“As long as it isn’t Finn’s Pub, I’m in.” He didn’t want to chance his cousins ganging up on him again.
“Great,” Matthew popped up as if he’d been sitting on a spring. “Grand. We’ll take my car so you can’t escape. After you shave.”
“You want me to shave?” William laughed. “I swear you weren’t old enough to grow more than a few patches on your cheeks when we got here. Is there something in the food? Steroids?”
“Feck off.” Matthew shoved him with a grin, scratching his beard. “Women love it. Lumbersexual is the word.”
“You’re having a go.”
“Look it up. Now that I think of it, maybe you shouldn’t shave. With all those spots of yours, a beard might age you up a bit.”
“They’re called freckles. And women love them too.” But he rubbed his scruff thoughtfully. “I’m ready now then.”
They continued their banter on the drive, and William was grateful. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Matthew had just enjoyed each other’s company. He was glad that relationship, at least, could start to heal before he had to leave.
“We’re close to the pub, Matty.” William frowned as he noticed the neighborhood. “You said we weren’t going to Finn’s.”
“And I didn’t lie. We’re here.”
William studied the large building suspiciously. The name was covered up with a drop cloth above the glass door, but it looked like… “A gym? You never wanted to spar with me before.”
“Still don’t,” Matthew said cheerfully. “I’m not the fighter in the family. Come on.”
“Matthew.”
His brother stared at him somberly over the roof of the car. “As a favor to me, I’m asking you to come inside.”
A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. He’d lived by his instincts and right now they were telling him that something was up. “Tell me Bell didn’t do something rash.”
Bellamy had married Seamus and, having more money than God, liked to spoil every member of the Finn family, whether they wanted him to or not. Buying a boxing club on a whim wouldn’t be out of character.
Matthew snorted. “Stop trying to be clever, will you? That’s my job.”
He watched his brother walk toward the door and shook his head. “Relentless, the lot of them,” he muttered, knowing in his bones this was a damn Finn conspiracy.
He wouldn’t accept it and it wouldn’t make him change his mind, whatever this was.
William paused at the door. “I’m doing this for you, you pain in my arse.”
Matthew patted his shoulder fondly. “And I’m doing this for you, brother.”
He opened the door and pushed William through it with a strength that took him by surprise.
He tensed, preparing for the parade of blue-eyed good Samaritans to surround him and tell him what to do with his life.
The place was silent as the grave.
Matthew hadn’t come in. In fact, he was standing outside with his back to the door, blocking William’s escape. “What the bloody—”
“Don’t be mad at him. I asked him to bring you here.”
William reminded himself to breathe as soon as he heard her voice. He didn’t turn around. He couldn’t. Not yet. “Why?”
“I thought we could go a few rounds.”
He looked at her then. Bronte was standing in a shiny new ring—the only bit of equipment in the large, hollowed out shell of a gym—looking like something out of his dirtiest dreams. She was wearing a sports bra and a gray t-shirt that hung off one shoulder, along with a pair of shorts that showed off her deliciously edible thighs. And she was smiling.
God save him, he loved her smile. “A few rounds? You do know my brother is right outside? I wouldn’t want to be a bad influence.”
“Not that kind of round.” She laughed lightly. “And you should ask your sister about your brother’s dating preferences sometime. He’s got you beat on the Finn kink scale, William. Trust me.”
“I really didn’t need to hear that, Bronte.”
Her smile slowly disappeared. “I have something you do need to hear.”
“But will I want to?”
“That’s the question.” She was clinging to the ropes, her knuckles nearly white. He moved closer, needing to soothe her.
“Tell me.”
When she met his gaze again, her eyes were shining with emotion. “Give me a minute. I went to all this trouble to set the scene and get you here. If I just blurt it out as soon as you walk through the door it would be a little anti-climactic, right?”
William lifted his hand to rub the ache in his chest. “I don’t know. There’s something to be said for the straightforward approach.”
His feet were moving before he’d made the decision to go to her. He pushed the rope aside and joined her, close enough to touch, but not daring to take that final step or reach out to make sure she was real.
She rocked on her heels, fingers twisting together as if she weren’t sure what to do with them. “I wanted to apologize. I let my insecurities get in the way. I didn’t trust what I was feeling, I didn’t trust my family and I didn’t trust you. Not enough.”