Obsession Falls (The Haven Brothers #1)

He grabbed a glass and poured me a beer, then slid it across the bar. Hayden wasn’t really the new guy anymore, although I still thought of him that way. Rocco had brought him on a year or two ago. Or was it three? Hell, I didn’t know. Younger guy, maybe thirty at most, with shaggy dark hair. He had kind of an emo vibe, but he was a good enough bartender—served drinks without making pointless conversation. Worked for me.

I took a sip and glanced at the time on my phone. I was a bit early, there to meet Dad. One of the perks of partnering with my father was having our business meetings over a couple of beers at the Timberbeast. Mom teased us that it was just an excuse to go to the tavern. Maybe. But we actually got a lot done.

The door opened and I glanced over my shoulder. It wasn’t my dad, but I nodded at the guy who walked in. No one batted an eyelash at his entrance, but not that long ago, he wouldn’t have set foot in here.

Asher Bailey was a big guy who had a look of danger about him. And rightly so. He was a jiu jitsu coach who’d done time in federal prison for killing the guy who tried to assault his then-fiancée, Grace. I’d never understood how they could have put him away for that. Any man would have done what he did.

But that had been a long time ago, when his family and mine had still been feuding. Although the shots we took at each other had mostly been pranks, I’d been obligated by long-standing tradition to hate Asher Bailey and his brothers. Six years ago, that had all changed, and somehow, Asher and I had become friends.

Although it wasn’t all that weird. My sister Annika had crossed feud lines to marry a Bailey. But that was another story.

He took a seat next to me. Hayden came over to take his order. I didn’t know where Hayden was from, but he hadn’t lived in Tilikum long enough to remember when the Timberbeast had been Haven territory.

“What can I get you?”

Asher gestured toward my beer. “One of those.”

“Coming right up.”

“What are you doing in here tonight?” I asked.

“Grace and the kids are out with her mom. I saw your truck outside, so I figured I’d stop in.”

Hayden gave Asher his beer. Asher thanked him.

We lifted our glasses to each other and took a drink.

“What’s new with you?” He set his beer down.

“Not much. Just ripping apart a house.”

“How’s that going?”

“Shitty, but that’s typical. I had to pull out a bunch of drywall earlier this week that I hadn’t been planning to replace. But at least we got rid of the smell.”

Thinking about the house made me wonder. Did I forget to lock up when I left? That wasn’t usually something I’d do, but I had the weirdest feeling that I’d left the back door unlocked.

“It still amazes me that Grace remodeled our house on her own while I was gone.”

“Grace is a badass.”

He lifted his glass. “Cheers to that.”

I clinked mine against his. “What about you?”

“I had a job interview yesterday.”

“You thinking of leaving the gym?”

“For this? Yeah. Chief Stanely wants to hire me on at the TFD.”

I raised my eyebrows. That was some news. Asher had been planning to be a firefighter before he’d been sent to prison. Once he’d come home, his record had made him ineligible. “No shit?”

He nodded. “The state changed the law. I’ve gone long enough without re-offending, Chief can hire me. He blindsided me with that news last weekend.”

“Not wasting any time, is he?”

“I have a lot of training to catch up on, so he’s trying to get the formalities out of the way.”