Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake (A Brush with Love, #2)(34)
She turned, grabbing Rake’s arm and pulling him to stand next to her. “So, uh, I’m sorry I didn’t mention this sooner,” Lizzie said, starting to swing her and Rake’s clasped hands, “but this is … um … this is my … uh, Rake, and he’s here to join us for dinner.”
“Your what?” Thu said, her head snapping back.
“Rake,” Lizzie repeated, her leg starting to bounce as she mentally prepared for the onslaught of questions Rake’s presence would no doubt cause.
“I’m confused. Are you calling him a rake like a gardening tool?” Indira asked, looking between them.
“Oh, he’s a tool, all right,” Lizzie said, making herself snort at her own joke. Rake couldn’t stand any stiffer at her side.
“My name is Rake,” he clarified. “Like the tool,” he added, shooting Indira a weak attempt at a smile.
“Yes. Rake. This one is named Rake,” Lizzie continued to babble. Her friends sent her a questioning glance. Lizzie waved her hand toward him. “He’s my, um…” She let the words dangle, shooting a helpless look at Rake, who was similarly at a loss for what they were.
An awkward moment of silence settled around the group as Lizzie’s friends continued to stare with open confusion. A light dusting of color spread across Rake’s cheeks under the attention. Lizzie had never done anything close to introducing a guy to her friends without at least a prefacing text along the lines of “I’m bringing along the guy I’m screwing tonight,” so their confusion wasn’t much of a surprise.
Dan broke the tension first, reaching out a hand to Rake. “Rake,” he said, nodding at him.
“It’s, uh, nice to meet you,” Harper said, also reaching out to shake his hand. Thu and Indira followed suit.
“I’m so glad to meet you all,” Rake said, his hand hovering in the air after the shake like he didn’t know what to do with it. “Lizzie’s told me so many wonderful things about you.”
This wasn’t a line. Lizzie had spent the entire trip to the restaurant gushing about her friends.
Silence stretched after the greetings, and Lizzie had the uncontrollable need to fill it.
“Rake’s Australian,” she said. Harper and Dan nodded, looking at her with almost pained expressions. Indira and Thu pressed their lips together in an attempt not to laugh. “He’s, uh, tall too. What, like, six-two?” She looked to Rake for confirmation, her eyes going a little wonky and wild as she scrambled to force a flow of conversation. “Big muscles.”
He gave her an imploring look, an almost imperceptible shake of his head, begging her to stop. She wanted to. She wanted nothing more than to shut her mouth.
But the word-vomit was overwhelming, a projectile coming before she could stop it, completely out of her control.
Silence did this to her.
“Huge dick too.”
If Lizzie was uncomfortable in the silence before, it was nothing compared to the silence that struck the group after.
“Oh, Lizzie,” Harper whispered, ducking her face to her hand to shield her from the secondhand embarrassment. Indira let out a huge laugh before slamming her mouth shut.
Rake gaped at Lizzie, his face turning white, then pink, then red, then purple. He looked like he wanted to strangle her.
She wished he would.
Her absolute anguish must have been obvious because his anger softened a degree. He screwed up his face tight, eyes squeezing shut, forehead creasing with deep lines, then visibly relaxed like the snap of a released rubber band. His eyes opened, and he gave her a tense but understanding smile.
“And this is Lizzie,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers. “She’s American. Average height. Great tits. Lovely ass. Likes to embarrass me. We’re … friends.”
“Really great friends,” Lizzie added. The type of friends who were so close, they made a baby after knowing each other for forty-eight hours! Yay friendship!
A thick cloud of awkwardness hugged the group, no one knowing what else to say. The tension of it made Lizzie want to scream, but instead, she shuffled her feet, concentrating on keeping them in a single square tile on the floor in an odd little jig of uncomfortableness.
Dan’s eyes flicked from her feet to her face, and the kindness and understanding in his look allowed Lizzie to let out a breath. Dan gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
“Table for Dan?” the hostess called from her stand, gathering menus.
“Oh, thank God,” Lizzie burst out, her shoulders drooping from released tension. “This was getting a little awkward.”
“A little?” Thu said, fixing Lizzie with a look before turning and following the hostess, Harper, Indira, and Rake trailing behind her. Dan laughed, bringing Lizzie into a side hug and walking her toward the waiting hostess.
“I’ve missed you saying exactly what everyone’s thinking,” he said, giving her a squeeze. “Don’t worry, it can only get better from here,” he added, before releasing her as they walked to their table in a single-file line.
Once they were seated around the table with drinks ordered, conversations started to flow. Harper filled everyone in on the gruesome surgeries she’d performed recently, describing them with a grin like the bloodthirsty little angel she was. Thu talked about how much she hated Los Angeles but was glad she’d found a friend in her residency program. Dan said something boring about numbers that made Lizzie’s brain groan but had Harper smiling at him like he placed every star in the sky.