but his family didn’t have the money to send him, so he took his police exam at nineteen, was a cadet with the Boston PD before he could apply for the police academy at twenty-one, and he became a cop like his old man.
Gary, on the other hand, had flitted from one job to the next, getting fired right, left, and center, until his uncle took him on as a mechanic. Since then he’d settled down. Including with me.
If Gary and his best friend knew what I’d done today, they’d hate me.
But I didn’t do anything, I argued with myself. Not really.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
My boyfriend’s familiar voice pulled me out of my guilt-ridden thoughts, and I handed over the beer to my customer. Gary leaned over the bar, grinning at me.
Smiling back, I leaned over to press a kiss to his lips. A couple of guys around the bar groaned in fake disappointment, and Gary smiled against my mouth before pulling back to shoot a grin their way. “That’s right, fellas, she’s mine, so back off.”
I shook my head at his nonsense. “You doin’ okay?”
“I’m supposed to be asking you that. How’s it goin’?”
“Good.”
He nodded and then turned to look over his shoulder. “I brought Sully. Told you he wasn’t an imaginary friend.”
I laughed because I’d teased him about that as more weeks passed without meeting this elusive Sully. Glancing past my boyfriend to smile at his friend as he stepped up to the bar, my smile stuck before it could widen my mouth.
Shock rooted me to the spot as I looked into familiar dark-brown eyes.
Michael?
Surprise momentarily flickered in his expression, but he was quicker at recovering than I was. He held out his hand and said pointedly, “Michael Sullivan, nice to meet you.”
Oh my God.
Sullivan. Sully.
Duh.
Well, didn’t this suck at the highest level? I swallowed my shock and disappointment and gingerly took his hand. My skin tingled at his touch, and his hand seemed to reflexively tighten around mine. “Dahlia.” It was hard to get words out, so they came out soft and uncertain. “Nice to meet you too.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going all shy on me,” Gary huffed.
My smile was strained. “He’s your best friend. I want him to like me.”
Right. Only I hadn’t expected to want him to like me like me.
“Of course he’ll like you. Won’t you, Sully? What’s not to like?”
Michael gave us a flat smile. “You’ve talked about her so much, I feel like I already do.”
Gary patted him on the back and then took a stool at the bar. Michael and I exchanged a loaded look before he slid in beside his friend.
Shaking inwardly and doing my best to hide it, I at once panicked that Michael would tell Gary I was flirting with him, and that Michael wouldn’t turn up to see me again. Of course, he wouldn’t! How messed up was that kind of thinking? We couldn’t hurt Gary like that. It was ridiculous.
God, why was this happening? Why couldn’t I have met Michael first?
And is that what I wanted? To have met him first? A guy I knew little about? I only knew what I’d heard from Gary (all of it good—FYI, my boyfriend hero-worshipped the guy) and what I’d felt today when we met.
But Gary was sweet, and he was good in bed, and he treated me well.
Oh hell.
I tried to be my funny, light, breezy self as I talked to my boyfriend and his best friend between serving customers. The horrible part of the evening came when Gary excused himself to the bathroom, and Michael called me over.
His dark eyes were no longer filled with laughter and desire. They were still warm but there was a polite distance in them, and I missed the way he’d looked at me that afternoon.
“I won’t tell Gary about today.”
I nodded. “I don’t normally flirt with other guys.”
He leaned over the bar and lowered his voice. “I know. I know today was unexpected for both of us.”
I remembered then that Gary had told me Michael was twenty-three. Only three years older than me but he had this air of maturity about him that none of my other friends had. Not even Gary. It was very attractive.
Damn.
“It’s against the code to tell you this, but Gary likes you. I’ve never seen him with a girl like he is with you.” He gave me a sad smile. “And now I get why. But his life hasn’t been easy and um … well, I won’t fuck