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WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER
EXCLUSIVE
SNEAK PEEK Bren studied her with concern. “Have you eaten lunch already?” “No, but I’ve got it in here.” Pulling herself together, she patted the oversized tote that she used to schlep her stuff between home, work, and here. “I’ll eat at my desk.” All four of them stared at her, and David shook his head. “Good thing Mom’s not around to hear you speak such heresy. She’d wash your mouth out with soap.” “Why? It’s not like I damned God to hell or anything.” Something she’d heard at least one of them do at the top of his voice when she was still outside. “We Kavanaghs take our meals seriously,” Bren said. “And working while you eat is no way to digest food.” “Yet I’m not the one with the bag full of pills.” The words left her mouth before she could corral her brain and she stared at him in horror, stunned and appalled at herself. There was a second of silence while all four men held her captive in the cynosure of their regard. Then Finn said, “Girl’s got a mouth on her.” “I am so sor—“ “Not to mention a mean streak, picking on a man with cancer,” Devlin agreed. “Yeah,” Bren said. He looked at her for one, two, three heartbeats. “I like that in a woman. Hell, if I wasn’t such a happily married man it would make me seriously hot.” He kicked out the chair across the table from him and looked up at her. “Take a seat, Legs.” She took a seat. “She prefers to be called Jane.” Devlin brought Bren’s container over to the table, now lidless, steaming and smelling divine, then headed over to the fridge. Opening it, he looked at her over its door. “You want something while I’m up?” “A diet coke?” The heat was finally fading from her cheeks and maybe—just maybe—they were no longer as red as they had to have been a moment ago. “I don’t suppose you can drink it like a man.” “Well, I don’t know.” She met his gaze squarely. “Does that involve crushing the can above my open mouth and hoping to catch the stream from any holes I might pop?” “Nah. Just talking about drinking from the can.” He sighed. “But I can tell just by looking at you that you’re one of those girly-girls who always drink their pop diet and want it poured in a glass.” She almost said that the can would be fine. Her friends were all women; she wasn’t accustomed to men who teased—that being a species she’d never been around. But she remembered his sister Hannah and her don’t-mess-with-me attitude. She also reflected that for all she had just embarrassed herself, the four brothers had taken the rude repartee that passed for wit between her, Ava and Poppy in stride. Not one of them had acted nearly as horrified at her bringing up Bren’s illness as she had been. She raised her chin slightly. “But, of course,” she told him as if she were a princess who would tolerate no less. “With ice.” She pulled the little side salad she’d grabbed from the Met café out of her tote and set it on the table, then delved back into it, looking for the plastic fork, dressing packet and napkin that had all started out attached by a rubberband atop its plastic container. Just as she finally located everything, a glass was thumped down next to her and she straightened in her seat. A tall, frosty tumbler of cola, loaded with ice cubes, sat next to her salad and she smiled. “Thanks.” But the microwave had just dinged and Devlin was already walking away from the table once again to fetch whatever was in it. Faced with his back, she smiled at his brothers instead. Only to find all three of them gawking at her, looking appalled. “What?” She loosely cupped her hand over her mouth. “Do I have something in my teeth?” But that didn’t make sense. She hadn’t even taken a bite yet. “That’s your lunch?” David asked, staring at the little black plastic container of salad. She looked down at it as well, wondering what it was about it that made all three men regard it with such horror. “Um, yes.” “That’s not a meal, girl,” Finn said, shaking his head in disgust. “That’s rabbit food—and barely even enough of that to keep a body alive.” “Dev,” Bren said. “Grab Jane a bowl. She can have some of my corned beef and cabbage.” “I’m not taking food out of your mouth!” she protested, scandalized. “You guys do hard, physical work. Me, not so much.” “You’re not taking a thing out of my mouth,” Bren assured her, tipping his container over the bowl Dev handed him and using his spoon to direct some chunks of meat and vegetables into it along with the fragrant, steaming broth. “Jody packs me way too much food and she just worries if I bring any home with me. She’s trying to fatten me back up, but I can only eat so much these days. You’ll be saving me from having to toss out what I can’t finish.” “Here’s some milk, Bren.” Devlin set a tall glass on the table. “Take your pills.” He set his own meal on the table, took the seat next to Jane and turned his head to look at her. “Eat your soup.” The look in his eyes warned her not to argue. She picked up the spoon he’d put in front of her and took a sip. All four men watched and she could only pray she didn’t look as self-conscious as she felt. She mustered a smile for Bren, however, and told the truth. “It’s great.” They all nodded, and he said, “Damn straight. My Jody’s one helluva cook.” He spooned up a bite of his own. And the tension dissipated. End of Sneak Peek Excerpt. Like It? Order It!
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