Page 83 of Because of Blake

“Maggie, do you want another drink?” Blake turns, putting himself between me and Mark. “Maybe some more food?”

“Um, sure. I guess.”

“You’re a lucky lady, Maggie. A single mom with a part-time job and two kids. You’ve got it made with Blake here.”

“Come on, Maggie. Let’s go to the kitchen,” Blake interrupts Mark and ushers me toward the hall, his hand on the small of my back.

“Oh, I get it.” Mark’s eyes widen. “You haven’t told her yet.”

Blake continues to put distance between us and Mark.

“It’s gotta come out sometime, Blake! Better do it sooner than later!” Mark calls out as we disappear into the hall.

Blake walks toward the kitchen, but stops and pulls me into the laundry room. He shuts the door and paces in the small space, huffing as he does.

“Blake, why are we in the laundry room?”

Stopping, he looks me in the eye. “So we can get away from Mark to talk.” He resumes pacing, this time with his hands on his head, fingers gripping his hair.

“Okay, so talk to me. What was all that about?”

Blake huffs some more, but continues to pace.

“Blake, talk to me.” I reach for him, but he steps past me, brushing through my fingers. I press my lips into a flat line and tension settles in my jaw.

“Goddamnit, Mark,” he grumbles under his breath.

“Blake. Blake, look at me,” I order, the clout in my voice surprising even me. “Rule number two.”

He stops, finally looking at me, his features softening. “Maggie, you know I’ve been open and honest with you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s something I haven’t told you. I was going to eventually, but I didn’t know when would be the right time.” His eyes float around the room, not looking at me anymore.

I bite my lip.“Okay, what is it?”

“It has to do with money.”

“Oh.” I lay my hand on my stomach. “I can see why you wouldn’t want to talk about that. It’s none of my business, anyway.”

“It’s quickly becoming your business.”

My head jerks back. “What does that mean?”

“It means you and I are getting serious, at least I think so, and I need to tell you some stuff before it goes any further.”

I swallow deeply. Whatever information Blake has is obviously big, but I can’t get past the fact he used the word “serious” to describe our relationship. It makes me feel like I’m sixteen and a guy just asked me to go steady. I try to keep my expression encouraging as I fight the ear-to-ear grin threatening to appear, and nod for Blake to continue.

“Maggie, when I went to college, my dad wanted me to go into finance. Like he did, like my grandfather did.”

“Yeah, I remember. You didn’t want to, though.” I fold my arms across my middle and lean against the washing machine.

“No. I wanted to do graphic design. I thought a job in marketing or advertising would be good enough for my dad, but it wasn’t. He enlisted my grandfather to convince me.”

“How?”

“My grandfather was a big investor and into finance like my dad. So, he gave me a bunch of money and taught me how to invest it. He taught me all about the stock market, when to buy and sell, all that shit.” Blake licks his lips, taking the bottom on between his teeth. “I ended up making a lot of money while I was in college.”

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