Every Night (Brush of Love 1)

“I will. I promise.”

Chapter 18

Hailey

“I’m so glad I made the decision to come out early,” Anna said.

“Me, too, and thanks for the wine. All five bottles of it.”

“With me, it’ll hold us maybe two days,” she said, grinning.

“Are you all right, Anna? I mean really. You’re a week and a half early.”

“You saying you want me gone?”

“Not at all, you crazy bat. I’m just worried about you. As your sister.”

“Well, I’m not, but that’s a later topic. You’ve been pretty cheery on our phone calls lately. Things with the gallery going well? Will I get to see it soon?”

“Things with the gallery are going well,” I said, smiling. “It looks like things will be wrapped up by the end of July.”

“Wow. That was the earlier date on the paperwork. I’m impressed. Must be a hell of a construction crew.”

“They really are,” I said. “But there is something else.”

I couldn’t stop grinning, and my sister began to squeal. She hopped up from the couch and took my wine glass, pouring us another round before she sat back down on the couch.

“I knew it! You found yourself a man. Tell me all about him. What’s his name? What’s he look like? Does he work? Girl, he better work.”

“Slow down,” I said, laughing. “His name’s Bryan McBride, and he’s very handsome. Muscular. Tattoos. Chiseled abs. Wonderful hips. Oh, you’d love him.”

“Bryan McBride? Why does that name sound familiar?” she asked.

“Because he’s the owner of the construction company I hired.” I expected her to be ecstatic. I expected her to squeal with me and demand details. I expected her to hug me tightly and swirl me around and tell me it was about time I got my body filled with more than just the spirit of my art.

But instead, I watched her face fall into what I called her lawyer-land mode.

“You’re having sex with someone on your construction team,” she said.

“Not just anyone,” I said. “But yes?”

“How did this all come about?”

“Well, I asked him to dinner. We hit it off. I wanted to thank him for all he’d done for me and the deal he cut me on the gallery. We came up here for coffee, it was storming—”

“And he made a move on you,” she said.

“Not exactly. I mean, we sort of made the moves on each other. But yes, he was the first to kiss me, I guess. Technically.”

“He used your art gallery to pressure you into sex.”

“Wait. What? No. Not even kind of. I was the one that suggested dinner,” I said.

“Hailey. You know you didn’t have to sleep with him, right? Did he tell you that you had to in order to keep the deal going? I’ve heard of filthy fuckers doing that kind of shit. Taking advantage of women like you. Like us. You can tell me. I’ll take him to court and get the fucking work for free.”

“What the hell’s wrong with you? No. Nothing like that happened. He kissed me, he told me he wanted to have sex with me, and I told him I wanted to as well. It was a mutual thing. Calm down, Judge Judy.”

“I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly. “I just ...”