He took another sip and shook his head. She’s a beauty, but him charming? Not. He chugged the rest of his drink and winced as it burned its way down his throat.
His obligations were over, now it was playtime. What better night to indulge his dark side? He took out his phone and made a call.
***
Riley slipped into the sunroom with his phone to one ear and a finger stuck in the other. Anyone who noticed would assume he was looking for a quiet place to take a call. If they notice me at all. It was a little too chilly out there, so he had to come up with a Plan B. Too bad, I love this sunroom. He pocketed his phone and headed back inside.
The entire first floor was wall-to-wall people, so that left either the basement or the upstairs. The idea of going down into the basement made him queasy. For all he knew, there were spiders down there the size of his fist. That left upstairs. Sex in a bed, how boring. But what other choice did he have? Maybe they could leave the door open.
He waited until he saw someone let themselves into the downstairs bathroom. That gave him the excuse to head to the upstairs bathrooms. He paused at the foot of the stairs to send a text then headed up.
***
Shane watched Megan and BJ take their victory lap before heading out to celebrate in private.
Megan was cool. She didn’t treat him like he had some kind of leprosy. It was possible that BJ hadn’t gotten around to spilling all the family secrets and it was just a matter of time before she joined the choir.
He was relieved the proposal was finally over. That ring was getting pretty heavy, and he wanted it out of his pocket. Like the last time. At least this time, there was a happy ending. And this time, the tears were tears of joy.
What was it with him and rings, anyway? Was BJ yanking his chain by putting him in charge of the damned thing, or had he forgotten? Hardly, BJ never forgot anything. None of them did.
He only talked about it to the Dozer, but that was because he paid the man a lot of money to listen. A lot. No, he didn’t talk about it, but it was always out there. Shane the bad boy. Shane the screw up. Shane the embarrassment. Shane who just wanted to get the fuck away from everyone, but that was never going to happen. He was stuck.
He couldn’t help noticing the looks on everyone’s faces when he’d handed BJ the open box. They all remembered what had happened. Or what they thought had happened. They were going to talk about it. He could feel their eyes on him as they rehashed it all.
He grabbed a beer out of its ice bath, cracked it open, and snatched a chicken wing from the tray. He might as well enjoy some refreshments before he headed out. He’d made his cameo, he’d performed his role in the traveling brother circus, now it was time to slip into his costume and find some real friends to party with. Friends who didn’t judge him on rumors they thought were facts. People he hadn’t disappointed. People who would talk to him and be glad he’d shown up.
Coming Next Month
Lone Wolf
Tobin Tribe Book 3
Tobin Tribe baby–all six-foot-eight of him–Shane has a knack for finding trouble. Or maybe trouble has a knack for finding him. Branded a thief at age nine, Shane’s undeserved bad boy reputation grew to legendary proportions that he decided to live up to it. Now he’s met someone more screwed up than he is. Can two broken halves make a whole?
Underage and unprotected, Lissa Scott endured things no child should be forced to suffer. Warped by her experiences, Lissa sought peace in any bed she could. Can she find that peace in Shane’s bed, or will he leave her heart more battered and bruised than ever?
Pre-order Lone Wolf here
About the Author
When an adult meets a new child, one of the first things they ask is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’ve asked and answered that question myself more times than I can count. I’ve given and heard the usual answers: teacher, fireman, president, and the like. But the truth of the matter is I never really figured it out for myself.
I’ve spent some time in TV news. I’ve been a teacher and a librarian. I tried my hand at selling real estate and failed miserably. Ditto for Mary Kay and a slew of other “businesses” that sounded like a good idea at the time but were huge, expensive mistakes.
About the only constants in my life, besides bad decisions, have been reading and writing. I simply can’t remember a time when those elements were lacking. Not that what I wrote was all that good, but after reading about 10,000 books, I got better.
Then in 2015, I entered NaNoWriMo and pounded out the first, and truly horrible, version of For Pete’s Sake which eventually became Tobin Tribe Book 1. After nearly five years of rejections, rewrites, edits, alpha readers, beta readers, and more than a few (million) swear words, I managed to produce something I wasn’t ashamed of, so I kept writing, and Fly Boy was born.
As for the future? I plan to continue writing from the comfort of my recliner in my suburban Phoenix, Arizona home with my grouchy husband and two rescue cats. Does this mean I want to be an author when I grow up? Who says I plan to grow up?
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Fly Boy: A Friends to Lovers Standalone Romance (Tobin Tribe Book 2) Page 24
