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“No, what?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t steer clear of the bar this weekend because of you. My life doesn’t revolve around you anymore, Blair. You dumped me and I’ve moved on.”
“Don’t say it that way,” she insisted.
“How else should I say it then?” he asked. “That’s the way things happened, right?”
“Yes, but you don’t have to say it like that. We broke up, Blaze. Things didn’t work out between us—that’s all.”
“You say it as though it wasn’t a big deal for you, Blair. Maybe it wasn’t, but for me, it was. It was a big fucking deal, Blair. But that’s not why I didn’t come in here this weekend. I was working at my shop. I’ve gotten a bit backed up and needed to catch up. But thanks for letting me know about your nights off. I’ll keep them in mind.” He was being an ass, but he couldn’t help himself. When it came to Blair breaking things off with him, he was still pissed, and that usually meant him lashing out at the people he cared most about. Right now, that person was Blair.
All in all, the new job was panning out well for her. She loved that the guys were all so nice, but she also knew that might have something to do with word getting out that she and Blaze had broken up. The guys honestly gossiped more than most women she knew—not that she had many girlfriends.
Blair had always been a lone wolf. It had always been her and her older brother, Dell against the world. At least, that’s how it usually felt growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who was just trying to get by. Their mom worked two to three jobs at a time trying to keep up with bills and put food on the table. It didn’t help that when their dad was around, he usually stole what little bit of money their mom put away for a rainy day. Their mom would find out that he had once again stolen money from her and would kick him out, but the damage was done. Blair and Dell learned to take care of themselves at a very young age and trust wasn’t something that they gave out easily. It was one of her major sticking points with Blaze. If she was going to spend her life with the guy, she’d have to give him her complete trust and that wasn’t something she could do, even if he hadn’t given her any reason not to trust him.
Blair had spent the morning catching up on laundry and cleaning her little apartment. It wasn’t much, but it was hers. She liked to keep her place neat—everything in its place as Dell liked to tease. She was folding her last load of laundry when someone banged on her door. It sounded as though whoever was on the other side wanted in desperately.
“Coming,” she shouted. She looked out the peephole and sighed. “Dell,” she breathed. Her brother had left town a few months ago for a job. He worked on an offshore drilling rig, and she didn’t expect him home for months still.
Blair pulled her door open and looked her brother over, noting the cast on his leg. How had she missed the crutches? “You’re hurt,” she breathed. Blair practically tugged him into her place and helped him onto the sofa. “What the hell happened?” she asked.
“I was injured on the job, and they shipped me home to heal. You want to put me up for a few weeks and take care of me?” Her brother had no home base. When he was in town, he usually crashed with friends or stayed with her or her mother. They both tried to steer clear of having to sleep on their mother’s sofa since she was barely able to take care of herself since their father took off for good. She tried to help when she had some extra cash, but their mother was too proud to take handouts.
“How did you break your leg?” she asked, avoiding giving him an answer about him staying with her.
“Fell off of a two-story scaffolding,” he said. “Occupational hazard. So, can I crash on your sofa for a few weeks until I’m cleared to go back to work?” Dell asked.
“I guess you can crash on my couch,” she offered.
“Geeze, sis, thanks for that. It’s not like you’re here that often anyway. Last time I stayed with you; you were over at your boyfriend’s place. What’s his name? I can’t remember it.”
“His name is Blaze, and we broke up,” she said.
“You broke up with him or he broke things off with you?” Dell asked.
“Not that it matters, but I broke things off with him. It wasn’t working out.” There was no way that she’d be going into specifics with her brother about her love life. Some things were just off-limits.
“You two were together for like half a year. What happened?” Dell asked.
“Nothing happened,” she insisted.
Dell sighed, “I know you better than that, sis,” he said. “Let me guess, he was getting serious, and that freaked you out, right?” Shit, Blair hated that Dell knew her as well as he did. She also hated when her older brother stuck his nose in her business.
“That’s not exactly what happened,” she lied.
“Did he ask you to move into his place or something?” Dell asked.
“Yes,” she spat. Blair knew that stringing this out was only going to end one way—with her brother getting the whole story. She figured that she should just tell him and get it over with if she wanted any chance of getting to bed early tonight. “He asked me to move in with him and I guess I just wasn’t ready. So, I broke things off with him.”
“Like I said, you freaked out and dumped him,” he said. Dell’s smirk pissed her off more than him being right.
“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled, “you’re very smart. Does that make you feel better?” she sassed.
“It does,” Dell teased. “For the record, I’m sorry that things didn’t work out between the two of you. I was hoping to finally be able to meet the guy.”
“You can still meet him. I’m working as a bartender over at his club,” she admitted.
“A bartender?” Dell asked, “I thought that you were working for that travel agency in town. You seemed to really love your job. What happened?”
