A small part of me felt sorry for her. But only a very small part.
Grant
I walked into Rush’s after only knocking once. I wasn’t in the mood to wait. Blaire came walking down the stairs with Nate on her hip and a handful of her hair in his mouth.
“Grant?” she said, looking concerned. I hadn’t barged in as if I owned the place since Blaire and Rush got married. It was no longer my brother’s bachelor pad but their house.
“She let me talk and then she said okay and forgave me and left. Nothing else. No questions. Nothing. Then . . . then fucking Adam said he was taking her out tonight. I stopped by the café to get a bottle of water and he was talking to someone else and I overheard him. Adam! He’s . . . he’s . . . just . . .”
“He’s a nice guy,” Blaire finished for me as she tugged her hair from Nate’s fists. Then she handed him to me. “Take him. But don’t curse. I need to fix myself something to eat and you can talk while I do that.”
Nate grinned up at me and I noticed one small tooth peeking through his bottom gums. “Look at you. You got a tooth, little man.”
Nate continued smiling as he reached for my hair. The kid had a good grip and I had too much damn hair. “Whoa, dude. That needs to stay on my head.” I reached into my pocket and grabbed my keys and handed them to him to distract him.
Blaire turned at the sound of him jingling them and reached to take them from him. “Those have germs. He puts everything in his mouth. He’s teething.” She walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer and took out some blue frozen-looking toy and handed it to him.
“It’s gonna freeze his hands,” I said, wondering what the heck she was doing.
“No, it’s meant for teething. It will numb his gums.”
This kid shit was more than I wanted to think about.
“Where’s Rush?”
“He went running on the beach. He’ll be back soon. He’s been gone for an hour. Now, back to Harlow,” she said, reaching into the fridge to retrieve food that didn’t look appealing at all. “She forgave you and let you off the hook and you’re pissed because she didn’t put up a fight and is now going out with Adam.”
Not exactly. She made it sound like I was being selfish.
“I just . . . wanted to talk about it more.”
Blaire looked up at me from where she was slicing a tomato. “Really? That’s what you wanted? Because most of the time when a guy is trying to give a girl the brush-off he wants no drama. Sounds like Harlow gave you the easy out.”
“I wasn’t brushing her off,” I said defensively as Nate threw his frozen blue thing onto the floor and began clapping as if he had just done something fantastic.
Blaire smirked. “He wants you to pick it up. Be warned, this is his favorite game. He’ll treat you like a dog. He will keep doing it as long as you fetch it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Well what the he— I mean, heck do I do then?”
She shrugged. “Be his favorite uncle and pick it up or be the party poopero and ignore his game.”
Dammit. I reached down and got it and handed it to him and he beamed at me as if I was the most wonderful person in the world. The kid was cute. And at the moment I felt pretty damn special . . . until he threw it on the floor again and began clapping.
“He’s a manipulator,” I told her as I bent down to get it.
“Or you’re a sucker,” Rush said as he opened the back door and stepped inside. He smirked at me, then went over to Blaire to kiss her openly right there in front of me and the kid.
“I need help. Let her face go, you’re gonna eat it off,” I grumbled.
Rush went a little longer on the kiss just to be an ass, then shot a look over at me. “This about Harlow again?”
“Yes,” Blaire said, pressing one last kiss to his lips before going back to the tomato.
“Dadadadada,” Nate said happily, and Blaire and Rush both froze. Blaire dropped her knife on the bar and covered her mouth.
Rush stared at his son with an emotion I didn’t understand.
“Dadadadada,” Nate said again.
“Ohmygod he did say it,” Blaire said as tears filled her eyes and she laughed out loud.
Rush walked around the bar and took Nate from me as if I wasn’t even standing there. “Hey, buddy,” he said with awe in his voice. Nate patted Rush’s chest. “Dadadadadada,” he said again.
Blaire made another happy cry sound and Rush grinned. “That’s right, buddy. You can say it now, can’t you?”
I looked over at Blaire and I realized this had to be Nate’s first word. I was witnessing a special family moment and I needed to leave. This was their time with their son. I would talk to Blaire later.