Adam wanted to avoid. “How’s Bridget doing, Adam?”
“Fine, as far as I know. I stopped by her apartment a couple times to make sure she got settled and I’ve left her a bunch of voice mails.” Bridget hadn’t been home when he’d visited and she never returned his calls. Adam wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.
“Man, I wish she hadn’t moved down there,” Colin fretted. “She’s a farm girl, sweet and naive. You know what those city guys are like.”
“Almost as bad as you country guys,” Adam retorted. “You weren’t always the happily married father of three and you had plenty of stories to tell about those so-called sweet, naive farm girls.”
Col grunted. “Bridget’s different. I couldn’t believe it when Mom and Dad let her move to Chicago to go to that fashion-design school. What was wrong with going to school at the university in Menomonie?”
“That isn’t exactly Chicago, Col.” Menomonie was in northwestern Wisconsin and its flannel-clad residents were not notably fashion-conscious. “Besides, Bridget’s twenty-four, a full-grown woman.” He veered away from that dangerous path. Col didn’t need to know how much a woman he considered Bridget.
“She’s only been home once in the six months since she moved, and we hardly ever hear from her. Mom calls every week and we get occasional e-mails, but we don’t really know how she is. You’d be doing me a big favor if you could see her, take her for coffee—”
“And report back to you?” Adam interjected. “She’ll have my ass in a sling if she realizes I’m spying on her and then she’ll come gunning for you.”
“Please, Adam. Mom worries about her. She’s the baby of the family, we only need to know she’s okay.”
He sighed. “All right, I’ll call her and try to pin her down—” whoa, that brought some interesting images to mind “—for a time to take her out.”
“Thanks, buddy. And if you could convince her to come home for a visit after her classes finish, I’ll owe you big-time.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Col. You know that.”
“Okay. But you should take some time off from your wheeling and dealing at the Merc and come for a visit, too. Maybe you can give Bridge a ride.”
Adam gulped. “Sure thing. Talk to you soon.” He clicked off his phone and rested his forehead in his hand. Pinning Bridget down, her soft, pale thighs spread wide beneath him. Giving Bridget a ride as she moved on top of him, her heavy breasts overfilling his palms.
His cock pushed against his zipper as he shifted in his chair. How many futile erections had he sported over his best friend’s kid sister? Ever since his senior year in college when he met her right after her high school graduation.
She had preferred to hide her amazing body under overalls and other baggy clothing, but they’d gone swimming once in the fishing pond behind the barn and his jaw had dropped. Fortunately, the water had been deep enough and his shorts baggy enough so Colin and Dane didn’t notice his extremely inappropriate interest. Being bound hand and foot and thrown under the hooves of Caesar, the old family bull, would have definitely dampened his arousal.
After that, he only saw Bridget occasionally, like during Colin’s wedding when they’d been paired as groomsman and bridesmaid. Sure, she was great-looking with her dark, almost navy-blue eyes and naturally sun-streaked hair, but he’d come to appreciate her dry wit and wry sense of humor.
The last time he’d seen her was when she moved to Chicago last August. He’d had a girlfriend then, but still reacted to Bridget the same way. What a jerk he was. And now Colin and the whole Weiss family were sending the fox to guard their precious chick.
BRIDGET WAS PUTTING the finishing touches on Sugar’s order, the silver bra and brand-new ivory lace bra and thong. The dancer was coming over to pick them up. Hopefully, she’d love the new lace bra and order more. Now that Bridget had figured out Sugar’s pattern, it was simply a matter of cutting the fabric and putting the bra together.
Her cell phone rang. Without checking the caller ID, she answered. “Hello?”
“Bridget?” A familiar male voice rumbled through her phone, startling her so she almost dropped it.
“Adam?” Her voice came out squeakier than she liked, so she forced herself to take some deep breaths.
“Hey, Bridge, how are you doing?”
Ugh, he called her Bridge just like her brothers did. Her nervousness dissipated. “Fine, keeping busy. Calling to check on me?”
“Um…”
Adam at a loss for words? He was so busted. “Colin or Dane?”
“Colin or Dane what?” He tried a valiant comeback, but failed.
“Was it Colin or Dane who called you and sicced you on me?”
He sighed. “Colin.”
“Ah-ha!” Knowing she’d guessed right didn’t make her feel any better.
“Come on, Bridge, they’re concerned, rightfully so, that they don’t hear from you as much as they’d like.”
“First of all, if they heard from me as much as they’d like, I’d be calling down the stairs telling my mother what I wanted for breakfast every morning. Second, I’m an adult and don’t need to check in with Mommy and Daddy all the time. How often do you call your parents?”
Adam didn’t say anything. Bridget smacked her forehead in mortification. To quote her mother, who usually never had a harsh word for anyone, Adam’s parents were dreadful. Bridget had plenty of worse words for them. “Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, I’m sorry, Bridget. You are a grown woman and don’t need someone who’s not even family butting into your business.”
“Adam, you know I consider you—”
“Like a brother?” His tone was sharper than usual.
“Oh, no. Two are plenty. But more like…” She couldn’t think of a nice way to say she’d wanted to rip off his clothing and lick him all over ever since she was a teenager. “Like a friend,” she finished lamely.
“A friend.” He paused. “Well, as a friend, I’d like to encourage you to call home more often. You have a great family, believe me. They want to know how you’re doing.”
“You’re right. But I need to prove I can do well here in Chicago since they were so dead set against it. I went to the local junior college and worked all kinds of goofy jobs to save my money for design school, and I’m finally doing what I want.”
“I know you are, and I’m proud of you.” His soft, silky voice sent shivers down her spine. He ruined the effect by asking, “How are you doing for money?”
“Fine.” Sugar’s voluminous bras caught her eye. There was her money right there. Funny, how everybody made money off two bags of saline. The surgeon, Sugar, Bridget, the strip club. Sugar’s breasts were positively
