AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You look…” Blake began, but the sentence died out a moment later as he continued to gape at me.
It lasted long enough that I began to grow self-conscious, wondering if maybe I went too dark with my makeup or had committed some kind of societal faux pas that I wasn’t aware of with my accessories.
“Wow,” he breathed after a second longer, and my apprehension deflated.
“You clean up nice as well,” I said, giving him the flash of a smile as I tugged my coat over my shoulders, and we began making our way down the stairs.
Blake gave me his arm as we descended, and I didn’t object to it as I navigated the stairway while teetering on the heels. I used his arm to help balance me, deliberately ignoring how touching him, even through all the layers of fabric, had bolts of electricity rocking through me.
“I’ve always known that Kat had an eye for these kinds of things,” Blake said as we walked. “But I think she’s really outdone herself with this one.”
“Is your tux one of hers too?” I asked, glancing sidelong at him as we made it to the bottom floor and walked out the door. The air was cold, and it had the distinct smell of snow, letting me know it wouldn’t be long before a white, fluffy blanket coated the entire city.
“It is,” Blake answered, beaming at me.
He dropped my arm, darting forward to pull open the rear door of the luxurious black SUV waiting for us at the curve. It was more spacious in the back than the car had been, and I found myself grateful for that as Blake took his seat as well.
There was plenty of distance between us, allowing me to focus on what the rest of the night would bring as the driver navigated us out onto the road.
I fidgeted with the ring on my finger, turning it around and around nervously as my mind started to conjure up every possibility when we confronted my family in less than an hour.
“Do you think they’ll be mad?” I asked, looking up at Blake and chewing the inside of my lip nervously.
“Who?” He furrowed his brow at me and cocked his head in confusion.
I gave him a pointed look. “Jourdan and my mother. Do you think they’ll be mad?”
Blake paused, seeming to consider his words before he began speaking. “I think they’ll be disappointed that we didn’t tell them right away. But we have a plan to explain that away. Once the news settles in, I actually think they might be excited about it.”
“Oh no,” I whispered, dread unfurling low in my belly. “That’s worse.”
“How is that worse?”
“Because then they’re going to be devastated when we have to stage a breakup.”
A look crossed his face that let me know that he hadn’t thought that far, but he shook his head a moment later.
“We can come up with a story for that as well.” Blake shrugged, and I wasn’t sure why, but his casual dismissal of all of it made me feel marginally better.
I nodded at him, blowing out a breath as I tried to get my heart to calm down from my sudden bout of nerves.
We pulled up to the massive, white building adorned with large white pillars and joined the line of cars waiting their turn to let their passengers out at the entrance.
It went by more quickly than I thought it would, and before I knew it, the car had rolled to a stop, and Blake was throwing open the door.
He extended his hand to me, and I took it graciously, knowing that I needed to make sure my face stayed fixed on the expression of a woman in love from that moment forward.
I draped my arm through his, craning my neck to see up the massive building before l also took a moment to look around at all the other patrons.
There was a small strip of indigo carpet near the door and a photographer that had people stop and take pictures as they entered, and something struck me that hadn’t before.
Blake was a public figure. He was photographed by people and written about all the time. The public was going to take an interest in whoever he was with tonight.
A lump formed in my throat as I thought about it, and as we walked into the building, I tried not to panic, but my palms were beginning to sweat.
“You alright?” Blake asked, looking at me sidelong as we approached the station with the photographer and the large oak doors that led into the building.
“I didn’t think about the public part of all this.”
