“He gets more like you every time I see him.” Blake ducked at the snap of Michelle’s dishtowel. “Hey. You know I’m right. You were the one who could get away with saying anything because you were a girl. If I said that…” He drifted off, knowing his sister would remember.
“Do you go to see him at all?”
In midsip, his hand shook, spilling coffee over the rim onto her pristine white table. “Sorry,” he said, mopping it up with his napkin. “Nope, I haven’t seen him since the summer.”
“Evan and I went with Henry last weekend, and he thought Henry was you. Kept telling him to stand up straight and that he needed a haircut.”
That sounded about right. Dementia hadn’t changed his father’s unyielding critical behavior, even if he did mistake his grandson for his son. All he’d ever received from his father was a list of wrongs. There wasn’t a single time Blake could remember receiving praise. Not even passing his CPA exam the first time could wring a smile from his dour attitude. He’d failed his father by not being a tough military man and therefore was deemed useless and irrelevant.
“I’m in an okay place now. I don’t need him, even sick as he is, to put me down. I had that my whole childhood.”
“I know.” Her warm hand slid over his and gave a squeeze. “And you’re in a great place. Not just okay. Tell me more about this guy, Jeremy. It sounds like you’ve had a good time.”
The mere mention of Jeremy’s name ignited Blake’s insides, but he struggled to remain casual. “He seems really nice.”Nice.Such an inadequate word to describe Jeremy. Blake couldn’t box that lively, vibrant, sexy man up into one tidy word. Not when he’d unraveled Blake, leaving him jumbled and chaotic. Wanting and needing. It took every ounce of his strength to leave Jeremy every time they were together, and Blake would spend the rest of his evening reliving their kisses. The heat and push of Jeremy’s tongue in his mouth left him reeling and weak. Blake gave himself credit for walking away, but now, sitting in his sister’s kitchen, he wondered if he’d made a mistake and should’ve given in to the moment. Jeremy had unleashed an intense passion inside Blake that almost frightened him. If he allowed Jeremy in, he might release something Blake had struggled to keep hidden for years.
“Nice? That tells me nothing. The cashier at the supermarket is nice. Is he hot? Did you kiss him? Are you seeing him again?”
Mostly because he didn’t know or want to answer all the questions, he took his time finishing off his coffee and gave her a faint smile.
“Yes, yes, and I don’t know.”
“Brat.” She swatted the back of his head. “You didn’t make another date the last time you saw him?”
“Uh, no.” He’d been too busy thinking about getting home to jerk off, honestly.
“Dumbass. Text him now. Or call him.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I may be out of the dating game for years now, but even I know you don’t wait for someone to call. If you like him, text him, and this time you plan the date.”
“I don’t know.”
“What? What don’t you know?”
Blake wasn’t sure. He felt like a high-school kid with his first crush. But Jeremy made him feel young and happy, not like a midthirties, boring accountant who’d spent most of his life sitting on the sidelines, waiting.
“I feel stupid and silly.” Only with Michelle could he be so open and honest.
“Oh, don’t be. I haven’t seen you interested in someone in years, so I’m probably a little too excited for you.”
Evan, Michelle’s husband, walked in, his reading glasses pushed up into his sandy hair. “Leave the guy alone, Mish. He’s not a kid.” His blue eyes twinkled with good humor. “Let him enjoy the single life.” He bent to kiss her curls.
“Hmph. You act like it’s a chore to be married.” She smiled up at him.
Blake watched them interact, happy in his heart that his sister had found her soulmate. She and Evan had been inseparable from their first date, and after graduating college, they’d gotten married, leaving Blake alone in the house, struggling with his identity, too caught up in teenaged stress and angst to pick up the signs that his mother was dealing with a serious illness.
“Any relationship takes work—dating included. Blake’s a big boy. He can decide what he wants to do on his own.”
“Thanks. Look, we’ve had a couple of dates and we’ll see how it goes. I don’t have to act like some lovesick, overly anxious guy who had to text right away.”
Evan poured himself a cup of coffee and Michelle a fresh cup. As she got up to get the milk from the refrigerator, Blake’s phone buzzed on the table. He glanced over and saw it was Jeremy’s number. Damn, he wanted to look at it, but not in front of his sister and brother-in-law.
“Is that him?” Michelle craned her neck to look at his phone screen, which had faded to dark.
“Okay, Mish, let’s go in the living room. Give a guy some privacy.” With his free hand around her shoulders, Evan steered Michelle out of the kitchen and gave Blake a wink over his shoulder. One of the reasons Blake loved Evan was that he knew Michelle better than anyone.
Blake snatched the phone up and hit the button to read the text.
