Page 107 of Mr. Flirt

“All due respect, Dad. That’s not happening.” Shep shook his head.

“Oh, come on. We know how these weekends go. You probably won’t even leave your bedroom.”

I recoiled from his father’s words. He seemed so... just ick.

His dad tried to get a better look at me and then pointed his finger in our direction. “Hey, wait a minute. She’s still with you after everything?”

I cocked my head in confusion.

Shep and his dad weren’t close, so I highly doubted he knew about our rough start.

“She’s the attorney, right? The one that just got duped or something?” His father shook his head, looking at me with some weird admiration. “Divorce attorney, I think I read.”

My eyes flashed to Shep, who looked as confused as me.

His dad snapped his fingers. “What is the name? I got it. I got it. Lacy? Linda?”

“Dad, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’d like you to leave my residence now.”

Shep’s jaw ticked, and I saw anger rise slowly.

“What’s your dad talking about?” I whispered, wondering if maybe Shep had told him more than I thought.

“I have no idea, but I’m not going to wait around to find out.”

His dad’s hands went into the air. “Wait a second. You don’t have a clue what I’m talking about?”

Shep slid his father a withering look, and a sickening feeling spread through my belly.

His dad shrugged and continued, “It’s why I thought this place would be empty, or at least just you up here. I thought we could be two bachelors wallowing in our mistakes.”

“Shep, what is he talking about?” The sternness of my features strengthened with the practiced ease I’d been accustomed to displaying in the courtroom.

The nagging voice in my head made me nauseous.

“You’re the woman from the dare,” his dad answered. “The footage from the bar across the street from my son’s place. I recognized it immediately. His best friends were there in the video.”

I tore my gaze away from his dad and looked at Shep.

“What footage? What bar?” I knew Shep, and I had made an anonymous mark on the pages of the Seattle gossip machine with the photo of me reaching over the table to strangle him at the matchmaking event, but I was never identified. Maybe that had changed.

But it wasn’t a bar. My stomach clenched as the gnawing feeling inside me intensified.

“I...” Shep shook his head. “I don’t know.”

My phone buzzed in my hand again, and I brought it up to see another text from Mae.

This time, the link showed an image of what looked like Mae and me. I opened my phone and zoomed in on the image before hittingPlay.

Shep groaned as he looked at my phone. “Oh, no.”

“Shep, what? Tell me before I see it play out.”

But it was too late.

The sound of a crowded bar filled the hallway with Mike and another guy hanging onto Shep, placing a bet.

I squinted my eyes to focus as Shep accepted the bet.