Page 71 of Her Billionaire Bargain (Kensington Square)

“Where’s your seat belt? Sit back, Alice. Now.”

She gave a huff of disgust and snapped her belt back on as Dex swung into the driveway. “I can help too. I can clean cages or mop or sweep.”

“You don’t like to mop or sweep here.”

“Moooom, I wanna see the kittens and puppies. Please. I’ll sweep and mop forever.”

“I think you’d be a big help.” Dex put the car in park. “But it depends what your mom thinks, Berrasaurus.”

Sure, right. As if he hadn’t neatly boxed me in. He had a way of doing that with charm and a smile, so I didn’t even always realize.

I sighed and looked back at my daughter, just so grateful he hadn’t shut the door on us volunteering that I didn’t even mind he’d given me no option about Berry. Not that she wouldn’t be a big help. She definitely would. She had a real way with animals.

But odds were good we’d be coming home with a kitten or puppy that day.

“Fine. You win. You both win. Happy?”

“Not even close,” Dex murmured, piercing me with one of those direct looks that shot between my thighs like an electric jolt.

I almost begged him not to meet his “friend.” Somehow I managed to retain my dignity, and Berry and I got out of the car.

But dignity wouldn’t keep me warm tonight, that was for sure.

FIFTEEN

You win.

Sure. As if I ever won for long with Shelby Wilde.

If I did, then the fall was twice as hard.

“Cal, give me a Harp.” I leaned on the bar polished to a high sheen and studied my reflection between the many multicolored bottles lined up in front of the mirror behind the bar.

I looked like shit. Probably because I hadn’t slept much last night and then today I’d been kicked in the metaphorical nuts.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in. Heard you’d given up drinking.”

“I gave up drinking to excess, son. Not drinking period. One Harp is my new limit. And who was gossiping about me in any case?”

“Sorry, as a loyal publican, my lips are sealed.” Callahan Brinkley mimed zipping his lips and tossing away the key as he strolled toward me, his shock of dark hair dipping into his so-called “dreamy” eyes.

Isis was the one who’d proclaimed them dreamy the one and only time she’d visited Lonegan’s Bar. Cal ran a tight ship here. He saw this place as his lucky break, having won the bar in a high-stakes poker game some years ago.

Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t much liked being poor—and working behind the bar mostly for tips for years before it had become his—and was determined never to return to that state. Not only that, he’d added on another bar in nearby Crescent Cove, although in that zip code it was referred to as a tavern. I supposed they thought that classed it up some.

Whatever it was called, Cal knew what he was doing, and he was a good friend besides. He listened and didn’t gossip. Usually.

“Where’s your usual crowd?” he asked after shoving my bottle across the bar at me.

As if on cue, Bishop and Preston appeared in the doorway, laughing together as they always were. The familiar longing settled in my gut but I shoved it down as I tipped back my beer.

I had enough to dwell on tonight. I wasn’t adding the fact that I would never come first with my brother as he’d always been with me.

“Hey there, Dex.” Bishop clapped me on the shoulder before he dropped onto the stool at my side. Preston took the stool on his other side rather than the one next to me.

Yep. Business as usual.

“Hiya, Bishop. Wife still carrying that baby?”

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