“I’ll call Blaine tomorrow,” Tam said, not daring to meet Trey’s eye. “Don’t want to interrupt his date.” She turned and walked down the hall too, somewhat annoyed that she couldn’t just say she was Blaine’s date.
“Hey, Tam, wait a second,” Trey called after her.
She considered continuing as if she hadn’t heard him. That seemed like it would be impossible, so she paused with her hand on the doorknob and barely twisted back to the kitchen. “Yeah?”
The sound of his boots against the tile floor met her ears, and he switched on the light in the hall. His eyes slid down her body to her feet and back. “You do look nice tonight.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m—”
“Are you going out with Blaine?” Trey interrupted.
Tam opened her mouth to respond, but words seemed to fail her.
“Someone has to go check Mom’s dishwasher.” Blaine’s loud voice carried all the way to where Tam and Trey stood in the hallway. “She’s detailed all the issues with it, but it sounds like the trap just needs to be cleaned out.”
No one responded, and Tam twisted the knob to get out of the house.
“Trey?” Blaine asked, his footsteps coming closer too.
Trey turned back to his brother, and Tam wished she could disappear into one of the lockers in the mudroom.
“I’ll do it,” Trey said, his voice moving away as he took a few steps. “Your date is here.”
“She is?” Blaine asked, and he looked past Trey to Tam. Their eyes met, and Blaine pressed his teeth together so that his jaw jumped. “Tam…” He sighed and stalked toward her.
She turned and went out the door first, the storm that was Blaine not one she wanted to be confined with in a hallway.
“I said I’d come out,” he said as he followed her through the garage.
She didn’t want to lie and say she didn’t get that message, but she couldn’t explain why she’d come in either. She just got behind the wheel of her truck and watched as Blaine paused.
“I’m driving,” he said.
“I can drive,” she said.
He shook his head and walked toward his truck. Tam suddenly wanted to go home. Everything felt like it would be a fight tonight, and she really didn’t want to do that. Sighing, she got out of her truck and hurried after him.
“Blaine,” she said. “Let’s just cancel.”
“No,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m starving, and I already told my brothers I was going out tonight.” He went around to the passenger side of his truck, which was admittedly much nicer than hers, and opened her door.
He didn’t smile at her while he waited for her to follow him. Tam paused a few feet away. “I don’t want to argue tonight.”
“We won’t,” he said.
“It would’ve been nice if you’d have told me the rules before I showed up.” She gave him what she hoped was a piercing glare and got in the truck.
Blaine turned toward her and leaned into the opening. “I texted.”
“I just got it five seconds before I got here,” she said. “I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal if I came in. I’ve come in a thousand times.”
“Not when I’ve said I’m going out.”
Tam searched his face. “You called it a date.”
That strong jaw jumped, but he didn’t speak.
“Is it a date, Blaine, or just us meeting to go over the rules of our fake relationship?”