Benny handed a bottle to him and warned him with the flash of her blue eyes not to say another word.
“You haven’t met my sister, Daisy, yet,” she said and nodded toward the stunning brunette with dark eyes and long hair who was chopping at another counter.
“Hi, Henry,” the woman said in a singsong voice and waved. “Nice to finally meet you. Benny, you didn’t tell me you wanted to take up golf,” Daisy added, not ready to let her sister off the hook.
“I didn’t? It’s not a big deal, I just thought it might be a good idea, you know, if, um…”
“Some of the doctors at her practice invited her to play next weekend, and rather than decline, she thought she’d take some lessons. Try to learn a few things.”
“Learn a few things? We’re just talking golf now, right?” Dominic challenged.
Henry didn’t look away, steadily meeting the guy’s gaze before breaking into a smile. “Yes. Just golf.”
It was all rather cute the way they rallied to protect Benny like this. Didn’t they know the woman could probably take them all on? One-handed?
“Oh, knock it off, Dom,” his wife said and laughed. “Lay off Mr. Ellison at least until after dinner.”
Benny took Henry’s hand and dragged him through the dining area to the open French doors. “Let’s introduce you to the rest of the bunch.”
A tall man with light blond hair who Henry knew was Benny’s father manned the grill, a small boy of six or seven standing next to him. Another couple was seated and had stopped speaking at their arrival. Henry recognized the other brother, the oldest of the siblings, with his arm around a pretty reddish-blond woman. The honeymooners, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Everyone, this is my neighbor and friend, Henry Ellison,” Benny said this time with emphasis on the “friend” part. “Henry, this is my dad, Petter Sorensen”—Henry took the older man’s hand, blue eyes steady on him but not necessarily unfriendly, despite the lack of movement of his facial muscles—“and this is my nephew, Paul, my brother Cruz, and his wife, Payton.”
Dutifully, Henry walked around and greeted them all, noticing that Cruz’s handshake was no less forceful than his brother’s. “Nice to meet you. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your dinner.”
Cruz, like his father, didn’t say much, but Payton and Paul were more effusive in their greetings. Paul in particular, when he ran over and grabbed both of their hands, tugging them into the house. “Twister time!” he shouted.
“Buddy, why don’t you and your sisters just play—” Benny started.
“Not a chance, Benny,” Daisy said, hearing her trying to beg off. “You bought the game for them. I think the least you can do is play with them as well.” She smiled like the Cheshire cat.
Now all three kids were jumping up and down, shouting to get started, and Benny gave him a helpless smile. “You up for it?”
“Twister? I’d love to. Just don’t let your aunt get too close to me,” he said to the kids. “I wouldn’t want to risk the loss of a limb or another smack to the head.”
“No promises,” she said, but she was smiling.
At least until five minutes in, when Jenna, who’d decided to sit out the first round on the couch in between her aunts Payton and Kate, called out the next move.
Right hand to blue.
Which placed Benny Sorensen practically underneath him while he tried to balance precariously with his body contorted in ways he’d never known possible. Not just beneath him, but her backside pressed dangerously close to his left hip and her hand nearly on his own. Something he probably would have enjoyed any other time, with the woman’s intoxicating warm vanilla smell surrounding him.
But not when her entire family was looking on. Her brothers still seemed like they were waiting for a reason to tackle him.
Benny raised her luminous eyes to his then, and for just a moment, he was able to block out the dozens of eyes trained on them. Enjoy the flush on her face that had it pink and bright, her lips parted as she took in their close proximity.
And he realized.
Benny Sorensen was the most beautiful woman who’d ever been under him. And it took every ounce of strength he had not to lean toward her and kiss those delectable lips.
Something flickered in her eyes, and whatever had been holding her up slipped and she was suddenly falling, upending his left hand, and bringing him tumbling down on top of her.
…
“…and Cruz stood there, not even flinching while two busboys trapped the man-size cockroach and swept it out the terrace doors,” Payton was telling everyone over dinner, her voice filled with laughter that matched her exuberant expression. Glowing, naturally.
Benny and everyone glanced to her ever-stoic older brother, who sat stone-faced, but there was a gleam in his brown eyes as he watched his wife tell the tale, his adoration clear. “Someone had to retain some level of calmness. Payton was standing on her chair and shrieking like the place was on fire.”