Free Property Of by CP Smith

away from Finn since we are talking about my brothers now,” I told her.
    “What’s wrong with Finn?”
    “Nothing if you're his sister. Well, that too, but definitely not if you’re a newly divorced female with two kids. You don’t need three on your hands, Kasey.”
    “How bad can he be at this point in his life?” she questioned.
    Hell’s bells, that’s a loaded question.
    “Other than a few more laugh lines . . . he hasn’t changed at all since high school. Neither of them has. Oh, they work hard, which is the only grown up thing about them, but where women are concerned? They love them and leave them. Trust me, Kasey; you don’t want to go there.”
    “You know, Finn kissed me once,” she blurted out, surprising me.
    “What? Why didn’t you tell me?” I gasped as my brows shot up in surprise. I was stunned. All those late night phone calls I used to get during high school that centered on Finn and not once had she ever mentioned this to me.
    “It was junior year when we were at Hilary Burk’s party. We’d all been drinking, as you know, and I was alone in the kitchen refilling my beer when all of a sudden he cornered me and then kissed me out of the blue. The next time I saw him he acted as if it didn’t happen, so I never said anything. I figured he was too drunk to remember.”
    “That’s probably a safe bet since I remember my parents grounding all three of us for drinking that night.”
    “Your parents grounded you for drinking on a regular basis. I’m surprised you remember any specific weekend,” Kasey laughed.
    She wasn’t wrong. Another disadvantage of being a triplet was they insisted on being wherever I was to keep an eye on me. Fun and games always seemed to follow the twins wherever they went, and since I was with them, well, I got sucked in. Thinking back on high school, it’s a wonder any of us came out of it unscathed, what with all the alcohol that flowed freely every weekend.
    “Do you remember that road trip up to Stillwater?” Kasey laughed.
    “How could I forget? We were grounded for two months after that.”
    Bo and Finn were invited to a frat party up at Oklahoma State University our senior year by some friends of theirs, who had graduated the year before. I begged to go and bring the girls, so we lied to the parentals and said we were at each other’s house after school and would be home by our curfew. We all headed up on a Friday thinking that we could hang with the older kids for a few hours and then drive home to make our curfew. Yeah, we were wrong. One beer led to another, and soon it was midnight. We couldn’t drive back because we were drunk, so we had to call home and let them know we lied and wouldn’t be home until the morning. That road trip got us two months of punishment, but it was worth it since I got to make out with Freddy Hart. That is, until Bo and Finn found out. It’s a wonder I ever lost my virginity, considering the way they guarded me.
    Kasey and I were laughing over the memory when Janeane walked in followed by Kristina and Angela. Kristina and Angela placed orders for sandwiches before they all came over and sat down.
    “Did you call Angela and Kris?” I asked.
    “Yeah, Angela swung by and picked me up, and then we grabbed Kris.”
    That’s the great thing about living in a city the size of Tulsa. The downtown area was small enough that you could drive from one end to the other in about five minutes tops, depending on the traffic. All four women worked downtown, so it made it convenient for them to have lunch together several times a week.
    “Ok, let’s hear what Romeo has to say,” Kristina urged as she ate.
    Janeane nodded, then opened the email he’d sent on her phone and began reading the missive.
    “Taryn, as your Master you will obey my every command, or I will determine you are untrainable and end our association. Do I make myself clear? You showed great promise last night and obeyed me without question. Let’s see if you