Free Love and Rumors: A Summer Sisters Beach Reads Contemporary Romance (The Summer Sisters Book 1) by Jean Oram Page A

behalf, and she didn’t even really like the guy.
    The band broke between sets, and feeling tired from the tension of watching everyone fall all over Finian, while fighting her own desire, Hailey went to the bar to get another drink. The band was good, but she really needed Finian to do something asinine. And soon. Before she began to think he was human, or began reassessing her no-sex-with-summer-men rule.
    With a hand on her lower back, Finian drew her up some stairs that led to an outdoor balcony. He nodded to a bouncer, who drew back a folding screen, revealing a wrought-iron patio table for two.
    Yep, she was screwed.
    She smiled as Finian offered her a chair in the private, sheltered corner.
    “Wow. The bad-boy has some manners, after all. Thank you.” Although maybe his manners came out only when he had an agenda, such as getting up her skirt.
    “Funny, my mother gave me a lecture on my manners only a few hours ago.” He took the seat across from her, and before she could ask about his mom, he said, “So? What’s your dream shot? For photography?”
    A head popped around the screen. “Hey, guys. Did I hear you want some shots?” Austin held up his camera. “Hailey, you could straddle Finn. Finn, you could put your mouth over her—”
    Finian was up in a flash, fists raised.
    “Austin, go jump in the falls!” Hailey snapped.
    Finian turned to face her, eyes assessing. “You know him?”
    “Yeah. Unfortunately.”
    “Ex-girlfriend, actually,” Austin said with a grin.
    Finian gave her a disbelieving look that was also full of reassessment. She didn’t like it. At all. As her mother used to say, Who you associate with reflects on you. And Hailey was associating with trouble, times two.
    “It was high school,” she said. “Science proves the teenaged brain isn’t fully developed until kids are in their twenties.”
    Austin clutched his chest as though holding a dagger, and grinned when Hailey shoved him back to the bouncer’s side of the curtain.
    “If you kiss her, Finn, just remember I kissed her first!”
    Finian’s right hand was still curled into a fist, his jaw tight as he yanked the brown curtain across, just about knocking down the temporary structure. He scowled at the bouncer. “I said nobody .”
    “Sorry, he said he was with you.”
    Austin shouted through the curtain, “Way to move in on the target and get the good shots, Hailey. I hope it’s worth selling your soul.”
    “I’m not like you, Austin. I photograph turtles, not egocentric jerks!”
    “I’d screw him for a money shot, but would you?” he called back.
    Hailey moved to the curtain, ready to hit Austin with all she was worth. Finian guided her gently back to the table. “Don’t let him get you riled up or he’ll have you in the tabloids faster than he came on prom night.”
    Hailey choked on her laughter. “Good one.”
    She allowed Finian to seat her again, before realizing what she’d said. “I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re an egocentric jerk.”
    “That’s fine. You do, and I am.”
    Hailey studied her hands.
    “That’s my image, right?” Finian tipped her chin up and gave her a weak smile.
    She sent him a grateful one. “I’m sorry about Austin. He’s never brought out the best in me, especially since we grew up.”
    “Me, neither. In California I had a restraining order against him.”
    “Seriously?” Hailey leaned forward. She’d always thought Austin’s stories of ruthlessness were blown out of proportion.
    “Yeah. But apparently it doesn’t work up here in Canada. Oh, and it expired.” Finian cringed. “Think the Mounties would restrain him?”
    “Austin can take a good shot from over a hundred yards away. He’s like a seagull, and knows exactly where his crap is gonna land. So even if the Mounties did restrain him, your shoulders are still going to get messy.”
    Finian laughed, rich and deep. Hailey smiled, feeling a bond with him. Someone who finally understood just how much