Page 8 of Mr. Flirt

Mike grimaced and shook his head. “Uh, yeah. Especially if you refer to yourself in the third person.”

“All I’m saying is that if I’m this old, and I can’t find the perfect someone in a sea of eligible women, it’s obviously not meant to be.” I shrugged. “And I’m okay with that. I’d rather have fun than hurt feelings. You know, keep it light.”

Brendan nodded. “Mike has a point. At least, I’m not vehemently against settling down one day. I’d love to find the perfect woman. But Shep, you’re really a downer on love.”

The double doors opened with a gust of electricity, and a woman walked into the bar.

Her dark hair flowed past her shoulders, and sparkling green eyes lit up when her gaze landed on someone at the table over from us.

Lucy!

It was like my world stopped as she glided to the table next to us. I quickly scanned the other women sitting at the table and couldn’t help but smile. There wasn’t any male waiting for her, but she hadn’t noticed me in the slightest.

“As you were saying?” Mike elbowed me, and Brendan snickered.

I flashed them a quick scowl before turning my attention to the beauty who’d already taken a seat with her friends.

Mike leaned over. “So, what are you going to do about it?”

My scowl deepened. “About what?”

Brendan only laughed as I glanced in Lucy’s direction.

The truth was that Mike knew nothing about Lucy. I paid him a grand just to avoid questions from that fateful night.

And now karma was here to kick me in the chops.

I didn’t believe in love at first sight or any of that, but I firmly believed in lust at first sight, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her for the second time in my life.

She was even more dazzling than I remembered and judging by the stares from all the men around, I wasn’t the only one who knew how special she was.

But the moment Lucy’s laugh echoed into the room, I was done for. It wasn’t some odd cackle or a deep hack or a nasally snicker... no, her laugh was enchanting and inviting and...

I called myself Perry and catfished what could have been the love of my life.

Except that I didn’t buy into all of that.

Wouldn’t buy into all that.

“You going to be okay, Shep? You’re probably making that table of females extremely uncomfortable.” Brendan eyed the table not too far from ours.

I tore my gaze away and laughed as Mike pressed his lips into a fine line.

I recognized the look Mike threw at me. It was the same tricky expression since college whenever a bright idea popped into his head. But through no fault of his own, they usually weren’t very bright and often involved a dare... like the one that got me in so much trouble a mere few months ago. He whipped out his phone and pulled me into the camera frame, grinning, and hitPlaybefore speaking into the camera.

“I’ve got a proposition for you,” he began.

He always did.

My brows arched in anticipation. “Yeah?”

“I’ll bet you five hundred bucks that if you go over to that table and introduce yourself, the new arrival will ignore you. She won’t give you the time of day.”

I straightened. “Ignore me? Like flat out turn her head in the other direction?”

“Something like that.”

If there was one thing Lucy would do to me, I highly doubted it would be to ignore me. Throw a punch and finish the job, maybe. But that wouldn’t lose me the bet.

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