Page 116 of Mr. Flirt

Brendan grimaced. “I have to confess I would never have thought Shep would fall in love with someone who could make a grown man cry.”

In love? Ha!

“Well, you guessed right because Shep didn’t fall in love with me. Only his bank account did.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Mike said flatly.

I looked at the clock. “You have fifty-seven minutes before my next client comes in.”

“And at these rates, I intend to use every second,” Mike shot back.

Brendan smiled at me. “Shep doesn’t know we’re here.”

I realized these two were playing the good cop-bad cop.

“So?”

Brendan shifted in his chair and shook his head. “I know on the surface that things don’t look ideal in terms of how things started with you and Shep.”

“And how they ended is even less ideal,” I said calmly.

But the truth was that all this talk about Shep was turning me into a hot mess of clammy palms and damp underarms. Even the base of my spine was sweating into a puddle of nerves.

The last four weeks had been hell. Sure, I threw myself into my cases and worked even longer hours than before, but it was all so I could forget about the one man I’d fallen in love with.

Shep.

The guy who could flash a smile in my direction, and I suddenly felt like the luckiest woman in the world. The one man who could convince me to take a weekend off and spend it on a getaway. The one man who knew my body more intimately than I did. The person who could make me laugh when I didn’t think I could.

The guy who’d destroyed every ounce of confidence I’d finally created.

“The bet wasn’t his idea. In fact, it wasn’t truly a bet.” Brendan leaned his elbows against the desk.

My brows rose. “Which one?”

“The one that mattered,” Mike clarified.

“Well, they both matter, seeing how things turned out. The first one should have given me enough pause not to allow myself to endure a second prank. But I failed myself.” I pursed my lips together. “And I won’t let that happen again.”

“Whew.” Brendan shook his head. “You’re a tough nut to crack.”

“Then don’t wear yourself out trying.” I sat back in the seat and crossed my legs, praying I wouldn’t start sweating anywhere else like my hairline.

Never let them see you sweat.

A great law school motto that I never had to worry about.

Until Shep.

Thoughts of Shep were slamming into my mind at an unstoppable pace. Just being around his friends made me miss him.

“I know you’re here to tell me he is sorry and what a great guy he is, and he’d never ever do something to hurt someone.” I smiled. “I get it, and some other woman will be lucky enough to have him after he learned some very tough lessons about being an adult.”

Mike laughed and shook his head, glancing around my office for the first time. “No. We’re not here to tell you that at all. He effed up. He knows it. He doesn’t expect anything good to come from it.”

“Then why are you here?”

Brendan’s gaze saddened. “He fell in love with you, Lucy, and it was our dumb mistakes that made him lose you. He wasn’t the one always placing the bets. He just never knew how to tell us to buzz off. He didn’t want to hurt our feelings.” Brendan shrugged. “But that’s not why we’re here.”

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