Chapter 20
“We need some shisken fingers,” Cill whispered loudly to Nina.
They were seated at the bar now, after dancing for what felt like hours and laughing—really laughing, and that had felt so good. She’d almost forgotten the shit show that was her life—almost, and then she’d get a wave of sadness, remembering the few times her mother had come to girls’ night.
“We do,” Nina agreed, her mouth watering at the thought of the greasy treats.
Blue was leaning on her shoulder and Zoe on Blue’s.
Libby sat on another stool, and next to her was Leah.
The others were either still dancing or having those intense, in-depth conversations you only had when you’d had one drink to many and thought you had your shit together, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Shisken fingers!” Leah cried suddenly and thumped the bar.
Nina hadn’t drunk as much as the others. She’d already done enough of that at her mother’s funeral, so she’d only had three drinks interspersed with water.
“What can I get you, ladies?” Finch inquired, leaning on the bar and looking sexy in those glasses that Dr. Hannah told her would help him cope in certain light.
They had her vote. Glasses notched up his already high scale of hotness.
“Shisken fingers!” Blue punched her fist in the air.
“If only those high-end fashion house people could see my sister now, what would they say?” He patted Blue’s cheek. “You need some water.”
Watching Finch be a big brother made Nina’s insides gooey, and right now, she didn’t need that in her life. She was navigating so many things. Falling hard for Finch McAllister would only complicate that.
“Sh-should we have tequila?” Cill asked.
“Yesh!” Blue punched the air with a fist once again, regaining her feet.
“Blue Jay McAllister, you’re swaying. Sit the fuck down,” Finch said. He then came out from behind the bar and nudged her gently back onto her stool.
“Tequila!” the women all shouted.
“No reasoning with them on girls’ night, bud,” Red said getting down shot glasses and lining them up on the bar. “None of them drive, so there’s that, at least.”
Finch turned to grab the tequila.
“It’s limbo time!” Betsy Regal shrieked from the dance floor.
“Great,” Nina said with zero enthusiasm. She was always hopeless at it, and was competitive enough to hate that she’d never mastered it like some.
“You doing okay, Nina?”
“Good, thanks, Amber. I’m glad you could make it to girls’ night.” Nina moved slightly to let the woman get closer to the bar.
“Me too. I love Lyntacky,” she said. “I’ve been transient for years, but I’m thinking I may have found my home base.” Amber’s smile told Nina how happy that made her feel.
“That’s awesome. It’s a wonderful place with great people.”
“I’m thinking of bringing some of my stuff over. Is there anywhere close by you’ve used or could recommend for storage? Just until I find a place of my own.”
Nina thought about that. “I know the Murrays do it, because I’ve had a few things of my mom’s stored there. They have a converted barn, and the rates were good.”
“Let’s get limboing!” Red roared from behind them.
“Ooh, I’m in!” Amber said foregoing the drink for the limbo contest. “Thanks, Nina.”
“You’re vertically challenged. Shouldn’t this be your thing?”
The deep voice had her looking behind the bar. “I am not vertically challenged, and I think the saying goes, ‘Good things come in small packages,’” Nina said to Finch, who was now leaning on the wood, which put him closer to her.
“They certainly do,” he said in a slow sexy drawl.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually enjoying being behind that bar?”
“I’ve been in the army since I was eighteen and done nothing else. What I’m enjoying is doing something different, even if the population of Lyntacky are the ones forcing me to do them. But I’d say you’re a liar if you told anyone I just said that.”
His eyes looked bigger behind the lenses and more intense as they locked on hers.
“Forcing you? Please, who could force a man of your size to do anything,” Nina scoffed.
“I’m glad you like my size,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively.
“Are you flirting with me, Finch McAllister?”
“I think I am, Nina Winters.” The smile fell from his lips as he noticed her frown. “What’s wrong?”
She waved his words away with her hand. “I’m having an identity crisis seeing as I don’t really know much about where I came from.”
“Which is completely understandable. How about I take you home after my shift and make you forget it for a while?”
She studied him for long, heated seconds and then nodded. “But you have to keep the glasses on.”
He was still laughing as she walked away to limbo.
Nina failed on the first attempt to get under the bar because she was laughing too hard.
“How can you be so useless when you’re the shortest!” SJ yelled at her.
Nina raised a middle finger.
“SJ, be nice. You’re not a naturally bitchy person. It’s a persona, and no one likes it.”
The words had come from Libby, who for some reason liked SJ, and the feeling appeared to be mutual.
“Fine,” SJ said, folding her arms. “I’ll be rude with my eyes.”
“At least you have nice brows,” Nina muttered.
Finch took one end of the pole as Red was called away. He ran his eyes over Nina’s body as she limbo’d closer. She shimmied under the bar to cheers, but before she made it, Nina fell backward, hitting the floor.
“Up you get.” Big hands lifted her back to her feet. “You need to relax,” Finch said brushing off her butt.
Nina felt everywhere that hand touched.
“Do it again, but this time think about how you’ll feel after a few orgasms later.”
She shuddered as he whispered the words into her ear, delicious excitement running through her.
He grabbed the pole again, and Ryder had the other side.
Finch smirked, knowing just what he’d done to her. So she limbo’d again, but this time she brushed his groin on the way under, making it appear like a mistake. The breath hissed from his throat, and she fell again.
Those big hands picked her up again. “You don’t want to play with fire, or you’ll get burnt.”
“Back at you,” she shot at him and then sauntered away slowly, moving her hips suggestively, knowing he was watching.
“Go, Mom!” The McAllister children roared their support for the woman who was next.
Meadow leaned back, defying gravity, and was a testament to eating healthy and doing yoga daily as she got under the bar, putting everyone half her age to shame.
“Red and I wake up each morning and start our conversation with which body part aches the most after sleeping badly,” Dee said, watching Meadow. “Maybe we need to start yoga.”
Nina looked at Red, who was shaking his head.
“I think she gives classes for free three times a week in the hall,” Nina said.
“You’re not getting tequila,” Red whispered in her ear as she moved back to allow more room for the contestants.
The next game was sticking the Christmas bow closest to the target while blindfolded.
The target being a bare-chested Kurt, who had a bulls-eye painted around his navel.
He wore a sexy smile and his elf’s hat low over one eye.
If she weren’t preoccupied with the wounded Finch McAllister, he’d be just her type.
“This could go horribly wrong,” she heard Ryder say to Finch. “Makes me glad I’m not Kurt.”
The woman lined up, and then Finch put the blindfold on the first woman and turned her three times before nudging her in the right direction. Ryder was the referee.
Dr. Hannah slapped the bow on Kurt’s left pec. “Darn it,” she snapped after removing her blindfold.
Robyn Duke was laughing so hard, she tripped, and the bow landed on Kurt’s crotch. The man paled and then bent at the waist, sucking in deep breaths.
“Need a break, bud?” Ryder asked, but Kurt valiantly waved his words away and straightened with a forced smile now on his face.
“And to think my mother is well respected in this town,” Ryder drawled, tucking her under his arm.
Nina was next and let Finch put the blindfold on her. She then felt his breath brush her ear as he whispered, “You need to behave yourself, pretty girl, and remember, you touch nothing below his waist, but when I get you naked, you can play all you like.”
Finch turned her three times after those words. Nina stumbled in the right direction, feeling hot all over. She deliberately reached out with a finger, running it down the naked chest before pushing the bow directly on the target.
Taking off her blindfold, she turned and smiled at Finch, who was glaring back at her.
She won a pair of white fluffy socks and a red sequined G-string.
Zoe examined her prizes. “Do you think you’re meant to wear them together?”
“No idea, but it’s time for tequila shots!”
They drank and danced—or staggered, in the case of some people—and every time Nina looked toward the bar, she found Finch’s eyes locked on her, his gaze hot and full of secrets that only she shared.
“Is there something going on between you and my brother?”
The words had Nina tripping over her feet as she spun to stare at Birdie. “What?”
“You and Finch. There’s chemistry between you. The others may be too drunk to notice, but I’m not.” Following those words, Birdie squinted.
“No, of course not.”
Birdie leaned in close and stared at Nina.
She dug her feet into the soles of her shoes to stop from retreating.
“I don’t think you’re telling me the truth, Nina.”
“Blue is calling you.”
“No, she’s not.” Birdie’s eyes narrowed further. “Do you like my brother, Nina?”
She nodded. “Lots of people like him, Birdie.” Which wasn’t a lie. Before he’d been injured, he’d been one of Lyntacky’s much loved sons. Nina knew that hadn’t changed, and in fact, his current persona only endeared them more—especially those set on helping him go back to being the man he once was.
“You know that’s not the kind of liking I’m talking about.”
She’d never been happier to hear the voices of the two men who entered the Rollaway with big smiles on their faces.