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“I’ll get one of the guys to pick me up,” he said. “But thanks for the offer. Night, Blair,” he said, shutting her car door. He could feel her eyes on him the whole time as he walked to his front door and unlocked it. Blaze didn’t bother to turn back to look at her. He knew what he’d find, and it made him happy to know that she couldn’t take her eyes off him, because he felt the same way about her.
He stepped into his townhome and shut the door behind himself, smiling like a complete loon the entire time. He was finally making headway with Blair and that made him more damn happy than he had been in a long fucking time.
* * *
The week passed slowly, mainly due to the fact that Blaze decided not to go into the Smokey Bandits. He had made Blair the promise that he’d stop stalking her at the bar if she’d agree to go out on a date with him. It was a fair trade but waiting for Friday was driving him insane. Tonight though—tonight was the night, and he couldn’t wait to pick her up for dinner. In fact, he had left his place about an hour before it was necessary and was sitting in the parking lot of her apartment, waiting for the proper time to walk into her building and knock on her door.
A big guy on crutches answered her door and looked him over as if sizing him up. “You must be Blair’s brother,” Blaze said, holding out his hand to the guy. He let go of one of his crutches and took Blaze’s offered hand.
“Dell,” he breathed, “and, you must be Blaze,” he said.
“I am,” Blaze said, “it's good to meet you, Dell.” He wasn’t going to lie and tell the guy that he had heard anything about him—he hadn’t. Well, except for the stories that Joker came up with about him being Blair’s new live-in boyfriend. He felt like a fool now for believing Joker because Dell looked an awful lot like Blair. He could see the sibling resemblance in the guy’s eyes.
“You want to come in? Blair isn’t quite ready yet,” Dell said. “You should know that my sister takes forever to get ready to go out. It used to drive me crazy when I was supposed to drive her to the mall when we were kids. My mother would insist that I’d let her tag along with me wherever I’d go and she constantly made me late.”
“Yeah, I remember from when we dated. Blair was usually late, but always worth the wait,” Blaze said.
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Blair said, walking down the hallway from her bedroom. He had only been in her apartment a few times. Most of the time, she would stay over at his place with him because it was bigger. He had almost forgotten how small her place was.
“Well, it’s true,” he admitted. “You look beautiful tonight,” he said, “and, you are well worth the wait—not that you made me wait long.” God, he sounded like a bumbling idiot around her tonight. After a whole week of not seeing her, he felt like a nervous high school boy, picking up the popular girl to go to the movies with him.
“Smooth,” Dell mumbled under his breath. Blair shot him a look and he shrugged. “Sorry, sis.”
“You said that you’d play nice, Dell,” she reminded. Was the guy going to give him a hard time? Her brother had been nothing but polite since he had gotten there.
“I’ve been nice,” Dell countered.
“He has been,” Blaze agreed, “but, if you have something that you want to say, just say it, man.”
“Nope,” Dell said, “because, as my sister pointed out to me earlier this evening, she is a grown-ass woman and doesn’t need me poking my nose into her business. I have to also warn you that Blair can be scary when she’s bossy.” He remembered that pretty clearly too, but he liked her bossy side. In fact, he loved it.
“Got it,” Blaze said. “It was nice to meet you, Dell,” he said, anxious to get on the way to their date. “Ready to go to dinner?” he asked Blair.
“I am,” she said. “I just have to grab a jacket and my purse.” He followed her to the front closet by her door and helped her with her jacket. He practically knocked Dell down when he opened the front door. The guy seriously had an issue with boundaries, but he appreciated him being so protective of Blair.
“What time will you be home tonight?” he asked.
Blair turned on him and pointed her finger at his chest. She spelled out the word “Adult” and Blaze wanted to bark out his laugh. “And that means that you shouldn’t wait up. It also means that I don’t have a curfew,” she hissed, not pulling her finger from his chest.
“I get it,” he grumbled, rubbing his chest after she finally moved her finger. “Sorry I even asked.”
“You should be,” Blair insisted. “I’ll see you when I see you, Dell.”
“Fine,” Dell said.
“Good to meet you, Dell,” Blaze said, trying to defuse the tension between the brother and sister.
“You too, Blaze,” Dell said. He could tell that the poor guy had more to say, but the warning on Blair’s face had him holding his tongue. Blaze considered Dell to be a smart man for reading the room and taking his cues from Blair. She was a tough customer when it came to having her way.
They walked out into the cool evening air, and he helped her into his truck. “I’m happy that you didn’t bring your bike,” she said. “I’d really have trouble riding on the back of it in this tight skirt.” He looked down at her body, noting that her skirt had hiked up when he helped her into the seat. Blaze didn’t want to admit it to her, but he really liked her skirt. Hell, he liked everything about the way that she looked tonight.
“You look beautiful,” he said. “Um, did I already tell you that?”
She giggled and nodded, “Yeah, back in my apartment. You said that I was worth waiting for when my brother complained about me always being late. When I told you that it was sweet of you to say, you told me that I looked beautiful.”
“Thanks for the recap,” he teased. “I guess I’m a bit nervous about tonight. I mean, you’re actually going out on a date with me. I waited all week to take you out, and I have to admit, it felt like forever.”
“I noticed that you didn’t come into the Smokey Bandits. You even missed Church, and that pissed Ryker off,” she said.
