Page 5 of Attached At Heart
I swallowed. “All of it,” I admitted shamefully. “Me and Austin. Nothing about it was real.”
Blake shook his head like he refused to believe that and then looked me over, a scrutinizing effort to figure out the truth and assess me for damages, the way any person might if their friend showed up and announced a broken engagement. Which made me wonder if he’d completely misinterpreted my words.
“Who ended things?” he asked, confirming my suspicion.
“He did,” I said honestly. “But?—”
“Absolutely unbelievable,” Blake muttered, flicking his eyes up in…vexation? Anger on my behalf? I couldn’t be sure. Then he looked down at his watch, pulling his sleeve up to see the time properly. He stared at the ticking hands for a little too long before he finally met my gaze again.
“I’m sure you’re busy,” I said so he wouldn’t have to come up with an excuse to exit this conversation, which had turned down a road we maybe didn’t have time for at the moment. Was I trying to put off telling him the whole truth? Possibly. But it was hard to spit out after I’d held on to it for so long. “Maybe we can catch up some more soon,” I added, giving him a pained smile.
God, how I wished things weren’t so pained between us.
“I’d like that,” Blake said in that solemn tone of his. He gave a perfunctory nod before cocking his head to the side. “What are you doing tonight?”
“I—oh, tonight?” My brows rose with surprise. “I’m not doing anything tonight.”
“Dinner, then.” Blake took another look at his watch, pursing his lips as he slowly started to back away. Maybe he really did have somewhere to be. “Seven o’clock. Giovanni’s.”
“Giovanni’s? That sounds like a place I should wear a dress. Should I wear a dress?”
“Wear a dress, Lane.” Blake’s expression shifted, his lips in a slight tilt, the start of a secretive smile. Something I wasn’t actually supposed to see. “The black one with the buttons you wore at graduation would be perfect.”
I tried hard to school my reaction at Blake remembering a dress I wore years ago, but I doubted I managed. And then Blake threw me a wink before striding away, and IknewI didn’t manage. Fuck, he gotwaytoo much satisfaction from being a know-it-all who remembered every little thing, and I should definitelynotprove him right and wear the dress I wore to our graduation.
Definitelynot.
But it was one of the only dresses I’d made sure to hang up when I’d moved into my new place, and the rest were still crumpled up in boxes scattered around my slightly damp apartment. I’d planned to wear it to the hospital benefit coming up in a few weeks.
So fine, I’d wear the dress for our dinner date.
Well, not date.
Dinner, full stop.
Just dinner.
With Blake London, my kinda, sorta best friend who hadn’t talked to me in months.
I should have been apprehensive, but instead, a sense of familiarity washed over me. A sense of ease. Because even though I grew up on the Cape and traveled to Boston regularly over the years, I’d never felt more at odds than I had in the last weeks as I’d settled into my new routine here at Suffolk County Medical Center.
And I had a feeling that Blake being back in my life would help even me right out.
CHAPTER TWO
blake
DELANEY WAS NOT ENGAGED.
She wasnotgetting married.
And she washere, in Boston, yelling at me because she’d thoughtIwas getting married.
Had I dropped into some other dimension?
Fuck me, I didn’t know what to make of any of it. I was still processing this earth-shattering revelation that Delaney was once again single. I had questions—somany questions. But I hadn’t wanted to overwhelm her while we stood in the SCMC lobby, especially considering Delaney’s evasion of the details. Normally, she would have offered them up for me without any hesitation, and I hoped that her shift in behavior didn’t have something to do with how I’d left Minnesota—left her when maybe she’d needed me.
But I hadn’t known. All I’d known at the time was that she was marrying Austin fucking Long, and I—well, I’d needed to get the hell away from that.
