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“Really?”
“Yep, and she’s been snapping at him.”
Her mother didn’t snap. She gave orders, expected them to be obeyed, and tolerated no disobeying.
“I’ll corner her before Blake and I leave and find out what’s going on as best as I can.”
“What’s going on with you and this guy, sis? I like him, but there’s something about him that doesn’t sit well.”
“It’s probably just because he’s dating your baby sister.”
“Possibly.” Jim glanced toward where Blake sat, surrounded by the Phillips womenfolk. “Are you serious about him?”
How did she answer? She couldn’t lie to Jim. Not directly. “He’s my business partner. Would I risk messing up our partnership if I wasn’t serious about him?”
Her brother’s mouth twisted and his gaze went back to Blake. “Possibly,” he repeated. “With what happened with Trey, I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Darby swallowed. Her whole life wasn’t measured by what had happened with Trey. Sure, she hadn’t trusted a man until Blake, and that had taken years, but that was because she’d learned a valuable lesson, not because she’d been traumatized by Trey’s betrayal. “That was over ten years ago.”
“Ten years in which I’ve not seen you with another guy.”
She’d dated. Rarely, and never for long enough to get close to any of them, but she had dated.
“We live in different states. You don’t know how many guys I’ve been with.” At Jim’s scowl, she added, “Besides, Blake’s a good guy. The best.”
Her oldest brother shot another uneasy glance toward where Blake sat with the Phillips women. “He seems crazy about you.”
Crazy being the key word.
Darby snapped her seatbelt and kept her smile pasted onto her face. No doubt lots of eyeballs stared out the front windows. She’d wait until they were out of sight before she tore into Blake, possibly dismembering him and tossing him into one of the chicken barns for what he’d done.
“That went well.”
Darby inwardly scowled at the pleased-with-himself man pulling out of her parents’ driveway. Was he insane?
Her entire family now expected her to announce that Blake was “the one”, they were getting hitched, planned to buy the old Donahue place down near the lake, set up practice, and raise a family of their own.
She glanced into the side mirror to make sure her brothers hadn’t jumped into a pick-up and followed them. Not only were there no headlights, but she could barely see the house or the four long barns off in the distance.
“I’m going to strangle you,” she warned, curling her fingers into tight fists.
“I thought I did better than that.”
“Better? There was no reason to put on a show in front of my parents, my family. You acted like a lovesick puppy. Now they think something’s going on between us.”
His brows knit together and he cast an odd look toward her. “Wasn’t that the idea? For me to make them think I was crazy about you? To pretend that you were my whole world?”
“No. Yes. Oh, I don’t know.” Clearly she hadn’t thought through the consequences of bringing Blake to Armadillo Lake for the weekend. She should have made peace with Rodney rather than hope to open Blake’s eyes. Rodney was easy enough to explain away, and would have been bored to tears with her family. And would have bored her family to tears with his polished exterior.
Blake was not so easily explained away.
As her business partner, he was a part of her everyday life. After tonight’s performance, her parents probably thought something had been going on between them for years.
No wonder. He’d been the perfect date—had he really been her date, that was. He’d been attentive, considerate, affectionate, had blatantly stared her brothers in the eyes, daring them to deny his right to date their sister, earned their grudging approval before the evening had ended, wooed her sisters-in-law, charmed her parents. He’d played his role too well. Way too well.
When he’d pulled her fingers to his lips and kissed them, in front of God and the entire Phillips clan, she’d had a momentary mental and physical lapse and wanted him to kiss more than just her fingers.
She’d wanted him to kiss her all over.
