AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you mean?”
She looks at me carefully, as if she’s unsure whether she should say more. “Besides having to tend to your mom, that boy probably had a bigger hand in raising you than your parents ever did. And look how well you turned out.”
I glare at her in confusion. “He did?”
“You probably thought he was just bossing you around, but he really tried to take good care of you. I bet he spared you from more unpleasant experiences than you realize.”
“Oh.” I look down at my hands. “I guess I was too young to see it that way.”
“I’m sure you were. And although Landry’s always had a tendency to be …brute, he’s always meant well, especially when it comes to you.”
My expression must look odd as I consider everything she’s saying, because Blake looks concerned when he and the others walk into the kitchen, using their shirts as sweat towels.
“Hey, you all right?” he asks, coming over to me.
I force a smile. “Yeah, I’m great. I was just complaining about my brother,” I say, holding up my phone.
Blake smiles back and leans down to give me a short kiss. “He’s just worried about you, babe. It’s hard on him, you know, being a doctor and unable to help you.”
Tenley and her mom trade looks across the table before they both purse their lips at me in Mrs. T’s signature told-you-so glare, making me laugh.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” I tell Blake after a while.
“Speaking of brotherly love, JD and I have a special favor to ask you guys,” Tenley begins. JD clears his throat and prepares to speak as he stands behind Tenley’s chair, but she wrinkles her nose. “Wow, you smell terrible.”
JD rolls his eyes. “Mais, we were playing outside, andça fait chaud. Of course I smell like achien,” he says in his defense while she pulls her shirt over her nose as a filter. “As I was about to say before, Tenley and I are thinking about having a co-ed baby shower, and we were wondering if you guys would want to partner up for it.”
Blake and I look at one another questioningly. “To be honest, I figured we wouldn’t have a shower because of our situation,” I say on our behalf.
“Lilley, Mom, and I are planning on throwing you one either way,” Tenley declares. “So we can either kill two birds—well, three birds, I guess, or we’d be just as glad to give you your own party.”
Blake smiles and shrugs. “Whatever you want, Lo. It’s your shower. Although, you do seem to like intruding on others’ showers lately …”
I slap his chest playfully while Mrs. T and Tenley snicker quietly. “Well, if you really insist on doing it either way, it does make more sense to combine everything. And I know how much you’d prefer not to be the center of attention, Ten.”
She grins and nods gratefully. “You know me too well.”
“We could host it at our house,” Blake offers. “Since we have a bigger outdoor kitchen, and when Loren gets too tired, she can go inside to rest.”
“I figured you’d say that,” JD returns with a smirk.
I swallow hard, my chest feeling heavy. Between figuring out more of my feelings for Blake, finding out about my brother’s dedication to me, and now listening to my found family offer to throw me a baby shower while my boyfriend calls his house “our” home, I’m not sure how much more my hormonal little heart can take.
“You know I’m right,” Blake fires back with a cocky smile. Then he uses his shirt to wipe the sweat from the back of his neck, and I cover my mouth with my hand to avoid letting out a squeak.
“Okay, then. We’ll pick a date for next month,” Tenley announces. Then she turns to JD. “Hey, can you do that thing that he just did so I can watch?”
Ethan groans and moves to dig inside the fridge when JD obliges and flexes his arms for his wife, making the rest of us laugh. Blake glances down at me and cocks an eyebrow, wordlessly asking me if I’d noticed him a second ago.
“I must have missed it,” I lie. “Maybe you should do it again.”
“I agree,” Mrs. T adds with a wink.
CHAPTER 37
Blake
“Doyou still want to do this?” I ask Loren.
