Attached At Heart (Wildflower #3)

1. Delaney

CHAPTER ONE

delaney

G ETTING A TEXT MESSAGE from your ex-fiancé in the middle of the workday might put some people over the edge, especially when it was about the date he had planned for later that night. But I responded with an encouraging thumbs-up before pocketing my phone and looking up to see the real wrench in my day.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed, cardiologist-sized wrench.

A handful of weeks had passed since the end of my engagement with Austin Long, but it had been one hundred twenty-seven days—not that I’d been counting—since the last time I’d seen my best friend. Since that night on the hospital bench when the first snow of the season fell in Minnesota, covering the city of Rochester in a blanket of white.

One hundred twenty-seven days since he’d abruptly moved out of the state.

I’d planned to stay at the Mayo Clinic after finishing our fellowships in cardiology. He had, too. Until he hadn’t, accepting a position in Boston instead. He never told me why, but the sight before me had to be a clue.

Because Blake London was here.

In the hospital lobby.

And he was sitting by a woman, bouncing a baby girl on his lap.

A baby .

I supposed it made sense; he’d always been that guy, the one who looked for a wife in every girl he took out to dinner. But this was extreme, even for him, to already have a baby cradled in his arms. Was it even possible ?

I mean, of course it was possible. I couldn’t manipulate the situation in my head to be probable , but of course it was possible .

Especially considering how he looked at the girl opposite him, smiling.

Smiling .

Blake didn’t smile all that often. Not really, not in a way where you could see his teeth. Usually, it was just a close-lipped tilt of his lips that I kept telling him looked condescending, but he didn’t believe me.

No, Blake didn’t smile like this often.

Usually, he only smiled like that at?—

“Do you think you’ll get Noah into the boxing ring some more?”

Boxing? Noah?

I straightened at the woman’s voice as she asked Blake about his brother, otherwise known as the New England Knights’ quarterback and the hottest football player in Boston. According to the internet, of course. If tattoos and muscles were your thing, he’d be considered objectively attractive. And considering the way this woman’s eyes lit up at the mention of Blake’s brother, tattoos and muscles were definitely her thing.

I gritted my teeth, crossing my arms over my chest. I’d had to watch more than one woman use Blake to try to get to his brother, and if this?—

“I’ll force him, even if he doesn’t want to.”

Blake’s voice soothed my raising hackles, making me forget all about the woman opposite him. I’d needed to hear that voice in the past few months. Needed to hear that calm cadence, needed him to give me some of his no-nonsense advice, but he’d left.

He said his family in Boston needed him. He didn’t tell me anything. After ten years of friendship, ten years where we’d navigated medical school together in Chicago, supported each other long distance through residency, and reunited at Mayo for our fellowship, he’d simply left me. Without even telling me the details of the hospital he planned to work at as an attending physician. The very thing we worked for so many years to do. Together. He didn’t tell me it was this one. And definitely didn’t tell me he had a baby .

How had we not run into each other until today? How had I not known about any of this?

Seeing the scene before me shouldn’t have made me feel sick to my stomach, but it did. When Blake told me his family needed him, I’d assumed he meant his brother and single-mom sister. They both lived out here in Boston, too. I never could have imagined that he’d meant a completely different kind of family.

“Good. You should because I’m just a little worried about him,” the woman replied to Blake before dropping her voice, clearly wanting whatever she had to say about Noah London to be private.

My frown deepened as I studied Blake’s expression. His brows furrowed as he listened. He reached out, squeezing the woman’s arm affectionately, and I wondered if he was worried for his brother or if he was worried about how worried she was about his brother.

I didn’t like it either way.

I continued to watch as Blake rocked the baby up close to his chest. Then he cocked his head to the side, brushing an absent-minded, tender kiss over the top of the baby’s head like it was the most natural thing in the world.

My stomach did a weird flip.

When the woman stood a moment later, Blake leaned in for a brief hug before passing the baby to her. She was tall, I realized. About as tall as me with blue eyes and fair skin that wasn’t so different from my own. But that was where our similarities ended; her pretty face hosted a smattering of freckles, and her copper hair draped around her shoulders in lovely, loose waves. My blonde hair, on the other hand, hung in a limp braid down my back.

The woman tucked her baby girl into a carrier, chatting softly to Blake as she gathered her things. And then she walked the other way with a little wave.

Odd.

The whole thing was odd, and I tried to make sense of it as I turned to watch Blake’s girlfriend, or whoever she was, walk away with such an offhand goodbye.

“Delaney?”

I froze at the sound of Blake’s voice.

On a scale of one to ten, how obvious was it that I’d been standing here the entire time? Probably at least a seven. Shit .

“What are you…Delaney?” He said my name again, his voice growing louder, closer, infused with confusion, and touched with disbelief. He was trying to figure out why I hadn’t responded. Or why I was here.

I should have told him, my best friend, that I’d moved to the East Coast, to the same city he’d moved to. But after the way he’d left, I hadn’t even been sure we were best friends anymore. And the last thing I wanted him to think was that I’d followed him here. Especially considering the emotional distance he’d placed between us that far rivaled the physical separation.

Attempting to gather myself, I waited a beat longer before turning to face him.

“Blake,” I said breathlessly, hoping that maybe I sounded more surprised and less like I’d been spying on him for the last five minutes.

I mean, I was surprised. Surprised to see him here, probably on a break between rounds. Surprised we hadn’t crossed paths before. Surprised to see him with a baby in his lap.

“What’s—what’s going on?” Blake was standing in front of me now, his intense gaze scrutinizing my presence. His eyes swept over me, taking in every inch of my being here, standing right in front of him. When his attention flicked back to my face, he reached out like he was going to touch me, maybe pull me in for a hug, but then he seemed to remember that he’d put distance between us and stopped. “Why are you here? How long have you been standing there?”

That last question grabbed my attention, sounding an awful lot like Blake was worried he’d just been caught.

I lifted a brow. “Long enough that I have some questions of my own, Dr. London.”

“Oh?” Blake crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a look I recognized from med school. A challenge . “Why am I not surprised, Dr. Delacroix?”

“That makes one of us.”

Blake frowned, his face twisting with confusion. “I’m sorry, but I’m the one who moved to Boston. You’re the one who’s supposed to still be working in Minnesota but is, for some reason, standing here. In Boston. The person who should be surprised is me.”

“True,” I allowed. “But you could have at least told me the real reason why you moved.” I waved a hand at where he’d just been sitting with the baby and the woman. “You could have told me about…that.”

A ghost of a smile passed across Blake’s lips. “You want to know about that, Lane?”

I looked at him like he was losing it. “You were holding a baby .”

Of course I wanted to know about it.

“Mm, so you were standing there for a while.”

Oh, goddamnit.

My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.

A twinkle lit up Blake’s eyes now. “Care to share exactly how long you were spying on me, or would you rather try to lie?” He leaned forward and added with a whisper, “You’re a terrible liar.”

I rolled my eyes and gave in. “I watched long enough to know that you once again found a woman who’d rather talk about your younger brother than about you .”

I expected Blake to react to that, but he just straightened and shrugged. “Maybe my brother’s more interesting to talk about.”

“Stop it.” I swatted his arm, annoyed and confused as to why he thought this was funny. He usually hated when girls asked him about Noah. “Seriously, Blake. You’re annoyingly smart, unfairly handsome, and usually nice. You can do so much better than someone who only cares?—”

Blake’s laughter cut off my rant. “ Usually nice? Really?”

“Sometimes you do come off as a condescending asshole.”

For some inexplicable reason, Blake’s grin grew. Not that full-out smile I’d missed or the tight-lipped, condescending tilt, but something different. A sly one. A crooked one. His eyes shimmered with mischief as he leaned back against a row of chairs, perching on the top of one. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him looking so goddamn amused, and it was irritating as hell. Because the more I thought about how that woman had just zoned in on Noah like that in front of him, the more bothered I became. And Blake, clearly, couldn’t give less of a shit.

“I’m serious, Blake,” I pressed, somehow withholding a childish stomp of my foot.

Why wouldn’t he want to be with someone who appreciated him for who he was?

Blake nodded, his smile holding strong. “I can see that, Lane. Very serious.”

I scowled at him.

“You really think I can do better?” he mused. “I don’t know. At thirty-three, sometimes I feel like I’m starting to push past my prime for the dating market. Not to mention, I have a crippling addiction to caffeine and absolutely no fashion sense, as you’ve pointed out before. But if you say so…” He chuckled softly as he trailed off and then didn’t say anything for a long moment, just sort of stared at me. I was about to tell him off again when he sighed.

“Her name is Gemma,” he said. “Gemma Briggs, soon-to-be London.”

“Oh my God, you’re marrying her,” I muttered, more to myself than to him.

I knew one day Blake would find someone to settle down with, but I just hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly .

Blake’s smile grew, and I wanted to punch him for being so cavalier about this when my heart had just momentarily stopped, stunned.

“No,” he said simply, and the floor felt like it opened beneath me. “I’m not. But Noah will be soon, I’m sure. And that was Noah’s daughter, Delilah. My niece. She had her checkup this morning. The newborn phase has been a little tough for the whole family.” He dropped his voice to a whisper again—an annoying, condescending whisper. “Gemma was talking to me about Noah because she’s dating him, and he’s my brother. If you had walked up a few minutes earlier, you would have seen him walk out to get the car.”

Embarrassment washed over me as my brain processed his response, and I closed my eyes to try to hide it, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“But I’m so glad to hear that you think I’m usually nice,” Blake added with another velvety laugh.

I swallowed past the weird mix of mortification and relief before opening my eyes and apologizing.

“I’m sorry.” Both of Blake’s brows lifted like he couldn’t believe those two words had fallen from my lips so easily. “I jumped to conclusions, and I’m sorry.”

I would have been more sorry if he didn’t look so damned pleased with himself. I was sure it had to do with the slight competitive streak we’d harbored for years. He clearly felt like he had just won a point in the imaginary years-long game we always seemed to be playing, but I couldn’t even care at the moment. Because I’d never been happier to be wrong.

Blake nodded, accepting my apology without wasting another breath on the subject. He was a man of few words on most occasions, so it didn’t surprise me. Instead of talking, he looked over me again, like he was still struggling to believe we’d bumped into one another. His eyes stopped as they lowered, zeroing in on my hand.

My ringless hand.

His smile fell, his mood shifting. His gaze was unreadable when it lifted back to my face, but I could feel it, sharp and acute. Intense.

“Why are you here, Delaney?”

I swallowed hard. “I work here.”

He took a moment to work through that fact in his head. I could almost see how he repeated it to himself, maybe once, maybe twice. And when he finally spoke, it was slow and measured. “You told me I was acting rash when I decided to leave Minnesota, and now here you are, too?”

“You know my plans were always to return to the East Coast.”

“But you were going to stay on at Mayo as an attending for a few years first. Did you already get your inheritance?” he questioned, because he did know—he knew exactly what my dreams had always been: to use my grandparents’ inheritance to found a cardiac clinic close to home. Close to my brother. “I thought you wouldn’t get the money until your next birthday.”

“I don’t have it yet,” I admitted. “But I wanted to be closer to home.”

“You wanted to be with your family.”

His words were stunted, confusion lingering in them. Fair, considering the poor relationship I had with my family outside of my brother. Something else he was well aware of.

“Yes,” I said. Better to keep it succinct.

“And Austin?” Blake’s gaze flicked down to my ringless hand again. “Did he want to be closer to your family?”

“He…” I shifted on my feet before clearing my throat. I never felt more guilty than when talking about Austin with Blake. Because I should have told him the truth about my fiancé a long time ago, but I’d always talked myself out of it. “Did not. We’re not engaged anymore.”

Blake’s eyes met mine, his stare hard, and I suddenly really wished they’d taught mind reading in med school. There was a noticeable tick in Blake’s sharp jaw as he slowly unfolded himself and stood again. His tall, built frame towered over me, but like usual, I drew myself up to match him.

“What the hell did he do?”

A low tremor ran through his words. I’d never been afraid of Blake London before. Not once in my whole life. But if I didn’t know him better, I might be right now. His usually light complexion had flushed red, and his eyes had hardened with a brand-new intensity.

“How do you know he did something? Maybe I did something.”

I felt immediately defensive over Austin because none of this was his fault, and I didn’t want him to seem like the bad guy. It wasn’t fair to him. I didn’t love Austin, but I liked him well enough.

Blake scoffed like the idea was preposterous. He muttered something under his breath that I didn’t catch before taking a step closer to demand answers from me. Answers I knew I owed him.

“Either way, it doesn’t matter,” I said quickly.

Blake didn’t like that response, either. “Of course it fucking matters, Lane?—”

“Because it was never… real , Blake,” I confessed with my heart in my throat.

God, that felt good to get out. Not telling Blake that had been eating me alive for months.

Blake’s brows furrowed as he tried to decide what to make of that statement. Some unnamed emotion flashed across his face, and I let him absorb my words while I breathed in the scent of woody vanilla and musk. It was familiar, it was warm, it was Blake.

The bustle of the hospital surrounded us, but no one noticed the two doctors standing in the middle of it all. We blended in. Just a few more people in scrubs, looking like any other exhausted physician in this building.

When he finally spoke, his words were careful. Like they were the weightiest ones he’d ever said.

“ What was never real, Lane?”

I swallowed. “All of it,” I admitted shamefully. “Me and Austin. Nothing about it was real.”

Blake shook his head like he refused to believe that and then looked me over, a scrutinizing effort to figure out the truth and assess me for damages, the way any person might if their friend showed up and announced a broken engagement. Which made me wonder if he’d completely misinterpreted my words.

“Who ended things?” he asked, confirming my suspicion.

“He did,” I said honestly. “But?—”

“Absolutely unbelievable,” Blake muttered, flicking his eyes up in…vexation? Anger on my behalf? I couldn’t be sure. Then he looked down at his watch, pulling his sleeve up to see the time properly. He stared at the ticking hands for a little too long before he finally met my gaze again.

“I’m sure you’re busy,” I said so he wouldn’t have to come up with an excuse to exit this conversation, which had turned down a road we maybe didn’t have time for at the moment. Was I trying to put off telling him the whole truth? Possibly. But it was hard to spit out after I’d held on to it for so long. “Maybe we can catch up some more soon,” I added, giving him a pained smile.

God, how I wished things weren’t so pained between us.

“I’d like that,” Blake said in that solemn tone of his. He gave a perfunctory nod before cocking his head to the side. “What are you doing tonight?”

“I—oh, tonight?” My brows rose with surprise. “I’m not doing anything tonight.”

“Dinner, then.” Blake took another look at his watch, pursing his lips as he slowly started to back away. Maybe he really did have somewhere to be. “Seven o’clock. Giovanni’s.”

“Giovanni’s? That sounds like a place I should wear a dress. Should I wear a dress?”

“Wear a dress, Lane.” Blake’s expression shifted, his lips in a slight tilt, the start of a secretive smile. Something I wasn’t actually supposed to see. “The black one with the buttons you wore at graduation would be perfect.”

I tried hard to school my reaction at Blake remembering a dress I wore years ago, but I doubted I managed. And then Blake threw me a wink before striding away, and I knew I didn’t manage. Fuck, he got way too much satisfaction from being a know-it-all who remembered every little thing, and I should definitely not prove him right and wear the dress I wore to our graduation.

Definitely not.

But it was one of the only dresses I’d made sure to hang up when I’d moved into my new place, and the rest were still crumpled up in boxes scattered around my slightly damp apartment. I’d planned to wear it to the hospital benefit coming up in a few weeks.

So fine, I’d wear the dress for our dinner date.

Well, not date.

Dinner, full stop.

Just dinner.

With Blake London, my kinda, sorta best friend who hadn’t talked to me in months.

I should have been apprehensive, but instead, a sense of familiarity washed over me. A sense of ease. Because even though I grew up on the Cape and traveled to Boston regularly over the years, I’d never felt more at odds than I had in the last weeks as I’d settled into my new routine here at Suffolk County Medical Center.

And I had a feeling that Blake being back in my life would help even me right out.