It was too much to ask for. He should have taken a payoff and run. Now he looked pathetic and desperate.
“Okay,” Rusty said, looking up. “Deal. I’ll be the perfect husband in front of your family.”
“Really?” Blake asked. He didn’t expect it to be that easy. It was objectively a terrible idea.
“Really. Could be fun, and I’m not in a rush to go home. You’re from Colorado, right?”
“Right, yeah.” Blake stared at Rusty again. “I can’t believe you remember.”
“Little town called Hope Springs,” Rusty said. “I thought you were joking when you said that.”
Blake’s heart fluttered. Rusty had remembered where he was from. He’d beenlisteningin the first place.
That was nice. He’d always wondered how much of Rusty was actually perfect, and how much he’d told himself he was out of nostalgia.
“I get that a lot.” Blake sat back, tension he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying easing from his stomach. “I had to prove it to you.”
“Yeah, well… I wanted an excuse to keep talking to you,” Rusty said. “When are we leaving for the wedding?”
“Tomorrow,” Blake said. “I’ll get another plane ticket.”
Rusty shook his head. “Leave tickets to me. What’s the point of having an expense account if you don’t use it, right?”
Blake snorted. His expense account covered things like pens and staples. Not cross-country flights. “If you say so. You’ll need a suit, by the way.”
“I never go anywhere without one.” Rusty grinned.
Blake wasn’t sure whether or not he was serious, but he supposed he’d find out.
Rusty leaned forward, grabbing one of his business cards. “This your personal number too?” he asked.
Blake nodded. The company hadn’t sprung for a work phone, but he really didn’t mind not having to keep track of two.
“Great. I’ll text you when I’m coming to pick you up,” he said, pushing his chair out and standing. “You look good, by the way.”
Blake raised an eyebrow. He knew how he looked, andgoodwasn’t it.
“You’re meant to sayyou look good too, Rusty. Or something like that.”
“You look good too, Rusty,” Blake said, deadpan. He didn’t want to show how much he was enjoying Rusty’s company. Or how affection-starved he felt right now.
That was a road that led to heartbreak and regrets.Moreheartbreak and regrets.
Watching Rusty go had been hard the first time, and now he had to do it all over again. With all ties severed.
Not that he’d known theyhadties, but still. The thought of it was already making Blake uneasy.
“Is your name reallyRussel?” he asked, remembering the name Ellie had given.
Rusty nodded. “It was my grandad’s.”
“Oh. I didn’t mean to imply I didn’t like it, or…”
“There’s a reason I go by Rusty,” he said, a tiny smile turning up the corner of his lips.
This one reached his eyes, though. It made him look exactly like the man Blake had first met.
He’d forgotten how beautiful Rusty was when he smiled. His memory didn’t begin to compare to the real thing.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Rusty promised. “Farewell, my love,” he added, bowing dramatically as he opened the door and twirled his way through it with a sweeping arm gesture.
Blake looked at the door for a few moments, still processing everything that had just happened.
Rusty was back.
They’d been married all this time.
He was about to tell a huge lie to his entire family for the sake of not feeling so much like a failure as he did right now.
So much for this being any other Saturday.
