Adios Pantalones (Fisher Brothers 3)

“Maybe I wanted whiskey.”

I pushed it closer. “Drink this first.”

“Gonna tell me what’s eating you?” he asked, but Nick arrived before I could respond.

“The best-looking Fisher brother has finally arrived,” Nick called out, but his smug expression quickly faded when he saw my face. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been asking him the same thing since I sat down,” Grant said with a harrumph, and Nick gave me a quick once-o

ver.

“You’ve been here for two seconds.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Tell us,” Nick insisted, and Grant huffed out an agreeing sound.

“Not now. Later.” I wanted to put Nick at ease, but he wouldn’t give up that easily. My little brother was nothing if not persistent. He reminded me of someone else I knew.

Nick raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t make me wait until we close. I’ll die of curiosity before then, and I’ll create a hundred crazy scenarios in my head. At least give me the CliffsNotes version.”

I couldn’t help but smirk as I led him out of the customers’ earshot. “I found out Sofia has a son, and that’s why she wanted nothing to do with me. Because she thought I wasn’t good for her or him. The end.”

“No way. She has a son? How old is he?”

Odd first question. “Eight.”

“And she thought you’d be, what, a bad influence on him or something?” Nick sounded sincerely perplexed as he dropped his keys in the drawer and then adjusted the baseball hat on his head.

My jaw worked back and forth. “I guess.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling marginally better for the support.

“No, really. I mean it. She wasn’t obligated to tell you she has a kid, but for her to honestly think that you’d be a bad influence on him is ridiculous.”

A thought hit me, and I walked back toward Grant’s seat at the bar. “Did you know, old man?”

“Did I know what?” He sipped his beer, his attitude surly.

“That she had a kid.”

“Who has a—” He paused midsentence as the dots must have connected in his head. “Sofia has a kid?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I had no idea.”

“I guess the whole bartender thing isn’t what she’s looking for in a baby daddy,” Frank said, and I stopped myself from chuckling at the words baby daddy coming out of his mouth.

“Or maybe it is.” Nick jerked his chin toward the front entrance, and the three of us turned in time to see Sofia walk in, scanning the bar.

For me.

Total Hypocrite

Sofia

After Ryan turned his back and walked away like I had just torn apart his world, I felt a little lost. It was absolutely absurd of me to feel that way, yet there it was, a hollowed-out pain in the upper left side of my chest. I tried to stop him, calling out after him, but he pretended he didn’t hear me when I knew he had. Instead, he broke into a jog as I watched him with my jaw hanging open.