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She knew they were going down before it happened, and then the floor seemed to take forever to come up to meet her. She hit her knee, then her elbow, and finally her face.
Beside her, Blaine cursed as he collided with the floor.
Worse, two more couples fell when they got tripped up by Blaine and Tam being somewhere they shouldn’t.
“Everyone stay where you are,” Hayes said, and the music cut off. The only thing Tam could hear was the slapping of cowboy boots as someone ran toward her.
Hayes appeared in her line of sight, and a groan pulled through Tam’s whole body.
“Are you guys okay?” he asked, and he still had that stupid microphone in his hand. The other people around Tam were getting up and saying they were okay. She was the last of them to get to her feet, aided by Blaine, who wore a dark cloud over his whole face.
Hayes met his gaze and then looked at Tam. “Okay?”
“Yes,” Blaine practically barked, bringing her to his side in a possessive gesture that Tam hated. This wasn’t how she wanted Hayes to see them—Blaine being all overbearing and overprotective while Tam cowered at his side, her nose about to drip blood.
The first drop fell, and she hurried to put her hands up to her face. “I have to go to the bathroom.” She practically ran from the dance floor, pure humiliation filling her. She took care of her nose in the bathroom, and thankfully, it stopped bleeding after only a few seconds.
When she was cleaned up, she left the bathroom to find Blaine leaning against the wall outside the women’s restroom. He looked up from his phone, those gorgeous eyes dark and glittering.
He straightened and looked at her. “Tell me the truth, Tamara. Did you want to come to this specifically because Hayes was here?”
Tam opened her mouth to deny him. Such a thing was preposterous. “No,” she said, and Blaine cocked his head, his disbelief obvious.
“Okay, yes,” she said. “But not for the reason you think.”
“I’m starving,” Blaine said. “I’m going to get a burger. You want me to come back and get you when you’re done here?”
“What?” Tam stared at him. “Of course not. I’ll go with you.”
He took one step toward her, and he was nowhere near enough to even touch her, but Tam felt his anger way down in her toes. “If you want to be with him again, just say so.”
Tam searched his face, shocked he would even think that. So shocked, she couldn’t speak. Blaine huffed, growled, and stalked away from her. Tam blinked, her mind racing as she tried to catch up to the situation.
“Wait,” she said as he reached the dance floor. He didn’t hear her, and he kept going. Tam reached down, grabbed onto her skirt and hitched it a little higher, and ran after him.
9
Blaine watched as Tam came tearing toward him, her skirt all fisted so she could move faster. She certainly was moving fast. He sat behind the wheel while she yanked open the door and leaned into the cab of the truck. “Wait,” she said, panting.
“I’m not going to leave you here, Tam,” he said. His mother would never forgive him if he did that. Blaine had all those Southern gentleman manners he abided by, and that meant he’d sit in the truck while she dazzled Hayes if that was what she wanted.
Lord knew he’d done it before.
She climbed into the truck and closed the door. Only the soft blowing of the air conditioner and her labored breathing filled the silence.
Blaine let his displeasure morph into misery, where he wallowed until she caught her breath. His stomach grumbled at him again, but he didn’t want to take Tam to dinner. He finally put the truck in drive and pulled out of the parking space.
“I did not come tonight to get Hayes back,” Tam said.
Blaine deliberately draped one hand over the steering wheel as if this were a casual drive through the country.
“I came, and I wanted you to come with me, so he would see how amazingly happy I am with you.”
Blaine cut a look at her and focused back on the road. His blasted pulse started to bounce in his neck, and he made a turn without thinking about it. “I feel used,” he said. “I feel like you brought me here as your fake boyfriend, just to prove a point.” He took a breath and kept on going, despite Tam starting to say something too. “I know that’s what you originally wanted our relationship to be—me helping you prove to Hayes that you were over him. That’s fine. It honestly is. If that’s what you want.” His stomach clenched, and he concentrated on where he needed to go to deliver Tam back to her house.
Then he could drive to Lexington and get his favorite fried chicken and waffles—alone. He’d drowned plenty of sorrows in fried food and maple syrup before. He could do it again.
“That isnotwhat I want at all,” Tam said.
