Once Burned by Suzie O'Connell Read Free Book Online Page A

Conner.”
    “You must be Skye,” the kid replied. “When do you need me?”
    “Right now if you can be spared. The families want some pictures of everyone getting ready, and since I’m in the need-to-get-ready camp….”
    Luke glanced at his companions, silently asking if he was free to go.
    “We can handle these last eight tables,” Henry’s older brother, Nick, replied.
    Lindsay turned to follow Luke and Skye back to the house, but Henry stopped her.
    “We just keep bumping into each other, don’t we,” he remarked.
    “We do, but I don’t know that I’d call it ‘bumping.’ That implies it has happened by accident, but I’m pretty sure it’s been intentional every time.”
    “So it has,” he said with a quirk of his lips. “I have a thought about this getting-to-know-each-other idea. Luke’s starting in his first college football game on Saturday.”
    “He plays football?” She glanced over her shoulder at the young man. “Why am I not surprised? Quarterback?”
    “How’d you guess?”
    “He’s tall and lean, has strong, graceful hands, and I’d bet he’s pretty quick both on his feet and with his head. As far as I can tell, he’s what my dad would call an ideal quarterback.”
    “You really do know your football,” Henry said, obviously impressed.
    “Obsessive might have been a more fitting term back in the day.”
    “I like dedicated better. Anyhow, a bunch of us from Northstar—including, I believe the bride and groom—are going. Care to join me?”
    Before Lindsay could respond, Henry’s twin barked, “Henry!”
    “I gotta go,” Henry said quickly. “Think about it?”
    “I will definitely think about it,” Lindsay replied. “I’ll find you later.”
    So she didn’t get him in any more trouble with his siblings, she hurried after Skye. Just as she passed out of earshot, she heard him utter something under his breath that made her beam.
    * * *
    “Hot damn,” Henry said softly.
    Lindsay was as beautiful as she was intriguing in that cheerful yellow dress, which showed off proud, graceful shoulders and long, toned legs and hugged a trim, exquisitely feminine body. He knew it was stupid in the extreme, but he couldn’t seem to tell her no. He had a pretty good idea of what she wanted—a brief, casual affair—but instinctively he knew it wouldn’t be a purely physical romp. She wasn’t the kind of woman who could disassociate her heart from sex. With her, it would be making love, and he wasn’t sure he could set his anger aside long enough to let that happen.
    “Would you quit thinking with your dick long enough for us to finish this?” Aaron snapped.
    Henry jerked back in shock, but surprise quickly gave way to anger as his temper flared. Aaron had no room to talk. If anyone in his family could understand the anguish boiling in Henry’s heart, it would be his twin, whose wife had died in his arms nearly half a decade ago after being shot in the chest. But no, Aaron was still too wrapped up in his own grief to give a passing thought to anyone else. He’d been a different man since Erica’s death—sullen and withdrawn, going through the motions every day instead of living. Like someone had opened a door in his mind, Henry realized that he’d needed his twin’s understanding over the past three weeks, but a rift had opened up between them that had prevented him from seeking it. Anger darkened into bitter and helpless fury.
    “Maybe you oughta start thinking with yours again so you wouldn’t be such an uptight ass all the damned time,” he retorted and stalked away a few paces.
    “Henry!” Nick growled. “Would you give him a break?”
    “Why? It’s been almost five years, Nick. I miss Erica, too—we all do—but she’s gone, and he needs to get that through his head.”
    “Jerry Mackey’s getting out on Friday,” Nick explained, “but you’d know that if you had bothered to talk to him instead of heading straight for the bar at the Bedspread as