Page 3 of Attached At Heart
“Oh?” Blake crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a look I recognized from med school.A challenge. “Why am I not surprised, Dr. Delacroix?”
“That makes one of us.”
Blake frowned, his face twisting with confusion. “I’m sorry, butI’mthe one who moved to Boston.You’rethe one who’s supposed to still be working in Minnesota but is, for some reason, standing here. In Boston. The person who should be surprised is me.”
“True,” I allowed. “But you could have at least told me the real reason why you moved.” I waved a hand at where he’d just been sitting with the baby and the woman. “You could have told me about…that.”
A ghost of a smile passed across Blake’s lips. “You want to know about that, Lane?”
I looked at him like he was losing it. “You were holding ababy.”
Of course I wanted to know about it.
“Mm, so youwerestanding there for a while.”
Oh, goddamnit.
My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
A twinkle lit up Blake’s eyes now. “Care to share exactly how long you were spying on me, or would you rather try to lie?” He leaned forward and added with a whisper, “You’re a terrible liar.”
I rolled my eyes and gave in. “I watched long enough to know that you once again found a woman who’d rather talk about your younger brother than aboutyou.”
I expected Blake to react to that, but he just straightened and shrugged. “Maybe my brother’s more interesting to talk about.”
“Stop it.” I swatted his arm, annoyed and confused as to why he thought this was funny. He usually hated when girls asked him about Noah. “Seriously, Blake. You’re annoyingly smart, unfairly handsome, and usually nice. You can do so much better than someone who only cares?—”
Blake’s laughter cut off my rant. “Usuallynice? Really?”
“Sometimes you do come off as a condescending asshole.”
For some inexplicable reason, Blake’s grin grew. Not that full-out smile I’d missed or the tight-lipped, condescending tilt, but something different. A sly one. A crooked one. His eyes shimmered with mischief as he leaned back against a row of chairs, perching on the top of one. I couldn’t remember thelast time I’d seen him looking so goddamn amused, and it was irritating as hell. Because the more I thought about how that woman had just zoned in on Noah like that in front of him, the more bothered I became. And Blake, clearly, couldn’t give less of a shit.
“I’m serious, Blake,” I pressed, somehow withholding a childish stomp of my foot.
Why wouldn’t he want to be with someone who appreciated him for who he was?
Blake nodded, his smile holding strong. “I can see that, Lane. Very serious.”
I scowled at him.
“You really think I can do better?” he mused. “I don’t know. At thirty-three, sometimes I feel like I’m starting to push past my prime for the dating market. Not to mention, I have a crippling addiction to caffeine and absolutely no fashion sense, as you’ve pointed out before. But if you say so…” He chuckled softly as he trailed off and then didn’t say anything for a long moment, just sort of stared at me. I was about to tell him off again when he sighed.
“Her name is Gemma,” he said. “Gemma Briggs, soon-to-be London.”
“Oh my God, you’re marrying her,” I muttered, more to myself than to him.
I knew one day Blake would find someone to settle down with, but I just hadn’t expected it to happen sosuddenly.
Blake’s smile grew, and I wanted to punch him for being so cavalier about this when my heart had just momentarily stopped, stunned.
“No,” he said simply, and the floor felt like it opened beneath me. “I’m not. But Noah will be soon, I’m sure. And that was Noah’s daughter, Delilah. My niece. She had her checkup this morning. The newborn phase has been a little tough for thewhole family.” He dropped his voice to a whisper again—an annoying, condescending whisper. “Gemma was talking to me about Noah because she’s dating him, and he’s my brother. If you had walked up a few minutes earlier, you would have seen him walk out to get the car.”
Embarrassment washed over me as my brain processed his response, and I closed my eyes to try to hide it, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“But I’m so glad to hear that you think I’musuallynice,” Blake added with another velvety laugh.
I swallowed past the weird mix of mortification and relief before opening my eyes and apologizing.
