Page 150 of Attached At Heart
“I’m sure he’s happy to have you all here.” I looked back to Blake. “I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
I needed that reassurance. It had been a few days since we’d talked. I didn’t like it.
“Yeah.” Blake swallowed and smiled at me, but it seemed forced. Like the smile he gave other people. Not the smile he gave me. “I’ll see you soon, Lane.”
Something seized up in my chest as I walked away—some kind of malfunction that I was sure textbooks wouldn’t be able to diagnose.
But I was sure it was nothing.
Just a bit of nerves. For meeting with Austin tonight.
It was a nervous system problem.
Definitely not a cardiovascular thing.
Definitely not.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
delaney
AFEW DAYS LATER, I learned that for once in his life, my dad stood up to my mom on my behalf. It was not something I’d expected, and I was sure it hadn’t gone over well.
My grandparents made the inheritance decision contingent upon my parents’ approval, but knowing what a pushover my dad had always been when it came to matters involving my mother’s wishes, especially regarding their children, I never thought his opinion would be the important one.
But it washisparents’ will. And apparently, he’d told my mom that enough was enough.
I could have my inheritance.
My dad called to deliver the good news, which was doubly shocking. I’d expected an email. But he said something that made me think he’d been a little hurt by the notion that he hadn’t been there for my wedding, even if it was an elopement.
He said he didn’t want to miss anything else.
He knew if they denied me this, he’d miss everything.
I wanted to ask where he’d been when I had my college graduation or when I’d celebrated getting my first job but heldmy tongue. I knew it was because my ambitions didn’t align with the ones he’d arbitrarily created for me, but marriage was something that had traditional value to him. And so that was what he cared about.
He also admitted to liking Blake. He appreciated his honesty at dinner and said that his job was respectable.
Which I found ironic.
Respectablefor a man, I suppose.
He wanted us to come to dinner more often, which surprised me the most out of everything.
I said I’d think about it.
I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of commitment, considering how the last one had gone and the odd, resentful heartache of simply visiting home, but I’d think about it.
Blake and I went out to dinner to celebrate the news—our first official date, outside of the evening in Amsterdam. Because Blake had since made it clear that thathadbeen a date.
He decided on the black dress, saying he’d already gotten a chance to peel the red one off my body, and now he wanted to do the same with the black one.
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
On our second official date, Blake surprised me by booking us dancing lessons. He claimed they were mostly for his benefit; he wanted to be able to keep up with me on the dance floor.
I cried when he told me.
