and Finlay, both wearing dresses and heels. They all appeared to be so different, but they got along like sisters. Finlay counted herself lucky. Back in Boston, when she wasn’t running her catering company, she would hang out with Isabel. She’d worried that when she moved back to the harbor she’d be too busy trying to get her business off the ground to make friends. But she’d quickly met Gemma and Crystal when Penny’s friend Tegan had referred her to cater Gemma’s wedding, and they’d all hit it off right away. When they’d introduced her to Dixie, it had been another godsend. Not just for her friendship, but because of Dixie, for the next month Finlay had a job she was excited about that allowed her enough time to get things in order for her own catering company.
If she could get her arms around the situation with Bullet. The trouble was, she didn’t know if she wanted to get her arms around the situation—or him.
Oh boy.
She held her hand up as the waiter walked by, then pointed to her glass when she had his attention. She was on her second drink, which wasn’t much compared to how many drinks Dixie and Gemma had consumed, but Finlay rarely drank. One drink made her silly. Two would make her not give a darn about what she said. Tonight she was on a mission. If she couldn’t figure out Bullet, at least she could drown her dangerous desires, and with Crystal as their designated driver, she didn’t have to worry about getting home safely.
“I still think the way you proposed to Bear at our wedding was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen, other than Tru’s proposal to me, of course,” Gemma said to Crystal.
The waiter brought Finlay’s drink, and she sipped the deliciously fruity cocktail, letting it numb her curiosity. “It was definitely the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen,” Finlay agreed. She’d never forget the way Bear and Crystal had whispered across the aisle while Tru and Gemma had said their vows. Or the look on Bear’s face when Crystal proposed, and the look on Crystal’s when he’d dropped to one knee and presented a ring. Even now, weeks later, she got a warm feeling all over just thinking about it.
“Thanks,” Crystal said as she tucked her dark hair behind her ear. “But wait until you hear about our legal wedding. You might remember that we didn’t have a marriage certificate when he proposed, but we had the guy perform the ceremony anyway, and to us, that will always be our real wedding day. But we went to the courthouse two weeks later with Jed, Dixie”—she smiled across the table at Dixie—“and the rest of Bear’s family.”
“And my family!” Gemma reminded her.
“I was getting there,” Crystal said. “Anyway, almost everyone from the wedding was at the courthouse, and it was finally our turn to get ‘officially’ married. I was more nervous than I’ve ever been in my life, which is crazy, because in my heart we were already married. Anyway, just as the clerk tells Bear to recite his vows, this woman screams. And it wasn’t just a scream; it was a bloodcurdling, terrifying scream, like in a horror movie.”
“My brothers and Tru bolted out of the room like bats outta hell,” Dixie said, and downed her drink. She flagged down the waiter, indicating she’d like another, and said, “I’m telling you, the room shook, and that poor clerk had no idea what was going on.”
“Clerk?” Gemma interrupted. “How about poor Kennedy and Lincoln? Lincoln started crying, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ and Kennedy, the ever-protective big sister, tried to wrench him from my arms, while at the same time screaming, ‘Uncle Boney! Uncle Bullet! Uncle Be-ah!’”
“I love how she says ‘Be-ah.’ Don’t ever teach her to say her r’s,” Crystal said.
Gemma rolled her eyes. “That’ll be real cute at sixteen.”
Penny leaned into Finlay and slurred, “We need a baby in our family.”
Finlay took Penny’s drink from her hands and gulped it down. “Don’t look at me.” Her hormones were all messed up. They had to be for her to be getting so hot and bothered over Bullet Whiskey that even Crystal’s story wasn’t distracting her from him. She looked at Crystal and said, “What did you do?”
“We rushed out of the room and found Bones kneeling beside a woman with a broken nose. Bear and Tru were standing in front of them like bodyguards, and Bullet’s holding the asshole who hit her six inches off the ground, with his back against the wall, like this.” Crystal wrapped her hand around the front of her neck. “And Kennedy yells, ‘Uncle Bullet, did he hurt that lady?’ Bullet turns, and I swear he melted right there in front of us.”
