“No.” Flynn gave him an impatient look. “It didn’t.”
Reid swiped his hand over his brow in mock relief.
“Come on, Parker, you’re high on drugs,” Gage said with a head shake. “We made that pact because your mom was sick and your dad was miserable, and because Natalie had just dumped me. We were all heartbroken then.” He considered Reid. “Except for Reid. I’m not sure why he did it.”
“Never getting married anyway.” Reid shrugged. “All for one.”
“So? Swear again,” Flynn repeated. “On your tallywackers.” That earned a smile from Reid. “Big or small, they count.”
The first time they’d made the pact none of them truly knew heartache. Breakups were hard, but the decimation of a marriage following the ultimate betrayal? Much worse. Reid and Gage didn’t know how bad things could get and Flynn would like to keep it that way. He didn’t want either of them to feel as eviscerated as he did right now—as he had for the last three months. All pain he could have avoided if he’d taken that pact seriously.
His buddies might never find themselves dating women who slept with their family members, but it wouldn’t matter how the divorce happened, only that it did. He’d heard the statistics. That 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce was up to around 75 nowadays.
He’d heard some people say they didn’t harbor regret because if they’d never married, and divorced, they wouldn’t have learned life’s lessons. Blah, blah, blah.
Bullshit.
Flynn regretted saying “I do” to Veronica all the way down to his churning stomach. The heartbreak over her choosing his brother would have been more bearable if she’d told him up front rather than three years into an insufferable marriage.
“I swear,” Reid said, almost too serious as he crashed his glass into Flynn’s water bottle, then looked at Gage expectantly.
“Fine. This is stupid, but fine.” Gage lifted his glass.
“Say it,” Flynn said, not cracking the slightest smile. “Or it doesn’t count.”
“I promise,” Gage said. “I won’t get married.”
“Say never, and we all drink,” Flynn said.
“Wait.” Reid held up a finger. “What if one of us caves again? Like hearts-and-flowers Gage over here.”
“Shut up, Reid.”
“One of your monthlong girlfriends could turn into the real thing if you’re not careful.”
“I’m careful,” Gage growled.
“You’d better be.” Flynn stared down his friends. The enormity of the situation settled around them, the only sound in the room the fire crackling in the background. “The lie of forever isn’t worth it in the end.”
Reid eyed Flynn’s broken leg, a reminder of what Flynn’s stupidity had cost him, and then exchanged glances with Gage. These men were more like Flynn’s brothers than his own flesh and blood. They’d do anything for him—including vowing to remain single forever.
“Never,” Gage agreed, holding up his own glass.
Reid and Flynn nodded in unison, and then they drank on it.
Copyright © 2019 by Jessica Lemmon
ISBN-13: 9781488046353
Seduction on His Terms
Copyright © 2019 by Sarah M. Anderson
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