All her sweet, tingling feelings were swept away as she stared into Henry’s brown eyes. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said to her before turning his attention to Luke. “How’s it going?”
Luke seemed to recognize him, and as they stepped off the elevator, he held his hand out to take Henry’s. “Good, man. It’s Henry, right? The golf instructor?”
“I suppose that’s accurate enough.”
Luke draped his arm casually over Benny’s shoulders, unaware of the tension between the two. “Well, I appreciate you helping out. Actually, if you had a minute, I was wondering something about your club. I might be looking to move somewhere new, and I hear the course there is excellent. What’s the USGA course rating?”
Benny worked to keep a slight smile on her face as the elevator door shut behind them and Henry answered the question without any sense of urgency. His demeanor was easy and casual. Not seeming to be affected in the least by coming upon the two of them kissing just a moment before.
And dang. He looked so freaking good, even if it hurt her heart a little bit to see him right now.
Since their last encounter on Sunday night, they hadn’t seen each other—not even in passing. She’d kept to her regular schedule, one that usually involved her passing him once or twice in the parking garage or at the mailboxes.
But it was as if Henry was purposely avoiding her, which was a relief as much as it was a stab to the heart.
“Oh, by the way, Benny mentioned to me that you’re a bit of a baseball fan and”—Luke paused and looked down at her with a grin—“I thought as a way of thanking you for your helping out with golf, that I’d pick up a few extra tickets for the Bees’ game on Saturday.”
Henry finally leaned forward and pressed the call button to the elevator. He was dressed to go out, clearly. Even though it was after ten. “That’s pretty nice of you. But I don’t know if I’m going to be free that day…”
“I know that it’s not going to be anything like seeing the Giants,” Luke added, “but I managed to get four front-row seats. You’ll feel like you’re on the field.”
Four tickets? Like…a double date?
Not. Going. To. Happen.
“That’s sweet of you, Luke,” Benny said and leaned her head against Luke’s shoulder, “but it sounds like Henry’s already got plans. We don’t want him to feel obligated to take us up on your offer. You know, I can check with my brother Dominic and his wife, Kate. You haven’t had a chance to meet them yet, but I’m sure they’d love to—”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t available,” Henry said a bit loudly, and she pulled her gaze from Luke’s to Henry. “In fact, front-row tickets…that’s nearly impossible to say no to.”
What was Henry thinking? This whole week he’d worked to avoid her, and now he wanted to be part of this double-date nightmare?
She narrowed her eyes at him.
Henry smiled, nodding. “Yeah. I think I can make it work.”
“Great,” Luke continued. “I’ll leave the tickets with Benny tomorrow, if you and your date want to just meet us there.”
“I look forward to it.”
Benny had no words, and fortunately the elevator arrived and Henry was stepping on it making further conversation unnecessary.
It was hard to miss the smugness in that grin as it shut a moment later.
Well, fine.
They were friends, weren’t they? Maybe Henry was just trying to regain that platonic footage they’d had up until Sunday’s fateful kiss. If he was okay with seeing her with someone else, she could be just as okay. No, better than okay. She would be great.
Everything would be just…great.
…
Henry had to be insane.
To put himself through this torture of watching the happy lovebirds teasing and laughing with each other as they returned from the ballpark’s snack bar, looking to the world like they were completely head over heels in love with each other.
Wasn’t it enough to
have that gut-kicking moment the other night, when the elevator doors opened to reveal Benny and Saint Luke in a passionate lip-lock, unaware of anyone or anything but each other? It had made him want to pull Luke off her in a blinding moment of fury and slam his fist in his gut in the same way it felt someone had slugged Henry.