Stripped Down (Tap That)

“Sullivan!” Sloane wanted to climb over the bar and arm wrestle him. That had solved everything when they were kids. “Stop it!”

“Your sister is a big girl,” Rick said mildly. “I think it’s up to her who touches her or doesn’t.”

Sullivan made a move like he was coming out from behind the bar.

“Knock it off!” she said, mildly alarmed. “No one is touching anyone!”

Well. She hoped there might be touching, but she didn’t know truthfully where Rick stood on that subject, and Sullivan’s opinion didn’t matter.

She saw Lilly approaching the bar and was grateful for the distraction from her brother’s sudden need to defend her virtue. He was about a decade too late on that. Besides, she had a feeling it was more of a selfish thing than concern for her. He didn’t want her hooking up with his friend. If it was some random guy she suspected he wouldn’t care nearly as much. “Lilly, you need a ride? Rick and I are sharing an Uber.”

“Lilly doesn’t need a ride,” Sullivan said. “I always drive her home.”

Geez Louise, Sullivan was being a jerk tonight.

“Lilly doesn’t need you to speak for her.” Sloane would give him a pass due to the circumstances of the night, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him bully Lilly.

“Actually, yes, I’d love to go with you guys. I’m beat.” She gave Sloane a rueful look. “Herding these guys was no easy task.”

“Hey. I take exception at that,” Rick said, though he didn’t sound even remotely offended.

“I’ll take you home, Lilly,” Sullivan said, his tone hard.

Sloane sighed. Either Sullivan was drunk, just better at hiding it than she was, or he was in a really bad place. She was going to text their father that he needed to drive Sullivan home. Or maybe, she needed to go home with him. Maybe he needed to talk, to vent, to yell. “Sullivan, relax. Do you want me to wait and hang out with you? We can talk about… stuff. Or whatever.”

Damn, that sounded awkward. But they were not a feelings family. They avoided emotion like the plague, always had since her mother had died. They joked, they picked on each other, they exploded. Then pretended it hadn’t happened. It was their dad’s coping mechanism and they had picked it up right along with him.

She wasn’t surprised when Sullivan snorted. “Do I look like I want to talk? Do you want to talk?”

She thought about her reaction when he had tried to bring up Tom and winced. Yeah. O’Tooles didn’t do feelings.

“I thought so.” He turned to Lilly. “Do you want a ride or not?”

Lilly’s cheeks were flushed. “No thanks. I appreciate it, but I’m tired.”

“Whatever then.” He stomped off.

Like actually stomped off. “What the hell was that?” Sloane murmured. She’d seen him the last few days and while grumpy as hell he hadn’t been this aggressive. Though she knew this night had to have kicked up some bad feelings.

Lilly looked embarrassed. “I shouldn’t have pushed this charity event. I think it was too much, too soon.”

“I don’t know,” Rick said. “He could have said no to the whole thing and he didn’t. He’ll be okay. He just needs to be a dick sometimes when he’s upset.”

That made Sloane roll her eyes hard. “Nice excuse aka justification.”

Rick just shrugged. “I am a sympathetic guy, what can I say?”

Sloane eyed Rick, curious and a little amused. She could see shades of Little Dickie still in him. The nice guy. The easy temperament.

“Okay, who’s calling a car? I think the party is over.” She was ready to leave whatever the hell that had been with her brother behind at the bar. He had every reason to be a buzzkill and he was certainly taking advantage of that but it was the wee hours of her birthday. She wanted to forget, not worry about Sullivan.

“On it,” Rick said, pulling out his phone.

Sloane realized instantly there was no way he either hadn’t seen her text earlier or wasn’t seeing it now. It would be right on his screen, screaming out to him that she wanted to kiss him. But he just glanced at his phone before swiping the screen and opening the app.

“We’re waiting for a black Toyota Camry.”

They went outside to wait and Sloane studiously ignored both Rick’s bike and the man himself. She would have to call her insurance the next day, despite what he had said earlier. But the real cause for her awkwardness was he was not saying a damn word about her text. Had she forgotten how to read signals from single guys? No. That was stupid. He had asked her to hang out. Teased her about a sleepover. The kiss.