Temptation Ridge (Virgin River #6)(35)

Luke frowned. This was not great timing. He was getting close to closing the deal with a twenty-five-year-old beauty and who shows up but the younger brother who is all of thirty-two. The hotshot spy-plane pilot. Younger, better-looking, plenty of money, exciting life. An officer. The general would no doubt prefer that. He looked Sean up and down—he was tan, had dark blond hair, a dimpled bad-boy smile and no shortage of lines for picking up women. Good lines; Luke had actually borrowed some of them.

“You are not happy to see me,” Sean said. “What’s going on?”

“You going to work while you’re here?” Luke asked testily.

“In daylight. When the sun goes down, I’d like to enjoy myself a little. I sense that’s going to be a problem around here.”

“Tonight, I’m going to Jack’s. We’ll talk about tomorrow night tomorrow,” he said, heading for the house.

“Shew,” Sean said, annoyed. “This is going to be wonderful.” Just then Art stepped into the doorway of cabin number three with his broom. “Um, who is that?” Sean asked Luke.

“Art, come here, buddy,” Luke called. Art walked down toward the porch. “Art, this is my brother Sean. Sean, this is Art. He’s helping out around here. He’s sleeping in one of the cabins.”

“Hey,” Sean said, putting out a hand.

“Hey. Sean,” Art said, shaking his hand. Then Art turned and went back to the cabin he was sweeping up.

“Luke, what’s going on around here?”

“Just getting the job done, pal. Art turned up looking for a place to stay and he works hard all day long for room and board. But we’re not telling anyone he’s here. He’s going low profile for now. On the run from a bad group home.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Sean said.

Forty minutes later Luke and Sean were in Luke’s truck, on the way down the river to the town. When Luke pulled up in front of Jack’s, he saw General Booth’s Tahoe parked there, and hoped Shelby was inside with him. He put the truck in Park, but before turning off the ignition, he said to his brother, “If you get a whiff of anything in there that has my scent on it, back away. If you touch it, you’re a dead man.”

Sean grinned. “Okay, now I’m catching on. Oh man, this is going to be fun.” He jumped out of the truck and bounded up the stairs, clearly dying of curiosity.

Luke was right behind him, but almost plowed into him. Sean stopped short right inside the door. Walt and Shelby were sitting up at the bar and both turned at the sound of someone entering. Luke put a firm hand, a reminder, on Sean’s shoulder. “Holy shit,” Sean whispered. Luke gave his shoulder a little shake and pushed him forward.

“General Booth,” Luke said. “Shelby McIntyre. Meet my brother Sean.”

“Sir,” Sean said. “Miss.”

Standing behind him as he was, Luke couldn’t see Sean’s dimpled grin, but knew it was huge. It made Luke’s frown a little deeper. God, he thought, why couldn’t I have had sisters?

Jack put up a couple of beers and Sean began to entertain himself at Luke’s expense. “So, I invited my brother to go over to the coast to have a beer, check out the women, and what does he tell me? Not interested in doing that—he wants to go to this little bar in Virgin River. But he doesn’t tell me why. What an incredible coincidence that you happen to be here, Miss McIntyre.”

She laughed at him, finding him darling and playful, two things Luke definitely was not. “Please, it’s just Shelby. He knew I’d be here. It’s almost a standing date.”

“Is it, now? Is there another one of you at home?”

“I’m afraid not,” she said. “But I understand there are more brothers.”

“Aiden, Colin and Paddy. But I’m the richest and most handsome.”

“And the biggest pain in the ass,” Luke inserted.

“Where do you fall in the pack?” Shelby asked.

“Number four. Luke’s the oldest.” He looked over his shoulder at Luke. “He’s very old, you know. And I think my family and your family were at war for thousands of years,” he teased. He sipped his beer. “Yeah, the McIntyre-Riordan wars. Sure am glad that’s over.”

“And none of you married?”

“At last count, two of them tried it and blew it. They insist it wasn’t their fault,” he said, grinning.

Luke was going to take him home and beat the shit out of him.

But Shelby was loving it. The sly grin on the general’s face was unmistakable and the amused crinkle at the corners of Jack’s eyes suggested he was getting too big a kick out of this as well.

And right on cue, the others began to file into the bar. Luke dutifully introduced everyone to Sean. After a few minutes Sean leaned across the bar and said to Jack, “Look at these women, man. What is this place? Stepford?”

“All taken, buddy. Unless you can get this fresh young thing away from your older brother.”

The general and Sean carried on a lengthy conversation about the Riordan boys. “How’d you get an entire military family?” Walt asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Sean answered. “No imagination, I guess. Luke went first, right out of high school, but he scored a warrant officer promotion, flight school, and made it look fun. Big Irish-Catholic family like ours with a Da who’s an electrician, he wasn’t sending the lot of us to college, so we had to come up with alternate plans. ROTC, military scholarship, active duty—whatever. But it turns out I like the life.”