Page 34 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

You stubborn sweetheart.She was only concerned about my health. “I’m fine, Blake. I can handle this. This isn’t too heavy.”

“Are yousure?” she demanded with a stern look.

Yeah, she’s totally a good mom.I bet George wouldn’t talk back to that no-nonsense face. She was sometimes too quiet and timid, but she was firm when she needed to be. Even with me. And Reagan. I still hadn’t forgotten about her giving her hell at the school.

Hell, she could do anything and impress me. “Hey.”

She raised her brows in question as she got her trays ready. “What?”

“What happened to your plans to start a restaurant?”

She shrugged, not making eye contact again. “Plans change,” she said.

They did. I’d planned to be in the military for a lot longer, but I no longer had that option. I planned to travel the world and explore—through the service or on my own—and I doubted I could find the thrill to want to do so again.

I followed her out into the hall, and even though there were too many people for me to feel comfortable, I quickly learned to separate myself. The partiers and guests at the Francis’ company party weren’tpeople. They becamethings. Talking, drinking, laughing, and schmoozing things that ignored me completely. Being part of the catering staff lent me a sense of anonymity and I blended into the background. I didn’t have to worry about townsfolk or former classmates remarking that I was back from the army. I didn’t have to stress about well-wishers coming up and asking what happened. I was just there, in the background, and my social anxiety didn’t flare up.

Even if my grandma hadn’t told me to shadow Blake and do what she did, I would’ve stuck with her anyway. She seemed clumsier than usual, spilling a little gravy here or setting a basket of rolls down too quickly over there, letting one drop. Blake was a graceful woman, but all through the party, she suffered snafus.

I stuck with her, helping her and modeling what I needed to do after her, but throughout it all, she seemed to try her best to avoid me. To pretend I wasn’t there.

This was her job. This was work. I wasn’t expecting us to talk and just hang out. But I couldn’t shake this hunch that she was skittish around me.

Just because we slept together?

“You clean up nice,” Reagan said when I leaned over to get a plate from her specific table after the meal was over.

When her hand touched my ass, though, I edged away from her.Stop preying on me, for fuck’s sake.

Blake must have been watching, though, because her mouth hung open in shock as she overfilled a water glass. Ice cubes plunked to the tablecloth and liquid splashed down. “Oh! I’m sorry. I?—”

I used it as an excuse to go to her side of the table and wipe up the mess, smiling at the guest whose cup was overfilled.

She refused to make eye contact for a good few minutes afterward, and I hated the loss of her attention.

Then came Rory. He was seated at another table of Francis family members. At the head of the square table, covered in a glittery green cloth with a huge vase of poinsettias in the center, he was almost shielded from my view as I delivered dessert dishes to the guests on the opposite side of the table.

But I heard him all the same. He was a loudmouth. Everyone could hear him. All through the night, I’d heard him getting drunker and drunker, his words slurring. And each time he opened his mouth when Blake and I were at his table, it was the same shit.

“You belong with me, babe,” Rory said. He reached out his arm to snake it around her waist and drag her closer to his side. She flinched at the manhandling, trying not to lose her grip on the tray in her hand.

I’d have to be blind to miss how uncomfortable she was with his touch. Her face pinched. Uneasiness shone in her eyes. Lines formed on her brow as she frowned and tried to get away.

“Rory, stop.”

He didn’t. He raised his other arm to try to land her in his lap instead. “Oh, come on. Jenny won’t care if you take a break for a second.”

“Rory. Stop.”

“I just miss you, babe. You’re being cruel to play hard to get like this. This break has gone on too long.”

“It’s not a break. I broke up with you.”

Rory rolled his eyes, not letting her go. “You said you were having second thoughts.”

She shook her head. “Not about you. You took my words out of context.”

“You’re—”

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