Page 10 of Lost in You (Flirting with Forever 1)

Shawn: We can take my truck. See you soon.

My heart hammers behind my rib cage, and when I go to set my phone down in front of me, it clatters on the desktop. I draw my shaky hand back and into my lap where Sophia can’t see it.

“Miss Green, what aren’t you telling me?”

I look up, trying to plaster on my most innocent face. “Um. Well, there’s a thing or two you don’t know.”

Sophia’s eyes widen. “Tell me everything.”

Chapter 4

Shawn

Friday mornings and afternoons are fairly quiet at the bar. There’s only one person who regularly shows up before four. The bell above the door jingles. Today, he’s earlier than normal because of the one o’clock release for the students.

Heath strolls in and slaps his hands on the bar. “Hey, bro.” He slides onto the barstool across from where I’m diligently slicing fruit for cocktails. “What’s this I hear about you going to some wedding this weekend?”

I shrug nonchalantly. “Yep, with Madison.”

“Madison, Madison. The librarian from the high school who was here last night? The one who went to our high school? The one who dated your best friend after college?”

“Yeah. Don’t tell me you didn’t have something to do with Sophia ‘reintroducing’ her to me last night.” I open and then slide a bottle of his favorite beer over to him.

Heath takes a quick gulp and chuckles. “Hey, you’re the one who asked about her last week. All I did was mention something to Sophia about how you’d seen Madison around and wasn’t she in the book club? You know Sophia well enough to know she took matters into her own hands from there.”

I roll my eyes to the ceiling. “Whatever. But yeah, we talked about this wedding she has to go to this weekend after you all took off.”

Heath works his jaw back and forth. “Isn’t that going to be awkward as hell, considering what you know about Chase? Does she even know you all aren’t friends anymore?”

My eyes meet his. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if she thinks we are or not. We’d started to drift apart naturally before they broke up. And then I found out what he’d done to mess up my relationship with Dana and that was definitely that. I don’t know what, if anything, Madison knows about that whole debacle.”

Heath shakes his head and takes another sip of his beer. “Damn bro, that’s too much drama for me.”

I snort at him. “Right. Like I haven’t witnessed you and Sophia have your share of ups and downs. Anyway, I think I’ve kind of subconsciously avoided being places I knew she’d be since then. I don’t even know how two people can live in the same town and not run into each other,” I grumble, setting down the paring knife and fruit I’d been working with before planting my hands on the counter and eyeing my brother. “My plan is to keep things simple. Wedding escort, dinner, dancing, cake.”

“So, wait, is this an actual date or what? I’m losing track already.” The bastard stifles another laugh.

“Technically, it’s a fake date.”

“What exactly do you mean when you say fake?”

“Listen, you aren’t to breathe a word of this to Sophia. Or anyone else. I don’t want Madison thinking I betrayed her trust.”

“You know if Sophia asks, that I won’t lie to her about anything. I don’t even fib.”

I roll my eyes again. “Fine. Just make sure Sophia is aware that it’s a sensitive situation.” I exhale slowly. “Apparently, Madison hasn’t dated anyone seriously since Chase and was upset thinking about going to yet another family function alone.”

“So, you … what? Offered yourself up to be her boyfriend for the weekend?”

“Well, yeah.” My brows draw together. “Pretty much. But she was straight up panicking this morning about the whole thing. She almost called it all off.”

Heath snorts, shaking his head, his eyes alight with amusement. “Oh, man. Well, this should be interesting. And as for keeping things simple? Nothing like this is ever simple. In fact, very fucking complicated sounds more like what you’re about to do, man.”

I put the fruit into containers and tuck them in the fridge, and then take another few seconds to give my hands a rinse. Heath takes another gulp of his beer while eyeing me like he knows I’ve gotten in over my head. Blowing out a quick breath, I rough a hand through my hair. “Yeah, well, I can’t back out now. I wouldn’t do that to her.”

He smiles and toasts me with his bottle. “Of course you wouldn’t. Good luck with it. She should be here any minute, by the way. She said something to Sophia about grabbing her things from home and meeting you here.”

“Man, you gossip as bad as Sophia these days.”

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