Page 9 of Flirting in Traffic

Molly Madigan had always been a busy housewife. Her husband, extended family and seven children kept her more than busy at home. Any spare time she possessed was spent volunteering at her church and in the community.

The shockin

g, unexpected death of her husband of thirty-four years had hit her the hardest of all, of course. Finn had taken one look at his mother’s bewildered, shattered expression as he went through his father’s office the evening after the funeral, trying to make sense of Ed’s haphazard bookkeeping system, and known that his life was about to change forever.

That same night he’d made the decision to sell his shares in the architecture and engineering firm he’d established with his good friend and partner Jason Prevast. The firm had only been up and running for a few years and hard-won, lucrative contracts had just started to come pouring in. Jason had given him more than a fair price for his shares but Finn was no fool. He knew he’d walked away from not only an enormously fulfilling career but a financially rewarding one as well.

But if he didn’t do something to whip his father’s business into shape, Madigan Construction was not only going to end up floundering, but taking down the Madigan family with it into the murky depths of bankruptcy and monetary hardship.

He’d hated that he had to at least temporarily give up on his dreams. But life was a bitch sometimes, right? No reason to moan about it. He still had two younger sisters in high school, two brothers in college, his mother and his elderly grandmother to think about supporting.

He’d tried his best to plan for the painful, drastic alteration in his life. But fate wasn’t satisfied until it threw him another unexpected blow. His live-in fiancée Julia, the woman with whom he’d believed he would spend the rest of his life, had been dead set against his decision to sell his firm and run the family construction business.

When she’d packed her bags and left just one month ago, Finn knew that she’d made her final decision. He’d made his own by letting her go without a fight. Julia was breathtakingly gorgeous, clever and confident but she wasn’t the woman Finn had thought she was. Not by a mile.

Brains and beauty only went so far when it came to the nasty bumps on the road of life.

He figured it was best that he’d discovered before he’d married Julia, not after, that not only his financial status but his image as a successful, white-collar entrepreneur had been crucial aspects that Julia loved about him.

Finn had still been in the midst of a post-breakup funk when he’d seen Julia’s face in the society section of the Chicago Tribune last week. She’d been on the arm of Galen Graves Jr., scion of a wealthy family from Wilmette and Chief Operating Officer for corporate giant Glen-Cat. Julia had worn that small, mysterious smile as she looked into the camera’s eye, the one that used to drive Finn crazy with lust.

Why hadn’t he ever noticed before how contrived that expression was? It irked him to realize he’d never know what had been genuine about her and what had been a lie.

The caption below the photo indicated that Julia and Gavin were the hottest new item on the social circuit. Even though Finn figured he was better off without Julia in his life, his bitterness had only grown when he saw that photo. Not so much toward Julia, but at himself for being so stupid as to be hoodwinked by her.

And never mind how much his anger had escalated when she’d cornered him in the lobby of his condo just four nights ago, eager to resume where they’d left off—at least in the bedroom anyway. Apparently it would have suited Julia just fine to have her picture snapped at high-profile charity events on the arm of Galen Jr. while spending stolen hours with Finn smoking up the sheets. But her brawny, blue-collar, would-be secret lover wasn’t quite as biddable as Julia would have preferred, Finn thought grimly.

Yeah, a hell of a lot could change in a few months’ time.

His brother Jess, however, appeared not to have altered his life plans in the slightest. Despite the fact that he held a prestigious degree in the biological sciences from the University of Illinois and probably had a viable claim to the title of “Most Intelligent” in a family of extremely bright people, Jess continued to pick up his Madigan Construction paycheck like an hourly employee. He still drank and socialized at Dooley’s tavern almost every night as if there was no tomorrow and bedded any pretty woman who looked his way—which apparently was just about every damn one that he encountered, from the action Jess saw in a typical week.

His little brother still brimmed over with the mischief of a twelve-year-old at Catholic school, always looking for fresh opportunities for fun and excitement. Unfortunately he’d managed to drag Finn himself into his most recent misadventure involving that singles’ magazine and an online traffic flirtation loop. Or maybe that wasn’t fair.

Finn had been all too willing to plunge into trouble since he’d first laid eyes on the redhead driving the sports car. When Jess had suggested that he go to One Life with him earlier that evening and explained the circumstances, Finn had just shaken his head and rolled his eyes.

Then he’d seen Kitten and had an abrupt change of heart. She wasn’t his type, of course. Finn didn’t like the flashy look-at-me type who would drive a racy car with vanity plates. Kitten Ormond made him look, all right—he’d hardly been able to unglue his eyes from that bouncy, lustrous auburn hair or the disdainful expression in her brandy-colored eyes, glittering through her preppy glasses.

Maybe it had just been that his sex life seemed to have gone into dormancy ever since the traumatic death of his father and Julia leaving him. Perhaps it was just his body’s way of telling him that it was time to get back on the often treacherous obstacle course of dating once again.

All Finn knew for certain was the redhead in the Ferrari made him randy as a goat.

It felt so fantastic to have lust pounding through his veins once again that he’d allowed himself to get entangled in one of Jess’ stupid schemes. He had no one but himself to blame for the fact that he’d spent a sleepless night in an empty bed—a bed where he’d hoped to be making love to a curvy, responsive, fiery red-haired beauty.

But when he’d come out of his bathroom after washing up, raring to go another round…he saw that his cute, cuddly stray had bolted.

Finn had been stunned by her abandonment. Then he’d been pissed. His pride had been pricked by her abrupt departure. He wasn’t a ladies’ man on the par of his brother Jess but he’d had his fair share of women. And never once had one of them turned tail and run while he was in the midst of making love to her.

“I guess from that sour look on your face you didn’t get lucky last night like I did,” Jess said smugly, pulling Finn out of his reverie. “I’m surprised. That little redhead was smoking. Great body—plenty of flesh and all in the right places. And what a rack—” Jess paused abruptly in the action of holding his hands over his chest in a cradling gesture when Finn frowned at him forbiddingly.

“So what’d you do to turn her off? I hope you didn’t go on about Julia. Women are wary of guys on the rebound. My guess is that you sent her running by lecturing her about the necessity for haste because of the freezing temperatures of asphalt and concrete?”

“No, I save that lecture for you. Not that you ever listen.”

Jess glanced up in surprise from where he was dumping powdered creamer both into his mug and onto the metal table. “Hey, are you really that pissed about me being a few hours late? Nobody else has to work on Saturday. What good is there in being the boss if I can’t enjoy an armful of warm, sexy woman in my bed on a weekend morning?”

“If you don’t know by now I doubt you ever will.”

Jess touched his fingers to his eyelids in a characteristic gesture of martyrdom—the one that signaled he was about to be bullied by his sanctimonious big brother. “Christ, Finn. No other contractor on the Dan Ryan project is as riled up about making deadlines and keeping costs to a minimum as you are. I mean, come on. If we don’t finish it we’ll just make up for it in the spring. It’s only government money.”

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