Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I’d never been able to pinpoint why I’d felt the latter, though it couldn’t be clearer anymore. Deep down, I must’ve known I’d fucked this up somehow.
“You’re both wrong, lads,” Shan said mildly. “You’ll see one day.”
“Check out my romantic man.” Kellan grinned and gave the hubby a smooch.
Finn drained his beer, then belched and turned to me. “Didju try getting your ex back? ’Cause I have pro-tips that’ve worked for me.”
I laughed through my nose. “That ship has sailed. Just this morning, I let him know that while I wasn’t ready to say I wanted him to be happy with someone else, I acknowledged it’s what he deserves. He’s already met someone.” Could we change the topic now?
He dismissed that like it was nothing. “We’ll talk, Alfie. Kellan can joke about the secrets we keep, but my wife knows enough. The rest, she doesn’t wanna know. With one exception—I’ll do everything in my power to keep her. Write that down. Every fucking thing.”
I wasn’t gonna write it down, but I was highly amused.
Shan frowned at his son. “You don’t honestly believe you need to rely on placebo birth control anymore, do you?”
Kellan and I cracked up. Fuck, after that many kids, I sure hoped not!
“Of course not.” Finn rolled his eyes. “But you know her. She’s… How the fuck can I ever deserve her? The answer is, I can’t. So, I gotta do what I gotta do.” He shrugged.
Shan shook his head. “You sell yourself too short, son. A few years ago? We’d be having a different discussion—which we did back then. But you’re a great husband.”
Well, that made me curious. “What happened a few years ago?”
“We’re not going there,” Finn laughed. “But just to be clear, I’ve always been loyal.”
“It was his scheming to trap her that was the issue,” Shan supplied. “He has nothing to worry about today.” Then he smirked. “My son even has a set of rules. He once claimed he could write the book on how to be the perfect husband. What was it, ten rules?”
Finn sucked his teeth. “I told you that in confidence, old man.”
“You told me that when you were drunk,” Shan corrected.
I grinned and stuck the last two fries in my mouth.
Kellan shook his head in amusement, then addressed me. “You’ll never see us this way at work, for the record.”
I already knew that, given the reputation Finn had along the entire East Coast. After all, I was the one getting the requests for sit-downs, and I knew how men spoke of Finn. If it weren’t for Kellan speaking highly of his mate, I probably wouldn’t have been itching to get in.
“I wanna hear these rules,” Liam said.
“I was just gonna ask,” Colm chuckled. “C’mon, boss.”
Finn reached for his smokes, maybe thinking about it, and he lit one up. “It’s seven steps, not rules,” he muttered.
Hell, even I wanted to hear now.
Liam lit up a smoke too, and the bastard caught me looking and offered one silently.
Fuck.
I glanced over at the pool. The kids were plenty distracted…
Okay, I could be subtle.
“Cheers.” I accepted it and—all right, a lighter too.
“Fine,” Finn conceded. “First of all, this is about knowing women, so…” He eyed me, Kellan, and Shan. Very funny. “Step one, you wanna be low-key irresistible to most women, but not too much. If they think the competition is big, the good ones will back off and say fuck this nonsense. Step two, you only show interest in your wife. Bonus points if that’s the only one you want. Don’t go thinking about others.” He directed that to Liam for some reason.
Liam, in turn, frowned. “The fuck’s that’s supposed to mean? I’m a fuckin’ monk.”
“Then why aren’t you trapping Luna already?” Finn snapped. “Christ, is it too much to ask to wanna see youse married and settled down? It’s like I’m running a syndicate of whores. Get married, have more kids, go to Mass, and be faithful.”
“Are those the steps?” I smirked.
I got some laughs from that.
Finn scoffed and moved on. “If people actually listened to me, they’d be happier.” He exhaled some smoke. “Step three, preemptive strikes of romance. If you rely on your wife to remember important dates, you better be good at the day-to-day shit. I don’t go a week without bringing home flowers and planning date nights for us.”
I actually liked that one. I was horrible at remembering anniversaries.
“And this is why Shan and I are constantly babysitting,” Kellan said dryly.
“Oh, shush. Nobody buys your kid-hating act anymore, love.” Shan patted Kellan’s hand, and Liam and Finn laughed.
“So what’s step four?” Eric wondered.
“Step four is a big one,” Finn answered. “If your wife’s having a shitty day, give her a massage without groping her tits.”
See, that would never work with West. Whenever he’d had a long day and came home from work in a bad mood, a shower and a blow job was the way to go.