Collide (The Barker Triplets 2)

Bobbi slipped onto the barstool beside him and grabbed a handful of peanuts.

“So, where did you go?”

Shane was aware that Billie and Logan had moved away and since they were at the end of the bar—even though the room was full—with the empty barstool on the other side of him, they had a modicum of privacy.

Especially since Seth had shoved his tongue back into his mouth and the guys he sat with were avidly watching the game on one of the overhead flat screen televisions.

“I had a meeting with my grandfather’s attorney.”

She paused with the munching of the peanuts, “Oh.”

For a few moments he concentrated on nothing but her painted nails picking through the bowl of peanuts. Vibrant red among the dull, brown shells.

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, I know he meant a lot to you.”

Pain lanced across Shane’s chest. “Yeah,” was all he managed to say before his throat closed up.

His grandfather Niall Gallagher, the one man who had believed in him when no one else did, had died while Shane was still serving his sentence. It had only been a few months before his release and the fact that he hadn’t been allowed to attend the funeral was one hell of a bitter pill to swallow.

So bitter in fact that it had taken this long for him to even acknowledge his grandfather’s last wishes and attend a meeting with his lawyers.

Shane’s head was still spinning at everything he’d learned.

“So, how is the old step-monster these days?”

Shane took a moment. He pushed at his empty beer glass and stared into eyes that could make any man forget his head. Were they going to do this? This friendly conversation thing?

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen my father or his wife since...” He thought about it. “Since I don’t remember.”

“So they never came to, um, visit you when you were…away.”

“No,” he said softly. “They didn’t come visit me when I was in jail.”

“Hmm.” It was obvious she wasn’t surprised. But then why should she be? Bobbi more than anyone, knew of the tangled lines that ran through his family. There was no love lost between him and his father. None at all.

“Do you remember that time when,” her finger ran along the top of the bar. “Do you remember that night when I snuck up to your room?

“There was a lot more than one time, Bobbi.”

She giggled and for a second his world tilted a little off its axis. How long had that sound echoed in his head like a whisper from the past?

“I know, but I’m talking about the first time.”

He glanced at her sharply. Inhaled that scent that was so wonderful and unique, and he watched as she continued to twirl her fingers along the wet rim of her glass. Seriously, the woman could drive a priest insane.

“I was eighteen and we’d been fooling around for months doing everything but the deed.” She grinned and paused. “You kept telling me I was too young and there was no way in hell you were going to have sex with me, but I was always used to getting what I wanted and that night I snuck into your house and came up the back stairs, remember?”

She glanced up at him and his chest tightened. They were in the middle of a crowded bar and yet it felt as if they were alone in the world. Just the two of them and a host of memories that might seem to be wonderful and amazing, but he knew them for what they were. Bittersweet and heartbreaking.

“I remember.”

Hell yes, did he remember. He’d been twenty-three, had just been kicked out of Michigan State and was back in New Waterford trying to get his shit together. He had come home to crash after a night out snowmobiling with his buddies, and was just getting into bed when she slipped into his bedroom.

Before he’d had a chance to protest she was naked and when she climbed on top of him, with her electric blue eyes, breasts that begged to be touched…when she’d opened her legs and let him see exactly what he was missing out on…he’d folded.

Like a stack of cards.

They’d spent the next four hours having all kinds of hot, horny sex. And then…