Page 106 of Heartless

“Thanks, dude.”

“Didn’t you say that she served you divorce papers?” Ezra asks.

“She did, but I refused to sign them. At some point, she reached out and asked me not to sign them. That’s when I knew there was still hope.”

“Why is it that we all have to screw up before we get it right?” Shep asks.

“I didn’t,” Ezra says.

“That little scandal about the underage girl and a possible baby wasn’t fucking up?” I ask, referencing a scandal Ezra went through a little over a year ago.

“Didn’t hit the papers, and I didn’t do anything wrong. That was all before Morgan.”

“True,” I grudgingly admit.

“You characters just need to learn how to read a woman and know what she needs.”

“School us, young boy,” Shep teases his younger brother.

We all laugh.

“What created the issue between you and Meadow anyway? I know that she was assaulted and can imagine that created a strain, but was there more to it than that?” Spencer asks.

“He was doing his side chick,” Shep says slickly.

I glare at Shep who should have kept his mouth shut because that tidbit was supposed to be between him and me. I’d told him about the emotional and physical affair that I had with Sharla and how difficult it was because while she was steeped in feelings of the past, I was simply looking for comfort.

I didn’t feel the same way I had when I was a teenager mixed up with her.

“His what?” Ezra asks in disbelief.

“Remember Sharla?” Shep asks.

“What the fuck, Shep? That was between you and me!”

“Who is Sharla?” Spencer asks.

“Shotgun Sharla!” Cade declares.

Cade had given her that name because he’d said that she was so fine you needed to keep a gun at your side to keep other men at bay.

“She had the perfect curves,” Ezra says.

“Let Morgan hear you say that shit,” Shep says.

“When did she get back in town?” Cade asks.

“About a year ago, but she’s been gone for a while now. She left back in the summer. When she was working for me, we kind of fell back into a thing. MJ was struggling after the attack, and I turned to Sharla.”

MJ had finally told the family what happened to her and what she’d been through. Everyone has been surrounding her and showering her with love.

“What the fuck?” Cade says as Ezra exclaims, “Damn, dude! That’s fucking cold!”

Spencer releases a low whistle and shakes his head.

“Ask him why Meadow left him,” Shep instigates. “She discovered text messages between him and Sharla talking about how they couldn’t stay away from each other.”

I tilt my head at him sideways, looking at him in disbelief. “I don’t fucking believe you.”

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