Carter glanced down to Brandon’s hand on my hip and sighed, “Well it’s obvious you are still together. And you’re right, I don’t know anything about your life now. But that doesn’t change anything, you’ll always be my best friend.” He said softly.
Liam started getting fussy, so I turned and took him from Brandon. When I turned back around, Carter’s eyes were wide and his jaw was dropped. He hadn’t even realized Liam was there until then.
“You have a baby?”
The corners of my mouth curved up slightly, “Yes, and Brandon and I are married.”
He looked at me quickly, then to Brandon and Liam and back to me. “Holy shit.”
I rolled my eyes at him and hitched Liam higher up on my hip, “It was nice to see you Carter, but I have to go feed him.” Bree handed me the diaper bag and I turned to go to Brandon’s office.
“Blaze wait, can we talk sometime? I – I’ve missed you. We need to catch up. I know you’re mad at me for what I did, but I hate not having you in my life somehow.”
“Is your number still the same?”
“Yes.” There was so much hope in that one word it was almost sad, but at the same time, I understood. If he had never crossed the line at that party, I would have craved our friendship too.
“I’ll think about it Carter, and I’ll let you know.” Without another glance in his direction, I grabbed Brandon’s hand and walked to his office.
“Are you okay Harper?” Brandon asked as soon as his door was shut.
“Yes, I just don’t understand why he’d do this, and after not talking for so long. He could have just tried to call.”
Brandon took Liam and sat down in his chair, sitting Liam on his lap so he was facing me while I got the food out of the bag. “But he knows you would have ignored the call. You’ve got to hand it to him, the guy has balls for coming to my gym to ask about you.”
I laughed and kissed his cheek before pulling up another chair in front of them. “So I’m guessing that’s why you looked pissed off when I came in?”
“Yeah, I knew he was still in there, but I didn’t know where and I didn’t want him to see you. I’m sorry, I know that’s immature, but he’s not my favorite person in the world.”
“Babe, I’m surprised you let him even become a member. I would have escorted him out as soon as I’d seen him.” I smiled at Liam as he took another bite of baby food.
“The thought crossed my mind.” He laughed softly, “Are you going to talk to him?”
I leaned back into the chair as I got another scoop of pureed carrots, “I don’t know. If that night at the party wouldn’t have happened, I would in a heartbeat. But he changed things, I don’t think we can go back to being friends you know?” I shook my head, “God I still feel so stupid for not seeing it sooner.”
He smirked at me, “You were the only person who didn’t get it. Even with Bree constantly saying something to you, you were so sure she was wrong.”
“He was my best friend! He treated me like every other guy in Sir’s unit.”
“Oh okay,” he scoffed, “‘my Blaze, my girl, I couldn’t just let you go to California without me’.”
“Brandon Taylor…were you jealous of Carter?”
“Me? Jealous? Of my girl running away from me to throw herself in some random guy’s arms? Not even close.”
“Hmm,” I fed Liam another scoop of nastiness, “I seem to remember yelling at him and telling him to leave before running into your arms and kissing you.”
He smiled wide, “I don’t remember that at all, you may need to remind me how that went.”
His eyes had a wicked gleam in them as I leaned over Liam and stopped less than an inch away from his lips, “Brandon.” I whispered low and sultry.
“Yeah?” He moved closer and I backed up a fraction of an inch.
I smiled when he growled and lightly brushed my mouth over his lips before sitting down, “Well if you don’t remember it, I guess it never happened.” I said cheerfully and went back to feeding our son.
“Tease.”
“Oh yes, that’s me…the tease.” I winked and sat up for a chaste kiss.
“And to answer your question,” he began after a few silent minutes, “I was never jealous of Carter. I knew if you were that clueless about his feelings that you didn’t share them.”
My stomach dropped knowing what he must be thinking about. I’d never shared Carter’s feelings, but he’d known all along that there was something between me and Chase. I remembered listening to him telling Liam the morning of our wedding that Brandon knew it was a matter of when, not if. I took a deep breath in, held it for three seconds and then exhaled slowly.