Page 25 of Mr. Flirt

“Do I look like the kind of girl who has flings?” She eyed me with heat rising behind her gaze.

I shook my head. “No, but then again, I don’t make stereotypes a habit.”

She licked her lips and let out a slow breath. It took everything I had not to watch the blue satin fabric rise and fall over her dazzling breasts with every bit of air she let fall from her lips.

“I want to hear about your sister and her friends,” she said, completely taking me by surprise.

“Yeah?” I grinned. “Even though you don’t buy into the happily-ever-after stories?”

“Convince me.” Lucy took another sip of wine.

“Well, I have the best sister in the world. Her name is Winter.” I smiled, thinking back about my sweet little sister who’d always managed to strike out in the dating world until she went with her heart. “And her Mr. Wrong will make you think.”

Lucy shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“She had sworn off clean-cut and well-dressed men who had any ounce of stability.”

Lucy smiled, but she didn’t laugh. “Why would she do that?”

Not wanting to reveal so much of myself through family revelations was getting extra tricky with the queen of questions in front of me. Like not wanting to tell her my little brother was a legal trainer on the road all the time just to avoid my father.

I let out a deep breath and brought my gaze to hers. “She wanted to date the exact opposite of our dad.”

Lucy winced. “Ouch.”

I nodded. “Yeah. So, she spent all of her twenties devoting her couch to men who never quite held down a job or men who needed a place to crash in between God knows what.”

“It happens.”

The server brought out our meals. I was never so happy to see a steak in my life. The way Lucy eyeballed her halibut made me think I was off the hook.

Until the server left.

“But why was she against dating someone like your dad, who sounds like he had his life together?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Well, he did to a point until he hit his fifties and had a mid-life crisis of some sort.”

She thoughtfully dropped her gaze to her dinner and took a bite. After a minute or so of silence, I was happy to move onto a different topic.

Lucy’s gaze met mine. “What kind of mid-life crisis?”

Damn.

I sucked on my bottom lip for a second as I debated how much to reveal.

“Fine.” I took a bite of steak and enjoyed the flavors before swallowing. It had been fun dating Lucy for less than a day. “Our family always looked picture perfect, and Winter, Colton, and I knew we were privileged. You know, really lucky to have what we had growing up. No doubt.”

“But?” Lucy prompted.

“Well, having boats and vacation homes made it easier for my dad to hide things. And he hid a lot.” I shook my head, realizing how bad this made me look in light of the fact that I’d lied to her face at a matchmaking event. “He was cheating on our mom.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said softly.

“So, Winter being a teenager, decided that it was the wealth that warped our dad’s brain and decided to only date men who were a bit rough around the edges. She wouldn’t touch any guy who represented stability. My younger brother was a trainer for law firms, traveling from one to the next, never staying in the same state two weeks in a row. He’s made a great career for himself. So good things can come out of rotten situations.”

Lucy’s brow rose. “And then? How’d it go for your sister?”

“She wound up falling for an amazing guy. He’s a single dad who is super clean-cut and is a professor at the university.”

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