Page 91 of Share with Me

“When did you meet this woman?”

“Brinley, Matt. Her name is Brinley.”

“When did you meet this Brinley woman?”

“Last year, but we were dating other people. We saw each other again at my sister-in-law’s birthday party last week. That’s when things happened.”

“Like what things?”

“Matt.”

“Come on.”

“Dude, your sister-in-law’s party was Thursday.” Matt ticked off his fingers. “Not even five days ago.”

Only five days?“It felt longer than that.”

“You’re putting a new spin on whirlwind, dude.”

Next to Matt, Sebastian slid his iPad across the table toward Ivan, nearly missing his coffee cup. “Check that out.”

Ivan looked at the iPad screen as Sebastian kept talking. “She made the news. See the headline?Buddy Billionaires.”

Ivan frowned as he scrolled down the entertainment web page. The photograph of her dancing with Jared Urquhart six months before messed with Ivan’s head. He didn’t want to look at it, but Brinley was quite photogenic.

“Read it,” Sebastian said.

“No.” Ivan put the iPad down. He had to admit he was curious, but he didn’t know if he wanted to know whatever it was Sebastian was trying to tell him. Sebastian often agreed with Matt, and this time, Ivan knew they were right.

It’s inevitable that you’ll disagree on God, on Jesus, on church, on life, on everything.

Still…

“Says here that Jared Urquhart is the poorer one. He’s got a billion dollars to his name.”

“One billion dollars?” Ivan tried not to freak out.

“Got your attention, huh?” Sebastian went on. “Says here that Brinley Brooks stands to inherit nine billion dollars from the Brooks family fortune.”

Nine billion dollars.

That was news to Ivan.“No way. She looks so…”

“Plain? Looks can be deceiving,” Matt said. “Ask me how I know.”

“I was going to say normal, man. Normal.”

“What are you going to do?” Sebastian interjected. “Her family could say you’re a gold digger. Sure, we know you don’t care about money. That’s how you ended up in that hole you’re in, but they don’t know you as well as we do.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment, Seb?”Some friends I have.

“You tell us,” Matt said.

“Nothing is going on.”Uh, other than the two kisses.

Ivan couldn’t remember the last time he had tried to kiss a woman he had barely known, and then did it two days later, twice.

Only Brinley.

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