“Believe me, my mom loves to feed everyone, and she’ll be overjoyed to have you. Daisy and the kids, too.” Her brothers? Well, they’d just have to get over it.
He hesitated another moment, and her stomach sank. What had she been thinking? Of course she might be having feelings for him, but this was Henry Ellison. Playboy extraordinaire. Why would he want to hang out with her and her family?
“If you consider a rematch at Twister, then maybe I will.”
Immediately, her spirits buoyed, and she returned his grin. “Not a chance.”
Although she’d be lying if the thought of the two of them tangled up again didn’t have some appeal.
Chapter Seventeen
“You Sorensens are really a competitive bunch,” Henry said, following Benny after a backbreaking game of badminton—a game that he thought was supposed to be more…tame. Gentrified.
“We just like to keep things interesting. It was better than beating each other up.”
“I thought that was what we were doing.”
“Not even close.”
She took a seat on a bench tucked away at the back of the flower garden. It was hard not to stare at the pretty pink flushness of her face, now highlighted by the fading summer sun, the way several more pieces of hair had fallen around her face to frame it just so. The way he wanted to pull her in his arms and tilt her chin up and kiss that full mouth, feel the warmth of this woman who had made him laugh more than he’d laughed with anyone.
Maybe sitting in such a private location out of sight of the rest of the Sorensens wasn’t such a good idea.
He cleared his throat and took a seat next to her before handing her one of the two plates he’d been carrying. Chocoflan was what Daisy had called it. Benny took it, her eyes widening even more as she coveted the dessert that had a thick, gooey chocolate cake on the bottom and a rich caramel-covered flan on top. She took the first bite and closed her eyes over the richness.
Damn. Now he wanted to know what that mouth would taste like even more.
Best to keep his gaze from hers. Instead, he looked back toward the house. From their position, they could see inside the house, where the kids were playing a mean game of Apples to Apples with their mom and grandparents at the dining table, Dominic and Kate were at the kitchen window laughing and doing the dishes together, having lost the bet made in the heat of the game, and Cruz and Payton were whispering and laughing together out on the deck, their arms around each other as they rocked in a porch swing.
He supposed this was what it meant to have a family. This happy, warm contentment of just being in one another’s presence one minute, even if an hour before they’d been shouting threats of pain and torture as they egged one another on. Of knowing that they had somewhere they fit, where they belonged.
There was a strange tugging sensation around his heart. The scene was something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Something he’d never really believed existed outside the painter’s mind.
“I’m glad I came. This was fun.”
“Me, too.” She took another bite of the rich dessert and kept her gaze on the house. “You know, when I was growing up, I used to come out here at night and sit with my dessert, too. Watching everyone inside. Of course, back then Daisy wasn’t playing board games with her kids or our parents. She was usually where Cruz and Payton are now, whispering and laughing with some jock. She was never at a loss for a boyfriend.” Benny said this wistfully. Maybe even a little begrudgingly.
“How about you? You didn’t have any high school boyfriends over? No one you liked?”
“When I was fourteen, the only boy I liked was too in love with another girl to see me as anything but a kid.” She smiled a little sadly.
“Then he was an idiot.”
“No, quite the contrary. He was heading to college on a full scholarship,” she said, missing his point. How could anyone not appreciate this woman? But she was lost in her own memory now as she continued. “Scottie was the lifeguard at the community pool and I’d been kind of stalking him all summer. I knew his schedule and always made sure to be sitting in whatever vicinity he was, usually reading Tolkien while sneaking glances at his near-godlike physique from behind my sunglasses. One afternoon Daisy and a couple of her friends decided to come by. He took one look at her and was as instantly in love with her as I’d been with him. Daisy has that effect on people.”
“Did you ever tell her?”
“Tell her what?”
“Tell her that you were in love with Scottie the lifeguard. She’s your sister. She might not have dated him if she knew what it was costing you.”
“No, of course not. I mean, he was this gorgeous creature and I was—I was…me. Still a tomboy with twenty pounds of baby fat. No one was going to look at me.”
She said that with such certainty that it angered him as much as it made him want to hug her. “Ridiculous. I think you sold yourself—no, I think you still sell yourself short, Benny. I don’t know what you were like back then, but there are some things that time and age don’t change. Like the fact that you’re easily the most stubborn but also strong and determined and fiercely loyal woman I’ve ever met. That you’re not only smart and intelligent but have a sharp wit that makes me laugh and wonder what you’re going to say next. And when you look at me sometimes, with those large, expressive eyes, I am utterly convinced you’re the most beautiful woman on the entire planet.”
She swallowed and looked at him, almost as if
waiting for a punch line.