The Mckennas: Finn, Riley and Brody: One Day to Find a Husband

Riley grinned. “You were quicker on the draw.” Then he sobered. “Seriously, sometimes you gotta take care of you.”

“Yeah, you do,” Brody said.

Finn looked at his brothers. “What is this? An intervention?”

Riley and Brody both grinned. “Now why would you think that?” Brody said, affecting innocence that Finn wasn’t buying. His brothers clearly thought he was working too much and living too little. “This is just coffee, isn’t it Riley?”

Their youngest brother nodded. A little too vigorously. “Coffee and bagels.” Riley held out the bag. “Want one?”

Finn waved off the food. He glanced around the diner. Filled with booths and tables, the diner had a cozy feel. Seventies tunes played on the sound system, while Stace, apparently the lone waitress, bustled from table to table and called out orders to the short-order cook in the back. “What made you pick this place?” Finn asked. “I didn’t even know you came here.”

“Oh, I don’t know. We thought it’d be nice to have a change of scenery.” Riley’s head was down, while he fished in the bag.

“Change of scenery?” Finn tried to get Riley’s attention, but his brother seemed to be avoiding him. “What is this really about?”

The bell over the door rang and Riley jerked his head up, then started smiling like a fool. He elbowed Brody. “Well, there’s our cue to leave.”

“What? We just got here.”

Riley rose. Brody popped up right beside him, guilty grins on both McKenna faces. “Yeah, but someone much better company than us just showed up.” Riley dropped the bag of food onto the table. “I’ll leave these. Be nice and share.”

“What? Wait!” But his brothers were already heading for the door. Finn pivoted in his seat to call after them. And stopped breathing for a second.

Ellie stood in the doorway, framed by the sun, which had touched her hair with glints of gold. She had on a dark blue dress today that skimmed her knees and flared out like a small bell. It nipped in at her waist, and dropped to a modest V in the front. She wore navy kitten heels today, but still her legs, her curves, everything about her looked amazing.

Finn swallowed. Hard.

Riley and Brody greeted Ellie, then Riley pointed across the room at Finn. Riley leaned in and whispered something to Ellie, and her face broadened into a smile. It hit Finn straight in the gut, and made his heart stop. Then Ellie crossed the room, and Finn forgot to breathe.

Her smile died on her lips when she reached him. “I didn’t know you’d be here this morning.”

“I didn’t know, either.” Finn gestured toward the door. “I suspect my brother is at work here.”

“I think you’re right. I’ve seen him in here a couple times. I recognized him from the cocktail party and we got to talking one day. I told him I’m here pretty often for my caffeine fix. I guess he figured he’d get us both in the same place.”

“That’s Riley.” Finn shook his head. “My little brother, the eternal optimist and part-time matchmaker.”

“He means well. And he thinks the world of you.” She cocked her head and studied him. “Wow. You three do look a lot alike.”

“Blame it on our genes.” Finn wanted to leave, but at the same time, wanted to stay. But his feet didn’t move, and he stayed where he was. He gestured toward the bag on the table. “Bagel? Or do you want me to get you a coffee?”

She glanced at her watch. “I have about fifteen minutes before I have to get to a meeting. I really should—” Her stomach growled, and she blushed, then pressed a hand to her gut, then glanced at the growing line at the counter. Despite the light banter, the mood between them remained tense, nearly as tough as the bagel’s exterior. “Okay, maybe I have enough time for just half a bagel.”

Finn opened the bag and peered inside. “Multigrain, cheese or plain?”

“Cheese, of course. If I’m going to have some carbs, I’m going all out.”

“A woman after my own heart.” Finn reached in the bag, pulled out a cheese-covered bagel and handed it to her, followed by a plastic knife and some butter. She laid it out on a napkin, slathered on some butter, then took a bite. When the high calorie treat hit her palate, she smiled, and Finn’s heart stuttered again.

“Oh, my.” Ellie’s smile widened. “Delicious.”

He watched her lips move, watched the joy that lit her features. “Yes. I agree.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, do you want some?”

“Yes,” he said. Then jerked to attention when he realized she meant the bagel. And not her. “Uh, no, I already ate this morning.”

“Let me guess.” She popped a finger in her mouth and sucked off a smidgen of butter. Finn bit back a groan. Damn. He wanted her. Every time he saw her, desire rushed through him.

“You had plain oatmeal,” Ellie went on. “Nothing fancy, nothing sugary.”

“No. Muffins.”

Her brows lifted and a smile toyed with the edge of her mouth. “Not ones from the floor, I hope?”

The words brought the memory of that day in her kitchen rocketing back. Their first day as a married couple. The sexual tension sparking in the air. The desire that had pulsed in him like an extra heartbeat.

He cleared his throat. “Freshly baked and boxed,” he said. “From a bakery down the street from my apartment. I rarely eat at home and usually grab something on the way to work.”

“This bagel is delicious.” She took another bite. Butter glistened on her upper lip, and Finn had to tell himself—twice—that it wasn’t his job to lick it off.

Except she was his wife. And that was the kind of thing husbands did with wives.

Unless they were in a platonic relationship.

But were they? Really? How many times had he kissed her, touched her, desired her? Had he really thought he could have a friends-only relationship with a woman this beautiful? This intriguing? A woman who made him forget his own name half the time?

And that was the problem. If he let himself get distracted by Ellie, he’d make a foolish decision. Finn was done making those.

“Why not?” Ellie asked.

“Uh … why not what?” His attention had wandered back to the bedroom, and he forced it to the present.

“Why not eat at home?”

It was a simple question. Demanded nothing more than a simple answer, and Finn readied one, something about hating to cook and clean. But that wasn’t what came out. “It’s too quiet there.”

Her features softened, and she lowered the bagel to the napkin. The room around them swelled with people, but in that moment, it felt like they were on an island of just two. “I know what you mean. I feel the same way about where I live. The floors echo when I walk on them. It’s so … lonely.”

Lonely. The exact word he would have used to describe his life, too.

A thread of connection knitted between them. Finn could feel it closing a gap, even though neither of them moved. “Have you always lived alone?”

“Pretty much. Even when I was younger, my parents were never there. My dad worked all the time and my mom …” Ellie sighed and pushed the rest of her breakfast to the side. “She had her own life. In college I did the dorm thing, but after that, I had an apartment on my own. I used to love it in my twenties, you know, no one to answer to, no one to worry about, but as I’ve gotten older …”

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” He wondered what had made him admit all this in a coffee shop on a bright spring day. He’d never considered himself to be a sharing kind of man. Yet with Ellie, it seemed only natural to open up. “Though it was nice to share your space for a couple of days.”

Her face brightened. “Was it? Really?”