“Of course. I’ll talk to my father too.”
He wrapped a hand around my calf. “Thanks, for offering to help and for telling me your truth.”
“Since I’m talking, I want you to know I’ve never been so happy to be wrong about someone.”
He laughed. “I’m happy you were wrong too.” Pulling me to him, he kissed me. “Thanks, baby.”
Baby? It wasn’t the first time a man had used that endearment for me, but it was the first time I’d liked it. “The truth will come out, and you’ll be vindicated.ThatI believe.”
“I hate that there’s even a question. It’s not who I am.”
I stared into his eyes, struck by the sincerity shining back at me. “I know.” My eyes fell to his lips. Leaning forward, I kissed him. “You’re everything she’s not—sane, kind, honest. So much more.”
He smirked. “Be careful, Blake. I think you’re starting to fall hard for me. Pretty soon, you’re going to want me to be your boyfriend.”
Starting? The word hung in the air. Because I wasn’t starting anything. I’d already fallen. And it scared the shit out of me.
“What do you think?”Duke asked. “Think I could make it happen?”
Duke and I strolled through a local mall. He’d just taken me on a tour of the site where he wanted to do a couples cooking class a few times a month.
I sipped the spinach-and-kale smoothie he’d purchased for me. Nodding, I said, “What types of things will you do in the class?”
Duke explained he’d have a different theme for each class, giving couples an option to learn a variety of dishes. “I figured I’d start with Tuscan cuisine or Italian, something simple and light.”
Eyeing him skeptically, I said, “Italian is not light. I always fall asleep after I eat pasta.”
He grabbed my cup, took a sip from it, and gave it back to me. “If this goes well, I might set up something down in Atlanta too.”
“Or you could always move back to Michigan?”
Although Duke visited a lot, he hadn’t lived here in over a decade. And despite our penchant for arguing, I missed him. He’d never treated me like his helplesslittlesister the way Tristan had, and he’d always been brutally honest with me about everything, unlike Dexter, who often tried to sugarcoat shit. Duke had dragged me with him to parties and hipped me to the games men played when they wanted booty. When I’d lost my virginity, Duke was the first person I’d told. After he’d yelled at me for wasting it on Keon, he’d sat me down and taught me some things about life and men and making shitty decisions. He was one of my favorite people and we were extremely close.
He snorted. “Yeah, no. I’ll fly my ass here when I want to see y’all or when I need to work.”
Laughing, I bumped into him. “You know you miss us. That’s why you keep showing up unannounced.”
We passed the furniture store and I stopped to admire a butler ottoman that would look fabulous in my living room. I started to drag Duke into the store when I spotted Lennox over by a sectional. He wasn’t alone, either.
“Don’t buy that ottoman, B,” Duke said. “That’s something Mom would buy. Man, I swear. You’d better not turn old-fashioned on me.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled, watching Lennox and his mother talk to a salesperson. When I’d left him this morning, he’d mentioned meeting his father to discuss the Dory situation, but I’d never expected to see him with his mother.
“What are you looking at?”
“Lennox,” I admitted.
As if he’d heard me, Lennox turned, and I rushed out of view, dropping my damn smoothie in the process. With narrowed eyes on me, Duke picked up the cup and tossed it in a nearby trashcan.
For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. He just stared at me—in his annoying,see-allDuke way. My brother was the most talented of the group, a child prodigy of sorts. He’d excelled in art, music, food, math, science…everything. He was the most like my father when it came to matters of the mind, which was why he’d once considered a career in psychiatry. But his love of cooking had propelled him to abandon medical school after his first year. Instead of becoming Dr. Duke Young, he’d enrolled in the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland and had never looked back.
Unable to take his silent, unwavering assessment anymore, I asked, “What, man?”
“I’m trying to figure out why the hell you’re hiding from him,” he said, his eyes cold. “Did he do something to you?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. Lennox hasn’t done anything to me.” Except treat me with respect, make me tremble with need for him, and crack me up when I didn’t feel like laughing. “I just spent two whole nights with him, I don’t want him to think I’m stalking him or anything.”
Duke looked around. “We’re at a strip mall. You’re not hiding in the bushes outside of his house. Who the fuck cares if you ended up at the same place?”
