Book 20 Yours After Dark #2
They’re finishing up the exterior on the family’s new business, McCarthy’s Wayfarer, which is due to open in a few weeks.
The weekend of the opening, the Wayfarer will host its first major event—Shane and Katie’s wedding reception.
Nikki Stokes, Riley’s girlfriend and manager of the Wayfarer, reports that the hotel is sold out for the summer, and ten other weddings have been booked.
With the end of this project now in sight, Finn plans to move home to Connecticut after almost two years on Gansett Island.
It’s been fun to hang with the family for a couple of years, to see his father and brother fall in love with women Finn liked and respected and to be part of Mac’s construction company.
But it’s time to get back to figuring out his real life, which isn’t going to happen on a tiny island located off the southern coast of mainland Rhode Island.
He looks forward to skiing in the winter, driving the vintage Mustang he keeps garaged at home and spending time with the friends he’d left behind.
Not to mention taking his career to the next level with the large construction company he’d worked for in Stamford, Connecticut.
There, he’d put his degree in civil engineering to good use.
Here, he’s banging nails. Not that he doesn’t enjoy the work and the family camaraderie, but he didn’t spend four excruciating years in college to end up a glorified carpenter.
Missy—or Melissa as she prefers to be called these days—his on-again-off-again girlfriend at home, is threatening to come fetch him if he isn’t home by June, so he’ll save her the trip to Gansett by leaving after the grand opening and wedding.
After going round and round in his mind about how he feels about Missy during the time he’s been gone, he’s looking forward to seeing her.
Even though his father and Riley vociferously disagree with him restarting things with her, Finn decides it’s time to see if they have what it takes to go the distance.
As they’re preparing to leave for the day, Finn makes a joke about Riley not being married yet, but Riley says he’d like to be.
“Wow. This is huge.” While Finn is thrilled for his brother and Nikki, he can’t ignore the nagging ache that comes with losing his best friend.
As soon as he has that thought, he feels stupid.
Riley is getting married, not dying, for Christ’s sake.
“You okay?” Riley gives him an odd look that has Finn pulling himself together.
“I’m happy for you, Ri. Nicholas is a great girl.”
“I love her.”
The stark simplicity of his brother’s statement remains with Finn on the ride home.
Riley has promised to text him after he catches up with Nikki about the plans for the evening.
I love her. He puzzles over his brother’s heartfelt words while showering, and then while drinking a beer and eating his favorite after-work snack of corn chips and Cheez Whiz.
I love her. What must it be like to be so certain?
Has he ever said that about any woman, even Missy?
Nope, and he isn’t at all sure what he feels for Missy is love or lust or some weird combination of the two.
One thing he knows for certain—he doesn’t have with her what Riley has with Nikki.
The realization makes him uneasy as he runs his fingers through his unruly mop of hair, recalling that he’d planned to get a haircut.
When he arrives at the salon, Finn is checking out a bottle of shampoo from the shelf when he meets the sexiest woman he’s ever laid eyes on.
She has shoulder-length dark hair streaked with dark purple, ears pierced multiple times each, a colorful sleeve tattoo on her left arm, a sparkling diamond stud in her nose and violet eyes that rivet him.
He’s never seen eyes that color. She’s wearing a black sleeveless top over black skinny jeans that cling to curves that make his mouth go dry.
“You must be Finn?”
“Ah, yeah. That’s me.” He puts the bottle on the shelf and manages to knock two others to the floor. As he bends to retrieve them, his head connects with hers in a painful smack that makes him see stars. Fucking hell, that hurt! When he looks up, she’s rubbing the side of her head.
“Ow.”
“Sorry about that.” He picks up the bottles and returns them to the shelf.
“You’ve got a hard head.” Her face flushes when she realizes the double meaning behind her words.
A surge of heat to his groin takes him by surprise. It’s been so long since any woman has interested him, and he’s nearly given this one a concussion. “May I please request a do-over of the last minute?” He holds out his hand. “I’m Finn McCarthy.”
She eyes his hand before she reaches out to take it. “Chloe Dennis.”
Holy hotness, Batman. The McCarthy men had gotten far more than their fair share of good looks, but this McCarthy is in a class by himself.
Like his older cousins, he has McCarthy blue eyes, dark wavy hair, prominent cheekbones and a mouth made for sin.
In addition to those attributes, Finn is also built like a man who works hard for a living, with muscles bulging under a form-fitting Henley and perfectly faded jeans that leave very little to the imagination.
In addition to cutting hair, Chloe makes small talk for a living. So why does her brain go totally blank when it comes to chatting with him?
He solves the problem for her. “This is my first time at a salon.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. I’ve always been more of a barber shop kind of guy, but I’m seeing that I’ve been missing out.”
There’s that look again, the one that tells her she isn’t the only one who’s attracted.
Too bad he’s off-limits to her. The McCarthys are one of the island’s most prominent families, many of them regular customers.
Indulging in a flirtation, or whatever this would be with one of them, isn’t in the best interest of her business.
“Have you been working at the Wayfarer?”
“Yep. My home away from home for the last six months.”
“It looks incredible from the outside.”
“The inside is even better. You should come by and check it out sometime. I’d be happy to show you around.”
“I’d love to see it. Everyone is so curious.”
“When is your next day off?”
“Monday.”
“Come over at lunchtime. I’ll give you a tour and buy you lunch.”
Curiosity about the Wayfarer has her wavering in her decision to keep her distance. The thought of seeing him again tips her toward saying yes. She forces herself to meet that intense blue-eyed gaze in the mirror. “That sounds like fun.”
“Great.” His smile lights up his gorgeous face, and it’s all she can do not to sigh. He’s too damned sexy for his own good—and hers.
She rings him up and watches him head for the door, her gaze fixed on the way his jeans hug his awesome ass. Then he spins around and catches her looking.
“Do you want to get a drink?”
I do. I really, really do. But I can’t. “Thanks, but I have plans. Another time, maybe.”
“Sure, that’d be great.” That smile… It’s potent. “See you Monday, if not before.”
After the door closes behind him, Chloe stares at it for a full minute, calling herself ten kinds of crazy for lying to him about having plans.
She closes up the salon and heads to the grocery store to buy dinner for her and her thirteen-year-old yellow lab, Ranger.
She runs into Finn at the store where he’s buying pasta and garlic bread.
She’s making chicken and salad. He offers to share the garlic bread with her, which she accepts. He follows her home to meet Ranger.
She pulls into her usual spot and hears barking from inside. Ranger welcomes her home every night—and every night, she exhales with relief when she hears that bark. She fears coming home to silence one day.
Finn parks next to her and helps with her bags.
He follows her inside, where Ranger greets Chloe with his usual enthusiasm until he spots Finn lurking behind her and goes into protector mode, barking and growling.
“Easy, boy. He’s a friend.” At least I think he is…
Finn squats and holds out his hand for Ranger to sniff. “Hey, Ranger. I’m Finn. It’s nice to meet you.”
Swoon.
Chloe is unlike anyone Finn has ever met.
She’s quiet, self-contained, unimpressed with him and his flirting and completely focused on her dog.
Finn is officially intrigued. Her home is a lot like her, colorful and eclectically decorated.
He asks how long she’s lived on the island.
She came out for a friend’s bachelorette party five years earlier and realized the island didn’t have a salon, so she began making plans to open one.
He asks about her tattoos and learns they’re her original artwork.
After dinner, Finn’s phone rings with a call from Riley asking where he is.
Chloe tells him he’s a nice guy, but she’s not interested.
As soon as she says that, he realizes he’s very interested, but respects her wishes, thanks her for dinner and leaves.
On the way into town, he replays everything that’s happened from the minute he walked into the salon until the second he left her home.
This has been one of the more interesting and exhilarating evenings he’s ever spent with a woman, which is telling.
He’s twenty-seven and has never experienced “chemistry” with a woman like he had with Chloe from the first minute his head bounced off hers. His thoughts are a jumbled mess of confusion and disappointment. Women aren’t usually much of a mystery to him, but she is all mystery.
At the Beachcomber bar, he nudges his brother, who looks at him with surprise.
“Hey! You made it!”
Chelsea sits on the stool next to Nikki, and his dad is on the other side of Chelsea.
Riley signals to the bartender and orders a beer for Finn. “Thought you had other plans.”
“Plans change.” Finn takes a sip of the beer. “What goes on around here?”
“Chelsea is having weird contractions.”
Finn glances at her, still finding it strange to think of her as his stepmother. “Is that normal?”