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Blake reached out, pulling her back into his arms, though she wasn’t sure if this hug was to comfort her or him. “I still want to hunt that guy down and teach him a fucking lesson.”
“No. It’s over.”
“I don’t understand what part of that was a fuck-up,” he said.
“I should have broken things off with Doug sooner. Shouldn’t have kept stringing him along.” She shook her head, a lame attempt to basically shake all the bad thoughts from her head. “Anyway, it’s over and done, and I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Blake opened his mouth, but she lifted her hand to halt whatever he might say.
“Ever,” she stressed. “I don’t want to talk about it ever.”
Blake scowled, but mercifully, he kept his mouth closed.
“Thank you,” she said, ready to put this morning’s nightmare behind her. For the first time, they both noticed the sound of barking coming from Blake’s apartment.
“Corky,” they said at the same time.
“We were on our way over to see where you’d gone. When I heard the shouting, I shut her in my apartment,” Blake explained.
It was past time for the puppy’s potty break. A nice long walk and some fresh air was just what she needed.
“Oh.” Erika glanced down at herself. “Give me a minute to change and I’ll take her for a walk.”
“I’ll go with you,” Blake said. “I’ll run over and get her.”
“You don’t have to,” Erika said. “I’m fine doing it alone.”
Blake placed a hand on her shoulder, halting her when she started to walk by him. He’d donned a hoodie, jeans, and tennis shoes before coming over to find her. “I just kicked an abusive asshole out of here with a bloody nose and a chip on his shoulder. I want to make sure he left the area and isn’t still hanging around. So, I’ll repeat—I. Am. Going. With. You.”
Erika hadn’t considered that. She didn’t think Doug would stick around on the off chance he ran into Blake again, but she also hadn’t suspected he was a violent person either.
“Okay. It won’t take me a second to change.”
Blake headed for the door. “Take your time.”
Erika threw on jeans and a heavy sweater, then pulled on thick socks and boots. Winter temperatures had arrived, and she recalled the weatherman warning that Baltimore would be lucky to get out of the teens today.
Blake and Corky were waiting for her in the hallway, the little dog prancing around impatiently.
“We better hurry,” Blake said, “unless we want an accident.”
Erika was surprised when Blake grabbed her hand with his free one, holding it like it was the most natural thing on earth. He was a tactile guy, always placing his hand on her back whenever they were walking on slippery surfaces, wrapping his arm around her shoulders when they were in a crowd, ruffling or playfully tugging her hair anytime she was being a smart-ass. He’d even played the gentleman when escorting her into that black-tie charity gala…but she couldn’t remember him ever holding her hand like this.
It was nice.
Maybe too nice, because it was making that line she’d been so careful to draw between them, even fainter. Hell, at this point, it might be safer to say they’d erased the whole damn thing.
Erika shivered when they stepped outside into the frigid air. “Oh my God, it’s cold.”
Blake used his grip on her hand to pull her closer to him. “What’s your plan for the day?”
“I have a couple of errands to run and I’m going to stop by the hospital for a little while. I have a patient I want to check on. Probably going to spend the rest of the day tackling a mountain of laundry and cleaning out my closet. It’s sort of gotten away from me. You?”
“I have practice in a couple of hours.”
“Hitting the pub with the guys after?” she asked.
Blake shook his head. “Nope. I’m coming home and you and I are going to have dinner together.”
