Free Equity (Balance Sheet #3) by Shannon Dermott

when he does…”

SEVENTEEN
     
    The car rolled to a stop and Keely looked over at me.
    “Why are you taking me home?” she asked in Gaelic.
    “You have work this morning?” I asked with a teasing tone and an arch of my brow.
    She rolled her eyes. “I do.” She hopped out of the car and I took notice of the extra bounce in her step as she tried to have me watch her arse. It worked.
    Bugger it. I drove off in sight of my next destination.
    I knocked on the door with no response. I rapped a little louder after several seconds and heard muffled curses and grumbles coming from inside.
    The door opened at a sleepy eyed Griffin. My best mate squinted as if he wasn’t quite sure he was seeing me.
    “Kalen, hou’s is gaun?” he said with one eye open and the other half lidded.
    “Aren’t you late for work?”
    He grinned because we both knew I was the boss and caught him at home when he should have been at work earning his pay.
    Pops and creaks came from his limbs as he stretched. He seemed to wake up more and switched to Gaelic. “We both know you pay me to be your friend.”
    When he turned and let me step in, I soundly placed my palm on his shoulder. “We have work to do. Get your arse ready.”
    Just then a thin naked girl stepped out of Griff’s room. “What’s all the bloody fuss?” Her accent wasn’t Scottish. It sounded English. And she looked young with skin that could be compared to milk as it lacked all color. But she had perky breasts of the youth I saw in her face.
    Griff turned to face me. His grin spoke of things we didn’t have to say. I rolled my eyes.
    “Aye, Darlin’.” Griff spoke the word darling like he was a true Southern American. He had the drawl down to a tee. He heard that word by a Texan who showed up in the wrong place many years ago. I blinked away the memory as the girl realized she and Griff weren’t alone.
    “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked sweetly. I tried to focus on her face and not her lithe body that moved towards me with a hand extended as if she wasn’t the only one who stood naked.
     “Kalen,” I offered when she reached me.
    “Lilly,” she said and winked before she turned to head back to Griff’s room.
    She had a sweet little arse that swayed as she walked. If my head wasn’t in a certain redhead, I might have taken her up on her unspoken offer. Griff and I had shared more than a few girls in the past.
    Griff turned back to me and said in a thick brogue, “Whi djae wa’mae ‘ae dae ‘e noo?”
    It wasn’t Gaelic, but clearly he didn’t want the lassie to understand him.
    I arched a brow, silently answering his question of what I wanted to do now. His smile broadened. I shook my head and he understood it was a no. He shrugged. So went our unspoken conversation. He followed the girl in the room and I stepped further in allowing the door to shut behind me. I hoped he was sending her home. I didn’t want to be here for their round two, or two hundred knowing Griff.
    The couch held promised until I wondered if it was safe to sit on or if Griff had used it with the lassie. The bedroom door opened. Lilly stepped out dressed in a clingy oversized shirt that gripped her mid-thigh by a wide band.
    Griff followed and kissed her at the door. I changed my focus to give them some privacy. “Later, Darling,” he said with a wave.
    Just like that, Griff switched to our native tongue. “What brings you home?” he said, landing a hard hand to my shoulder paying me back.
    “I’ll tell you on the way.”
    “Bro, are you here for a bromance?” Griff was one who liked to test out international slang. I wasn’t sure where he got it from—the lasses he bedded, TV or movies. Whatever it was, you could never be sure what he might say next.
    “Bro? Bromance?” I asked not sure where he was going with this.
    “You know, the video that went viral on YouTube? Bromance?”
    Then I remembered. “That was like a few years ago.”
    “Really? I just saw