But she was also blushing right now, while smiling at something a man from her past said while he looked at her as if he’d like to take a big bite of her future.
Who was the guy, and what had their relationship been?
Based on what little Darby had said, on what her family had alluded to the night before, he’d guess they’d been romantically involved and Darby had been hurt.
“How long have you and Darby been together?” Mandy asked, glancing toward where Darby spoke with Trey. Her brown eyes narrowed at the talking couple.
No doubt about it. There had been a love triangle between the three of them.
Also glancing toward where the tall man flirted with Darby, Blake didn’t like the direction his brain was taking him, nor the fact that looking at her blushing for another man made him feel caught up in a triangle of his own.
Which was crazy.
He and Darby didn’t feel that way about each other. Even if going to sleep holding her hand and waking next to her had been unexpected pleasures.
“We met in medical school. The moment I saw her I wanted her.”
He said the words as part of his madly-in-love-with-her role, but hearing the confession out loud sent cold chills over his body.
He had wanted Darby the moment he saw her.
He had been denying that want for years, because she wanted different things from life than he did, but the want was there all the same. It had definitely been front and center this morning, when he’d awakened holding her, wanting to do much more than that.
“She’s a lucky girl.”
Mandy’s words had Blake’s gaze returning to the woman, but only for a second. He didn’t like how Nix had backed Darby against the widest tree Blake had ever seen, how his hand rested above her shoulder and he leaned in while talking to her.
More than that, he hated how Darby looked at the man, with rosy color high on her cheeks. Had she forgotten she’d arrived with him? That they were supposed to be together?
Pretending to be in love or not, no woman he arrived with was going to flirt with another man during their date. Hell, no.
“Excuse me.”
Without waiting for Mandy’s response, he went to interrupt Darby’s tête-à-tête with the past.
Darby leaned back against the wide base of the oldest oak tree in Armadillo Lake. The rough bark digging through her clothing, she regarded the man who’d once devastated her teenaged heart.
“You grew up to be one fine-looking woman.” Trey grinned at her, his green eyes twinkling just as they always had.
He hadn’t gained fifty pounds, lost his sandy-blond hair, nor lost the good-looks that had won more hearts than just her naïve teenaged one. Other than the more pronounced crinkles at the corners of his eyes and mouth, he looked like the same old Trey, sounded like the same old Trey. The only thing that had changed was that he didn’t elicit the same old heart-fluttering meltdown in her chest that he once had.
She didn’t feel anything for him except anger that he’d treated her so shabbily all those years ago. Anger that burned her cheeks, made her curl her fingers into her palms to keep from slugging his grinning face.
His grin was all wrong, and it didn’t reach his eyes—eyes that were the wrong color. His grin didn’t lift his laugh lines just so, didn’t make her want to smile back.
Not like the man she’d awakened with this morning—the man who did put her fluttering heart into meltdown in ways Trey never had, not even during the heyday of her high school crush.
Not like the man who was now chatting up Mandy. How could he?
She smiled up at Trey with more enthusiasm than she felt. “Um, thanks.”
“Everyone was wondering if you’d be here.” He rubbed his knuckles across her cheek.
“They were?” Nothing. He was touching her and nothing was happening. No flutters. No silly schoolgirl giggles in response to his attention. No desire to have him take her into his arms and kiss the fire out of her. No desire to hold his hand and talk long into the night. What was Blake talking with Mandy about? Why was Mandy smiling?
“Yeah.” He grinned again. “They were taking bets down at the Piggly Wiggly.”
Heat flooding her cheeks, Darby’s gaze shot to Trey. She blinked. “Bets?”