Best Of My Love (Home to Green Valley Book 4) by Virna Depaul Page A

attention back to the game.
    How had it only been a week since they’d first slept together?
    It felt like forever. Did addiction really start that easily, that quickly? It was the only excuse Riley could come up with.
    A trio of cute girls walked into the pub. Riley watched them approach in the mirror behind the bar. All of them looked to be college age, maybe a year or two older. All of them wore the same smile, the same style of clothes—short, tight, minimal—and the same hairstyle. Their long, silky hair hung in loose curls down their backs.
    “Hey there.” One of the girls, a leggy blonde, swung her hair over one shoulder. “Can we all get vodka and cranberry juice?”
    “Sure thing,” Sean replied, pulling three glasses down from the overhead rack.
    “Oh, you’re Irish?” Another suppressed smile from Riley, who kept his attention tuned to the game on TV.
    “Born and raised,” Sean said.
    The girls squealed. It wasn’t unusual. An Irish accent was pretty much a free pass into a woman’s panties.
    They peppered Sean with questions, which he answered with a smile. Which town was he from, how old was he, did he speak Irish.
    “Gaelic,” he corrected. “And yes, some. The best swear words.”
    The girls giggled.
    They insisted he teach them but Sean charmingly put them off and got back to work.
    “Hey.” One of the girls caught a glimpse of Riley’s face in the mirror. “Oh, my God!” It came out more like “gawd,” and Riley wondered if they were on holiday from New York.
    “Are you twins?” one of the girls asked.
    “We sure are.”
    The girls lost their collective minds, asking new questions. Could they read each other’s thoughts? Sean and Riley grinned at each other, both remembering the game they used to play when they were kids. Whenever somebody asked them if they could read each other’s minds, they would go through a pre-arranged script of words and numbers to “read” from each other. The idea did crossed Riley’s mind to do it now, but he wasn’t interested enough in continuing to converse with the girl to put forth the energy.
    “No, we can’t read each other’s thoughts,” he finally said.
    “No more than other people can,” Sean added.
    “Do you feel a really strong connection, though? Like, stronger than you do to other people?”
    “Oh, absolutely,” Riley replied without hesitation. “He’s my closest friend.”
    “We have no secrets,” Sean said. “Or do we, Riley?”
    Riley glanced a his brother, then looked away, filled with guilt.
    It seemed like a strange thing for Sean to say.
    Did he know about Erica?
    One of the girls, a brunette with massive tits, sidled up to Riley. “I think it’s fascinating that you’re from Ireland.”
    “You think so? And where are you from, love?”
    “Love!” She giggled. “That’s the cutest thing. I’m from New York.”
    “How interesting. I’ve always wanted to visit.”
    “You have? And I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland. I wanna see all that greenery. We don’t have anything like that in New York, for sure. Brooklyn’s not exactly green.” She laughed, sliding a hand up his arm until she reached his shoulder. “Ooh, do you work here, too? You can’t. How could you find the time to lift weights?”
    Was this what flirting had evolved into when he wasn’t looking? He was used to flirtatious women. The girl with her hand kneading his shoulder was something else altogether. Or maybe he was the one that was different.
    All he could think of was the look on Erica’s face if she were to walk in at that moment. The thought filled him with more guilt than the thought of keeping secrets from Sean did.
    Brady saved him without meaning to, coming out from the kitchen at just the right time. The brunette turned her attention to him—he was burlier than Riley, and she obviously had a thing for men with muscles. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then finished his drink.
    “I’ve had a long day,” he said,