Sweet Little Lies: Heartbreaker Bay Book 1 Read online

  “I’m not dying. Jesus, you’re such a drama queen.”

  “Right, then what?” Sean demanded. “Are you dumping me, is that it?”

  Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. Sean’s greatest fear was being dumped, and to be fair, he’d earned that particular anxiety the hard way from their parents. Pulling his head out of his own ass was hard but Finn managed for a second to do just that. “I can’t dump you,” he said, “you’re my brother.”

  “People dump their family all the time,” Sean said, and then paused. “Or they just walk away.”

  Finn softened and let out a sigh. “Okay, so yeah, I suppose I could dump you. And don’t get me wrong, there are entire days where I’d like to at least strangle you slowly. But listen to me very carefully, Sean. I’ve honestly never, not once, wanted to dump you from my life.”

  There was a long silence. When Sean finally spoke, his voice was thick. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I’d do anything for you. And I’ll never walk away from you.” And up until a few days ago, he’d have given Pru that very same promise.

  And yet he had walked away from her.

  At that thought, the first shadow of doubt crept in, icy tendrils as relentless as the afternoon fog.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s up?” Sean asked. “If it’s not me and the pub’s okay, then what? You mess up with Pru or something?”

  “Why would you say that?” Finn demanded.

  “Whoa, man, chill. It’s a matter of elimination. Other than work, there’s nothing else that could get to you like this. So what happened?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Sean was quiet a second. “Because of Mellie? I apologized for that like a thousand times but I’ll do it again. I was an asshole and an idiot. And drunk off my ass that night. And it was a long time ago. I’d never—”

  “This has nothing to do with Mellie,” Finn said.

  “Then what? Because Pru’s pretty damn perfect.”

  Finn sighed. Not perfect. But perfect for him . . . “Why does it have to be anyone’s fault?”

  Sean laughed wryly. “It’s just the way of the world. Men screw up. Women forgive—or don’t, as the case often goes.”

  Finn blew out a breath. “I walked away. I had my reasons but I’m not sure I did the right thing.” It was a hell of an admission considering he rarely second-guessed himself.

  “If I’ve learned one thing from you,” Sean said, “it’s to suck it up and always do the right thing. Not the easy thing, the right thing.”

  Finn managed a short laugh. “Listen to you, all logical and shit.”

  “I know, go figure, right? So . . . you going to do it? The right thing?”

  Finn sighed. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

  “Just hurry up and handle it and get your ass back to work.”

  “There he is.”

  Chapter 32

  #TakeMeToYourLeader

  When Finn finally made his way to the pub that night, he stood in the middle of the bar as music played around him. His friends and customers were all there having fun, laughing, dancing, drinking . . .

  The pub was a huge success, beyond his wildest imagination. He’d never really taken the time to notice it. But he was noticing now that his heart had been ripped out of his chest by a gorgeous dynamo of a woman with eyes that sucked him in and held him, a sweet yet mischievous smile that had taken him places he’d never been . . . then there was how he’d felt in her arms.

  Like Superman.

  And he’d dumped her. Roughly. Cruelly. And her crime? Nothing more than trying to make sure he was okay after a tragedy that hadn’t even been her fault. Not in the slightest.

  Hating himself for that, he stopped right in the middle of the place. He wasn’t in the mood for this. He needed to think, needed to figure out what the hell to do to alleviate this pain in his chest and the certainty that he’d walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  But everyone was at the bar, waving at him. Bracing himself for the inquisition, he headed that way.

  “Rumor is that you’ve been a dumbass,” Archer said.

  Finn stared at him. “How the hell did you know—”

  “The girls and I stopped by Pru’s place,” Willa said.

  “Is she okay?”

  “She looks and sounds like her heart’s been ripped out.” Willa met his gaze. “She’d clearly been crying.”

  Shit.

  Elle squeezed his hand. “Whatever you did, it’s not completely your fault. You’re a penis-carrying human being, after all. You’re hard-wired to be a dumbass.”

  “Sit.” Spence kicked out a barstool for him and poured him a beer from the pitcher in front of them.

  Finn took a second look at him. “You’re wearing glasses.”

  Haley grinned proudly. “Do you like them? I picked them out for him.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Spence said. “I did.”

  Haley patted him like he was a puppy. “You were impatient as always and grabbed the first pair off the display you could. It took you less than two seconds. I waited until you’d left and put them back and picked you out a better pair that would better suit your face.”

  Spence pulled his glasses off and stared at them. “I liked the other pair better.”

  “Yeah?” Haley asked. “What color were they?” Spence paused. “Glasses color.”

  Haley rolled her eyes. “Just like a man,” she said to Will and Elle, who nodded.

  Archer shook his head at Spence. “This is why you’re single.”

  “You’re single too,” Spence said.

  “Because I want to be.”

  Spence closed his eyes. “We were going to rag on Finn, not me. Let’s stick with the plan.”

  “Right,” Archer said and looked at Finn. “Tell us all how you messed up so we can point and laugh.”

  “And then fix,” Willa said, giving the others a dirty look as she patted the empty seat. “Come on now, don’t be shy. Tell us everything.”

  “Yes,” Ella said. “I want to hear it all, because that girl? She’s not just yours, Finn. She’s ours now too.”

  “She’s not mine,” Finn said.

  Everyone gaped at him.

  Elle narrowed her gaze. “Does this have anything to do with that wish she made for you on that damn fountain? You know about that, right?”

  Finn blinked. “She wished for me?”

  “Have you ever heard of being gentle?” Archer asked Elle. “Even once?”

  Elle sighed. “Okay, so he didn’t know. Sue me.” She shot Archer a dirty look. “And like you know the first thing about being gentle.”

  “Didn’t know what exactly?” Finn demanded, refusing to let them go off on some tangent. “Someone needs to start making sense or I swear to God—”

  “She made a wish for you to find true love,” Willa said. “I was never clear on why she wished for you and not for herself. Probably because that’s who she is, down to the bone.”

  Spence sucked in a breath. “I’ve been by that fountain a million times. It never once occurred to me to make a wish for someone else. That’s . . .”

  “Selfless,” Willa said. “Utterly selfless. And, by the way, it’s also something that none of us would’ve thought to do. So it’s not just Spence here who’s an insensitive ass.”

  “Thanks, Willa,” Spence said dryly.

  She turned expectantly to Finn. “So? What happened?”

  A terrible knot in his chest twisting, Finn snatched Spence’s beer and knocked back the rest of the glass, not that it helped.

  “Sure, help yourself,” Spence muttered.

  Everyone was looking at Finn, waiting.

  He shook his head. “I can’t. It’s . . . private. What happened between us stays between us.”

  “Hey, this isn’t Vegas,” Spence said, and earned himself a slap upside the back of his head by Elle.

  “Do you love her?” W