Page 49 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

But is that it? Is she just freaking out at being near me while trying to look unaffected and uninterested?

I didn’t have time to ponder it as we walked through the festival. We all made snowballs and watched the ice sculptures. We snacked and tried different drinks from flights at a vendor booth. Grandma Jenny bought a candle and Cole signed up for some martial arts classes that had a winter special at the Y. Amanda sat for a caricature, and we all decorated cookies back in the children’s tent.

At the end of Main Street, it seemed we were done. Cole and Sara left, off to another family gathering. It was just us, but it was up in the air how we’d end the night. I wanted to spend more time out like this. With Blake. With Blake and George. Anything I could get because the thought of going home to that bland apartment over the garage was too daunting to accept after how good I felt in their company.

“How about it?” Amanda asked Blake as she swung George’s hand. “I’ll take him to the movie.”

I was still surprised that the busy babysitting gig that kept my sister employed was her supervising George. She babysat for Blake, and I witnessed the obviously close connection Amanda and George had.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Blake said, glancing from her watch to neon letters on the old-timey movie theater’s marquee.

“But it’s the weekend, Mama.” George pouted at her. “And you and Jen-Jen don’t have to cater tonight.”

Blake nodded but still seemed uneasy.

“Yeah,” Grandma Jenny said, taking George’s other hand so she could swing him while Amanda held his other hand. “I’ll go with them. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an old Christmas classic.”

“You sure?” Blake asked.

I doubted she was nervous about George watching the Christmas movie the theater was playing, but more so about George being out at all.

Grandma Jenny smiled. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Uh-huh,” Amanda replied, raising her brows at her. “Grandma and I can keep track of George at this movie. That’ll free you up to spend time with Zach. You two could catch up.”

We caught up pretty damn well last night.

“You know, talk and whatnot,” Amanda added. “You can give her a ride home, right?” She smiled at me.

“Sure.” I nodded and shoved my hands in my pocket. If my luck could hold, maybe this drive back to Blake’s would end like last night’s did.

They didn’t give Blake much of a chance to protest. Between Grandma Jenny’s insistence that this would be fun, George’s excitement to stay out a little later, and Amanda’s urging that Blake hang out with me, she was pushed to agree.

As Blake and I headed back toward the parking lot where I’d parked, I debated what kind of an ice breaker would snap her out of this nervousness to be around me. On one hand, maybe the fact that we’d had sex last night would intimidate her now. On the other, though, it could relax her.

She’d kissed me goodbye this morning. She had been game to fool around before Sara and George arrived.

So, what gives? What changed?

“You all right?” I asked, wishing I could have the right and privilege to hold her hand and keep her closer.

She jumped. “What? Oh. Yeah. I’m fine.”

Bullshit.

“You seem nervous.”

“No, no,” she replied hastily. “I’m fine.”

“You’re anxious,” I said.

She shook her head.

Is it really that hard to be with me? Even walking to my truck for a ride home?I dismissed the idea of spending time with her past that. I could read the room, or a person. Blake was too flustered to hang out with me like my sister suggested, and I wasn’t the kind of man to be hurt about it.

If I wasn’t so convinced that she was tense because she might be holding back about something, I would’ve left it alone. But this was Blake, the one woman who had the ability to make me feel whole again. The one person who brightened my mood.

“Come on, Blake.” I opened her door. “What’s up?”

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