Wild Dreams: A Friends to Lovers romance (Wilder Irish Book 12) by Mari Carr (the ebook reader txt) 📕

“Language,” Erin, Oliver, and Sean all said in unison, mimicking his grandfather.

“Do you all want to come for lunch too?” Riley asked, extending her invitation to Oliver and Erin. “There’s plenty.”

Erin shook her head. “No, thanks though. I’m only halfway through my shift. Wanted to stop by here to see my crazy cousins on my break. I’m going to grab a sandwich in the cafeteria and eat it at the nurses’ station. Between the flu bug and people taking time off for holiday events, we’re short-staffed, so I promised I wouldn’t be gone long.”

“I’m out too. Wanna keep working here,” Oliver added. “Gavin said since he was home, he’d throw together a few sandwiches for us to eat. The two of us plan to finish framing in the walls on the restaurant side.”

“How about you, Sean?” Riley asked.

Dad nodded and rubbed his stomach. “Never gonna turn down your chili, Riley.”

The Morettis packed up the photographs before following Riley and Dad outside to head over to Riley’s house.

“So Gavin’s on his way here?” Erin asked.

Oliver glanced at his phone and nodded. “Yeah. He’ll probably be here in a few minutes. You have time to wait? He’ll be pissed if he doesn’t get to steal some of the same kisses I’m aiming to grab.”

He reached out for her as he spoke, robbing her lips of those kisses. His tongue teased her lower lip until she opened her mouth for him. There was something highly addictive about kissing Erin. Maybe it was the way she always tasted like cinnamon—the woman was obsessed with Altoids—or the little mews she made as she kissed, or maybe it was the way she never held anything back.

“I love you,” he murmured. The two of them had spoken those words a thousand times in the past year, the emotion attached to them continuing to grow with each passing day.

“I love you too. I get off at four. Will you and Gavin be home for dinner?” Erin asked.

“Oh hell yeah. We’re coming home,” Oliver said, gripping her hips and pulling her even closer, letting her feel exactly what her kisses did to him. He’d pay for letting himself get so turned on, considering there was no time to take her—and nowhere to hide in the cavernous, bare pub if he did. They’d sealed off the large front window with a huge piece of clear plexiglass—rather than plywood—wanting to allow in as much natural light as possible so they could see as they worked. That meant everyone passing by on the street could glance in and see what they were doing.

Oliver had been touched over the past week by the number of patrons who’d walked by, tapped on the plexiglass, and given them encouraging smiles and thumbs-up. The support from the community had been overwhelming and wonderful.

“But there’s a different hunger I’m hoping the three of us can take care of when we get there,” he said, reluctantly releasing her.

Erin refused to break their union, wrapping her arms around his waist more tightly and resting her cheek against his chest. Erin was a huge hugger. “Something tells me after the last two nights, you’re going to be insatiable for a while.”

Oliver placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you alone since…”

“Since Gavin and I…”

Neither of them seemed capable of saying the words. Oliver pulled away slightly, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “It’s as perfect as I think, right?”

Erin grinned. “More than perfect,” she whispered.

“You’re right, it is.”

They broke apart, turning toward the folding table where Gavin stood, smiling at them.

“You have a bad habit of spying on us,” Erin teased.

Oliver picked up on the joke. “Especially since it’s more fun when you actually join in rather than watch.”

“I didn’t hear you bitching about being in the audience Saturday night,” Gavin said, as he crossed the pub toward them. “In fact, seems to me, you liked watching me and Erin. A lot.”

Oliver sighed. “You got me there.” Originally, he’d intended to remain completely apart from the action for their first time, but in the end, there’d been no way he could be so close to the two loves of his life and not kiss them, touch them. “Why are you late?”

Gavin groaned and gave them an amused grimace. “I’d like to ignore that question, but I know there’s no way the guys at work aren’t going to fill you in, and I’d rather tell the story my way.”

Oliver chuckled as he rubbed his hands together. “This should be good. What happened?”

11

Gavin pointed down to his jeans. “Had to go home to change my jeans. I was late leaving the other work site and pissed about it because I wanted to see the Morettis.”

“Tony looked hot today. Had his hair down,” Oliver said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Damn,” Gavin said as he sighed. Tony Moretti wore his hair long, and it was fucking hot.

Erin rolled her eyes, though she was used to Gavin and Oliver ogling her cousins. “You two are lucky my self-esteem is unshakable, or you’d give me a complex.”

Gavin laughed. “Your family has good genes, and you got the best of them, gorgeous.”

Oliver ruffled her hair playfully. “Besides, you have to be used to people checking those guys out. Hell, even Dad was giving them a second glance.”

Gavin snorted. “Sounds like Sean.”

“No more talk about my sexy cousins. I forbid it,” Erin said. “Why did you have to change your jeans?”

“Like I said, I was late. And rushing. Caught the damn back pocket of my brand-new jeans on a nail and ripped one whole ass cheek out of the things.”

Erin and Oliver cracked up.

“Oh man, I would have paid money to see that,” Oliver said, slapping his foster brother on the shoulder.

“Yeah, well…let’s just say I picked a bad day to go commando.”

Erin squealed loudly. “Oh my God. No! That’s hilarious!”

Gavin was struggling to find the humor in it all. “You know the guys on