Page 109 of Mr. Flirt

“Lucy, please let me talk to you. I swear I never did anything to hurt you. I was just being... dumb.”

His words hung in the air as I texted Mae, who responded immediately.

“My dad left.”

“What’s your address?” I asked.

He recited the numbers, which I quickly texted to Mae.

“Please, Lucy. Everything between us is real. I promise you that. I would never do anything to—”

“You already did. Please, just leave me alone until Mae gets here.”

“I can drive you back.”

Fury replaced sorrow as I clenched my eyes shut. “And what makes you think I ever want to see you again, let alone be trapped in a car with you for hours?”

Shep sighed on the other side of the door. “I deserve that.”

And his footsteps padded down the hall.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dinner Party

Shep

“Where is your girlfriend?” my mom asked, glancing over my shoulder.

“We broke up.” My mom frowned and shook her head. “But I invited Winter over since her husband and Hunter are skiing all day.”

“Good. Because I had the chef make a ton of food.” She studied me. “Your face looks gaunt.”

I smiled at my mom, but I felt completely and utterly destroyed. I’d barely slept all week. I couldn’t eat. All I could think about was losing the one woman I’d finally fallen in love with. I was going to tell her that Saturday. The night I’d spent with her was unlike any I’d ever had. I swear to God, our souls touched.

“You don’t look good, honey.”

I slid onto a grey barstool at the kitchen island and nodded. “I don’t feel good. I screwed it up with Lucy. Big time.”

My mom swallowed down a gulp of wine and stared at me. “You didn’t cheat, did you?”

“Mom, you know I would never do that, but I almost wonder if what I did was worse.”

She shook her head from personal experience. “Doubtful.”

“Did you see the video of me placing a wager with Mike and Brendan that went around?”

She shook her head and slid me a glass of wine. “No. I don’t pay attention to any of that. It’s all noise.”

“I used to think that too.”

“What? You believe the gossip?”

I laughed coldly. “I am the gossip.”

“Hello in here,” Winter’s voice rang out from the hall. “Everyone in the kitchen? I’ve got something awesome for Lucy.”

My sister wandered into the kitchen with a belly that had somehow expanded substantially since I last saw her.

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