Page 37 of Baby for Brother's Best Friend

But now, I wasn’t sure if it was that she had changed or that I had just never paid attention to her before, but she seemed lighter now, a bit more like someone I could see myself spending time with.

It wouldn’t be easy to overcome the lifetime of anxiety surrounding this woman. Still, I was starting to wonder if it might be worth it to at least try.

Whatever Jourdan and Blake were talking about died out, and their attention turned back to us. I knew enough that joking about my mom’s extracurriculars would be off-limits, so when they asked what we had been talking about, I just waved them off.

“Girl things,” I said with a grin, and I caught my mom’s grateful look out of the corner of my eye.

We all began talking together, and it took me a while to realize that I had been holding Blake’s hand under the table almost the entire time. He was using his thumb to rub small, languid circles along the back of my palm, and I was shocked to realize that not only did I like it, but I found the gesture comforting.

It felt like no time at all, and the night was officially ending. Awards were announced, donations were given, more dancing and drinking was had.

And by the end, I couldn’t quite believe how good of a time I had had.

When it came time to say goodbye to my family, I was also shocked when my mom pulled me into a tight, desperate hug.

“Please don’t leave again,” she whispered in my ear before letting me go, and I had to swallow past a lump in my throat.

Jourdan hugged me, too, but he didn’t say anything other than goodbye as Blake and I left the venue and found our SUV where the driver had pulled up along the curb.

We slid into the back seat, and this time I didn’t plaster myself as far away from him as I could. And when he seated himself next to me, our shoulders brushed.

He reached down and took my hand again, resuming the small circles he’d been running along its back for all of dinner.

And I didn’t pull my hand back. I didn’t care that my mom and brother weren’t there and that there was no need to put on a show. I didn’t care that leaning into whatever was happening would only serve to complicate things.

No, the only thing I cared about at that moment was the feel of his hand in mine, the warmth coming off of his body, and the way he had been such a source of comfort throughout the night.

“Where to?” The driver asked as he glanced up in the mirror.

Blake rattled off my address and thanked the man, calling him Jeffers, and I committed the man’s name to memory.

He’d driven us a few times now, and I got the feeling that I would be seeing more of him as Blake and I continued the rouse.

We pulled into traffic, and everything was almost at a standstill as people poured out of the gala. But surprisingly, I wasn’t in much of a hurry at all.

I leaned back against the plush leather seat and turned to look at Blake. He was watching me, his blue-grey eyes shining.

“What?” I asked, furrowing my brow at him.

“Tonight didn’t seem as painful as it could have been,” he mused.

I nodded. “I have you to thank for quite a bit of that.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he put on an exaggerated look of shock.

“Me?!” Blake brought one hand to his chest, fluttering it over his heart. “I helped you out with something. Surely that can’t be right.”

I rolled my eyes. “You were surprisingly helpful, but don’t let it go to your head.”

He dropped the dramatics and gave me a soft smile, one that made him look so handsome it nearly stopped my heart, and he continued to trace small shapes on my hand. We stared at each other for a moment, and slowly I felt things shift.

With a slight shock, I realized I wasn’t ready for the night to end.

“What if,” I said hesitantly, suddenly feeling nervous. “I didn’t go home just yet?”

“Oh,” real shock played out on his face this time. “And where would you go instead?”

“What if...you took me to your place instead?”