Yeah, except the conductor of your sex orchestra said you were nothing but a cum-dumpster, remember? That’s not very ‘sage and rainbows and special spirit connections,’ is it, Reynolds?
Autumn sighed. She really needed to stop staring into the depths of her own belly button and get with the program.
“Okay, no dates this week, but I’ll let you know if I change my mind and want to star in my own low-rent version of the Bachelorette,” she told Owen.
“Low rent? How dare you. I only know straight and bisexual men of the highest quality. Handsome, humble individuals who are beloved across the east coast and beyond.”
She laughed and was on the verge of telling him to prove it when she felt her phone buzz inside her white coat pocket. Her heart spring boarded into her mouth. Was it Blake? Was he sorry that he’d been such a rampant cock? She pulled out her phone and her mouth went dry.
“Beast?” Owen asked.
“Worse. Ian.”
He gasped and clapped a hand to his mouth. “Where have you been all my life? Before you came along, I had to resort to scrolling TMZ for lunchtime entertainment.”
Autumn tried to smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. Ian texting her had to be a bad deal, it just had to be. “Want to hear what it says?”
“Does the pope shit in the woods?”
She opened the message and began to read aloud. “‘Hey Auts, I don’t know if you’ve told your parents we broke up but I texted your mum for her birthday, I hope you don’t mind. I can call you tonight if you want to talk about it, Ian.’ Then he put a smiley face and two kisses.”
“Are you serious?”
“As the plague.” She shoved her phone back into her pocket. “God, what an anus.”
“Hmm.” Owen leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest like a wisecracking movie detective. “He’s back.”
“Huh?” Autumn said, her thoughts having boomeranged back to Blake and his failure to apologize for being such a doucheturkey. “What was that?”
“He’s back,” Owen repeated. “Your ex. He wants in again.”
“No fucking way!”
“Way.”
Autumn pulled out her phone again and looked at Ian’s message, confused as to how Owen could sound so sure. “Trust me, this is just Ian being a wishy-washy buttplug. He loves my parents. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are you sure? It sounds to me like he’s saying he misses you. Sounds to me like he’s finally fucked enough groupies to wake up and realize he ditched a natural blonde veterinarian. You’d better not text that little fuckboy back.”
“I won’t!” She unlocked her phone and deleted the message. “See? Screw that. I’ve got enough problems.”
“Good call, but be on your guard. If I know straight boys—and having been in love with a number of them, I surely do—he’ll be back. Try and make sure it’s not at a vulnerable moment. Maybe mention that you blew your landlord. Guys hate that. Anyway.” Owen clapped his hands. “Time to plan your revenge-revenge dick, are you sure I can’t persuade you—”
“Excuse me?” Glenn, the pretty Dutch receptionist poked her head into the lunchroom. “There’s someone here to see you, Autumn.”
“Who?” she and Owen said at once.
“A very tall man. Blaine, I think he said it was.”
Autumn’s stomach turned over. Obviously Owen was following the same line of thought because he asked, “Do you mean Blake, honey?”
“Oh yes, maybe,” Glenn admitted. “It is hard to tell, it is very loud in reception area.”
“No, no, no!” Autumn moaned.
He couldn’t be here, not here-here. Not now when she looked feral and had just pounded half her body weight in Chinese. Not with Owen sitting beside her, practically vibrating with excitement at the chance to confront the fabled beast. She needed to move quickly. So, so quickly. Before Owen could say anything, Autumn clapped a hand over his mouth. “Thanks for letting me know, Glenn, but could you please tell Blake I’m busy?”
“Oh I did, but he said he’s happy to wait until you’re free.”
Sweet lord.
Owen licked her fingers, freeing himself from mouth-jail. “Glenn, please tell Mr. Blake that Autumn can do better than emotionally withholding drama kings and to please never darken these premises with his overly hairy body again.”
Glenn shot Autumn a puzzled look, as though wondering if she’d misheard. “I, uh, do not think I can do that.”
Owen stood. “Fine, I’ll tell him. This is such an exciting Wednesday.”
Autumn tried and failed to grab his arm as he passed. “No! Don’t talk to him, Owen! Please, dear God, don’t!”
He turned and winked at her. “Sorry lovely, but he slandered you. Also, I have to see what he looks like up close, I just have to.”
Owen tore out of the room at top speed, ducking nimbly around Glenn who still looked very confused. “Is this man your boyfriend, Autumn? I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was your boyfriend.”
Autumn jumped to her feet. “He’s not my boyfriend, he’s just some cock I rent off of and don’t worry, I’ll stop this!”
Glenn didn’t look very reassured.
She raced after Owen, frantically wondering if crash-tackling a coworker could get her fired. She burst into the reception area and laughed out loud with relief. She needn’t have worried about Owen confronting Blake. He’d been utterly submerged in a group of Armani-clad women. He was the most popular vet at Happy Paws, basically a minor celebrity. He wouldn’t be looking at anything except smoothly attractive Manhattanites and their neurotic cats for a long-ass time.
Autumn cackled, then remembered the reason why she’d come out here in the first place. She scanned the room but couldn’t see Blake anywhere. Had he cut and run, after all? Had Glenn mistaken the name? Disappointment barely had time to register before she saw him crouched in the corner of the waiting room. He had his back to her and appeared to be talking to a little girl who was crying her eyes out.
Geez, don’t tell me he terrifies small children, too…
But that couldn’t be the case. The little girl was spraying tears all over the place, but she didn’t look scared. She was nodding slowly, her expression grave, as though Blake was giving her important medical advice. Autumn slipped out from behind the reception counter and walked toward them.
“You can pat him now,” Blake was saying. “Just gently. That’s it. He’s very happy you’re here with him.”
“Is he?” the little girl asked in a watery voice.
There was a slight pause and then, “Of course, he’d be stupid not to. And, uh, he’s not stupid, he’s very smart.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
Autumn swallowed. “Blake?”
His shoulders contracted beneath his olive-green t-shirt, as though she’d zapped him with a cattle prod. “You…You’re here?” he asked.
“I work here.”
“Yeah. You do. Uh, hang on a sec.”
He rose to his feet and turned, and Autumn felt like someone had swung a sledgehammer into her uterus. Her landlord had not only shaved and put on more of that underwear-incinerating cologne, he was holding a caramel-coloured spaniel puppy. It squirmed in his enormous hands looking both painfully excited and mournful, as only spaniels could. She had a feeling he could have put the dog down and had deliberately chosen not to; a low blow, as far as she was concerned. Determined not to let hormones get the best of her, she leaned around Blake to address the little girl. “Who’s this?”
The little girl sniffed. She couldn’t have been older than seven. “That’s my puppy, Popcorn. He was freaking out. Are you a vet?”
“Yes,” Autumn said, glancing around for the girl’s parents. “Did you come here with your mum or dad?”
“My mummy’s over there.” The little girl, who had a chirruping British accent, pointed at one of the women crowding Owen, a statuesque brunette wearing a poison-green scarf.
Way to leave your kid and her puppy alone in a nutty environment, lady, Autumn thought, then turned back to the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Clover. I’m six and three bits.”
“Wow! And can you tell me what was making Popcorn sad?”
Clover shrugged and pointed to Blake who, she was both gratified and amused to see, blushed.
“I think he was just scared by the noise,” Blake said, the burgundy on his cheeks and ears intensifying with every word. “He started whimpering and trying to get out of Clover’s hands. I was right there and I thought…I just…”
“He helped me,” Clover said loudly. “I want Popcorn back now. Can I have him back?”
Without another word, Blake turned around and handed her the puppy. The little girl cuddled him close to her chest. “Thank yooou.”
“Anytime,” Blake said gruffly. “I think your mom’s coming back now.”
Sure enough the green-scarf woman was walking toward them looking miffed, which could mean only one thing—Owen was shaking off his fan club and would soon come gunning for them.
Without thinking, Autumn grabbed Blake’s hand. “Talk? Outside? Now?”
He’d barely said ‘yes’ before she was dragging him toward the exit, hoping against hope Owen’s vision was still impaired by the dregs of his devotees. They stepped into the sunlight and Autumn became aware she was still holding her landlord’s hand. A tingle shot up through her skin and she let go of it at once.
“So,” she said, trying to peer up at Blake without being blinded by sunlight. “Come to express your remorse, eh?”
“Yes.”
She’d say one thing for Blake; he was abridged as fuck. “Roping a puppy into your apology was pretty cheap.”
“I got a lucky break.” Blake shifted his weight to the side and suddenly Autumn could see.
“Thanks,” she said automatically, then shook her head. “I’m very mad at you, Landlord. Very mad.”
One of those infuriating smile-but-not smiles. “Are you sure?”
Damn him. Autumn pointed a finger up at him. “That’s because of the puppy. It’s very hard to get angry at someone that helped a little girl and her puppy. A puppy called fucking ‘Popcorn’ of all things.”
Blake glanced away, staring off down the street. “It was crying. I didn’t know they could do that.”
His obvious discomfort at experiencing such a thing had more of her residual anger ebbing away. “It’s the most painful thing in the world, right?”
“No. The look on your face yesterday wins that one. Hands down.”
Autumn nudged a crack in the pavement with her rubber-capped toes. “Yeah, well that’s what happens when you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. Lesson learned, I guess.”
“Look at me.” He cleared his throat. “Please.”
If he’d ordered her to do it, if he’d even sounded like he was ordering her to do it, she would have kicked him in the shins and ran back inside the clinic, but this was no demand. Blake’s voice was thin, as though on the brink of tearing. He was in pain, she could feel it, and whatever he’d said to her, she didn’t have it in herself to prolong his suffering. She met Blake’s eyes, feeling the now-familiar ripple in her stomach that said she was already in too deep. “What?”
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t true, what I said. It’s more than sex.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple contracting in his powerful throat. “There are times…”
He stopped again, apparently unable to continue.
For all her idle revenge fantasies throughout the day, Autumn had no appetite for watching this big, silent man slice himself open in the sunlight. She knew words weren’t Blake’s strong suit but he was clearly going to persevere at all costs, talk until she forgave him, and he’d come here today with that intention. The certainty of it made her chest feel as hot as a baby sun.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I know you didn’t mean for things to go down the way they did.”
“It’s not okay. If I heard any other man say what I said to you, they’d be eating their meals through a straw.” He stepped closer, studying her face as if checking for some secret combination. “I had no right to treat you like that. You deserve better. I’m an asshole. I—”
“Blake.” Autumn grabbed his hand again. “It’s okay, I was being nosy and you reacted badly. I get it.”
“You don’t get it.” Blake’s light brown eyes locked on hers. “You’re the fucking sunshine and that’s how you should be treated. I wanted you to understand that more than anything.”
Autumn glanced away, confused by the purity of the happiness coursing through her. He thought she was special and goddammit, the way he said it made her want to believe it was true. This wasn’t just gratitude, right? This had to be—
Nope.
Not going there.
Thankfully, before she was required to react to that heart-stopping statement, the door to Happy Paws Vet Clinic burst open and Owen was zeroing on Autumn like the terminator. “There you are, my slippery blonde friend.”
His gaze swung from her to Blake and back again. “And just who are you talking to outside on a busy and important day like today?”
Her landlord scowled at him, clearly unhappy to have been interrupted. “I’m Blake, I’m speaking with Autumn about—”
“Rent,” she interjected. She really couldn’t handle Owen bearing witness to a full blown dialogue about her sex life and she was fairly certain Blake had been about to continue his apology. She moved between the two men and held out her arms. “Owen, this is my landlord, Blake. Blake, this is Owen. He’s the very popular vet that everyone around here is always excited to meet.”
“Right,” Blake said.
“Mmm,” replied Owen.
They gripped hands. Both looked like they were doing the old crushing-this-man’s-most-delicate-bones-will-prove-who’s-the-manliest-then-eh? thing. Autumn wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Owen holding his own, painted and jeweled as his fingers were. He never had a problem holding down even the largest, most aggressive dogs. She was surprised Blake wasn’t making some excuse and leaving. Instead, when they finally unleashed each other’s hands, he asked Owen how long he’d been working at Happy Paws and an actual adult conversation ensued. As they went through the whys and wherefores of working at a vet clinic, Autumn tried to get a read on how each man felt about the other. It was impossible. Blake was as expressionless as a professional poker player and Owen’s face was smooth as a bowl of cream. She, on the other hand, felt like she’d eaten one of those ghost chilies. She wanted to run, scream, drink a lot and go to the bathroom, yet she remained fixed on the spot, her insides writhing like live snakes. Finally, Owen pursed his beautiful lips. “So, what are your behemoth intentions toward my friend?”
Autumn’s ears began ringing. Intentions? Friend? “Owen, seriously—”
“We had a three-date deal,” Blake said matter-of-factly. “I want the other two.”
“In my line of work, if you’re scheduled to operate on three schnauzers and you kill the first one, people tend to think you can’t handle the rest.”
“Owen!”
He turned to look at her. “This man has given you a woeful courtship so far, yes or no?”
Autumn ran a hand through her hair. Now was the time. If she told Blake to fuck off again, she knew he would go, but the thing was she didn’t want him to go. “I don’t disagree, but I’ve had a lot of fun with Blake. I just think some conversational, uh, fine-tuning might be required if we go out again.”
She expected Blake to smile, but he merely nodded. “Understood. Are you free at eight tonight for date two?”
A whole horde of butterflies took off in Autumn’s stomach. To have gone from never seeing him again to a date tonight was just amazing.
Complicated, a small voice whispered in her ear. So fucking complicated.
But she ignored it in favour of the bubbling excitement and sheer relief of knowin
g she had at least two more nights with Blake. “Sure.”
“I’ll pick you up at eight. No suit this time.” He nodded at Owen and then turned away, striding down the street, forging a path for himself through even the most stubborn New York pedestrians.
“Okay,” Owen said. “I get it. A little laconic, desperately needs a haircut, but I get it. Very butch, very old world manly. You need to be careful. He’s got a six hundred-pound albatross round his neck. I just met him, and I know that.”
Autumn, who’d been watching the way Blake’s back muscles flexed as he walked, pooled her focus, “I know what I’m doing.”
Owen looked skeptical but he smiled at her all the same. “Sure you do. Let’s get back to work.”
“Oh shit. Yeah. All the people.”
Owen held the door open for her on the way back in and Autumn remembered how he’d called her his friend. She hesitated, then gave into her instinct to hug him. “Thanks so much.”
“For what? Gay men can be chivalrous. It’s a thing.”
“I know, but also, you stuck up for me and you and Blake did that uber manly handshake thing…it was nice and just…thanks.”
He patted her back lightly. “Anytime. Now let’s separate before my fans get jealous. I had to tell them my sister was going into labor just so I could come outside.”
“They really do love you.”
He heaved a dramatic sigh. “Everyone does. It’s a fucking burden.”
CHAPTER 10
Autumn opened her apartment door and promptly shut it in Blake’s face.
He sighed.
“Seriously, you need to give me better advance notice about the dress code for these dates,” Autumn called back through the wood.
Blake could hear her footsteps jogging across the floor, dresser drawers being wrenched open. Shoes being kicked off. He breathed out a sigh before reaching into his sweatpants and taking out his keys. When he found the right one, he inserted it into the lock and turned.
“Your exact words were no suit this time. But that makes me think jeans and a cute top. Not a T-shirt and runners, for fuck sake. Where the hell are you taking me, anyway?”
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