Page 9 of Off-Limits Love
Hudson smirked and went for a fifth, and once he got it, Finn moved the treats out of Hud’s reach. The youngest Blackwell could eat all the brothers under the table. And then eat the table.
“A hot woman dropped these off to Finn to apologize for something, but he hasn’t told me what for yet. You have to try— Oh, sorry, E. I always forget you can’t eat stuff like this,” Hudson said, referring to Elias’s food allergies. “Man, you’re missing out though. They’re awesome.”
“Thanks for downplaying how good they are,” Elias grumbled, eyeing the treats with interest.
Finn started to grab a second brownie bite when he looked up to find his twin watching him a little too closely.
His gut clenched once again but for a different reason. He forgot about the goody and rose to his feet to get Elias coffee and avoid eye contact.
“What are you doing here?” Hudson asked. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping in with your new fiancée?”
Finn poured a fresh cup for his twin. He ordered the blend online because it was guaranteed to be gluten free and safe like Elias needed.
Finn handed it over, still looking just about anywhere but at the brother who knew him better than any of the others.
“Thanks,” Elias said. “And the soft opening was just that. The real opening is in two days, and there’s a lot to do yet. By the way, Hud, have you talked to Brooks today?”
Finn noted that his kid brother’s face suddenly looked more than a little ruddy by the end of the question.
“Yeah, he found me.” To Finn, he said, “If you’re not going to share anymore of those, I’ll get back to work. Do you want Dash on the schedule for the market this weekend, or are you taking Harriet?”
“Harriet.”
“I’ll go put her on the schedule for a bath. Later.” Hudson quickly carried his empty plate to the sink before hightailing it out of the house.
“What was that about?” Finn asked his twin.
Elias smirked. “You missed the show last night when you left so early. Brooks caught our baby brother in a rather…delicate situation in one of the restaurant bathrooms—with one of our niece’s teachers. Needless to say, Brooks and Allie are not amused. The school year just started, and Hud’s made it extremely awkward now.”
Finn fought the urge to roll his eyes at their kid brother’s antics. “He’s going to learn the hard way. One of these days he’s going to forget to make sure they’re single and find himself beaten to a pulp.”
“We’ve all warned him.” Elias’s gaze darkened, and he lifted a lazy hand to point at the goodies.
“What’s that about? Who apologized and for what?”
Finn ground his teeth until his jaws hurt because of the way Elias stared at him.
The thing about his twin was that he didn’t ask stupid questions. And rarely did he ask a weighted question he didn’t already know the answer to. “It was nothing.”
Elias cocked an eyebrow and stared him down until Finn shrugged and shook his head, lifting his hand to rub the back of his neck. “Just a misunderstanding.”
“That got you handcuffed?”
He grunted softly. “How do you always know everything? You’re as bad as Alec and his whole Dad-radar.”
Their eldest brother had just turned eighteen when their parents were killed in the car crash Finn had survived, but taking over as head of the family had left Alec with an extraordinary gift when it came to seeing through his siblings’ BS.
At some point over the years, Alec had called them all out on whatever prank or bad behavior they’d tried to get away with.
Maybe it was because he’d been a teenage boy himself and knew all the tricks, but whatever it was, Alec had a sixth sense that served him well.
One that had apparently rubbed off on Elias.
“It’s easy to know things when you leave the house and stop avoiding people.” Elias narrowed his gaze on Finn. “You should do more of it. It might help with…things.”
Yeah, no,Finn thought with a barely concealed snort. Look at what happened last night when he did. First he’d locked up at the soft opening and made a fool of himself. Then he’d gotten himself cuffed. “I don’t have to leave. Plenty of people come here to see the animals.”
“Yeah, but do you talk to them?”
