Skin (McCullough Mountain 2) by Lydia Michaels Page B

tonight,” he teased and
she bristled.
    “So? Maybe I just want to have some fun for
a change.”
    She made the comment as if nothing they ever
did was fun. “I’m having fun here.”
    She groaned and pulled back, her breasts no
longer flirtatiously close. “It’s the same shit every
Saturday.”
    He gave her a warning glance. “It’s
Braydon’s last night.”
    “And last week was Kelly’s birthday and next
will be Sheilagh’s and then your parents’ anniversary and then some
other lame reason to come here.”
    He stared, unsure how to respond to such
clear contempt for his family. “If you don’t want to be here you
can go.”
    She scowled at him. “Why, so you can cozy up
with your new friend? Where did she even come from?”
    He drew back and grimaced. His eyes
flickered over to Mallory who caught his glance and gave him a
questioning look. She couldn’t have heard Erin’s comment. He nudged
Erin off his lap. “Come with me.”
    He led her out of the bar and into the
parking lot, turning her back against the brick siding. “What’s the
problem, Erin?”
    She snatched her hand away and glared at him
with nothing more than contempt. “What do you think? Every time I
turn around you’re talking to that girl.”
    “So? She’s my friend.”
    “Since when, Finn? You have a girlfriend.
She can go find another guy to pester.”
    He drew back. “You’re jealous.”
    That seemed to outrage her. “ Of her?” She scoffed. “Hardly.”
    “Well, maybe you should be. She’s a nice
person.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m not?
If she’s so damn nice, Finn, why don’t you go out with her?”
    “It’s not like that!” He turned and shoved
his fingers through his hair. “God, why are we always
fighting?”
    “Probably because you can’t be on time for
anything and when you finally do show up, you spend your time
talking to everyone but me!”
    “I talk to you all the time!”
    “It’s not the same, Finn. You laugh with you
brothers and sisters. You don’t laugh with me like that. And now
you’re laughing with some girl I’ve never seen before who hangs on
your every word.”
    “That’s not true,” he argued, but his mind
called him a liar. He did laugh with his siblings. He also laughed
with Mallory. He couldn’t recall the last time he and Erin actually
had fun and laughed together, just the two of them.
    He sighed. “Maybe I’ve been a little
preoccupied with family stuff lately. My dad hasn’t been feeling
real well and my mom’s overwhelmed with my grandmother. I’m sorry I
can’t always be there when you want me to be, but I can’t just
ignore my responsibilities.”
    “You have six siblings. Why don’t your
parents ask one of them for a change?”
    It was the same argument they always had.
“Colin’s busy with his own family. Sheilagh helps out and Bray is
leaving soon.”
    “What about Kelly?” she demanded.
    “He’s always working.”
    “They don’t bother Luke, because he had the
sense to move out, but you won’t!”
    “I’ll move out when I’m ready to buy my own
house.”
    She rolled her eyes. “When will that be,
Finn? You’ve been making the same excuses for years. You’re
twenty-eight years old. I wish you would for once act like it.”
    He drew back as if she slapped him. “Is that
what you think, that I don’t act my age? What do you do, Erin? You
work at the same place you did in high school and you wait around
for me to come and entertain you. Why is it always me? When do I
ever judge you as harshly as you judge me? You’re right, I won’t
move out right now for the same reasons I wouldn’t move out last
year. My parents need my help with my grandmother. It falls on
them, because my aunt and uncles are busy and have their own
relatives to tend to. That’s what family does.”
    “So I have to wait for your grandmother to
pass away for you to make a move?”
    He stilled. In a hushed voice, he said, “You
don’t have to wait for