Libby shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know how close they used to be. I swear Hope sees more of him than I do.”
Hope had told them about the incident at the bar with Blake and the ride Jordan had given her but hadn’t gotten into too many details.
“Luke says Jordan never had a serious enough relationship to bring someone home for the holidays or anything,” Libby continued. “I think he’s a bit of a player. He could be just … having fun with her.”
“I bet.” Roni made that tongue-hand gesture again.
Though she shouldn’t care, Hope listened attentively while trailing the condensation on her glass.
“Speaking of …” Libby continued, turning the ring on her finger from side to side. “We decided to have an engagement party. At Jordan’s.”
“What? Why?” Hope blurted. It was one thing to run across Avery and Jordan; it was another thing to spend an evening with them in his house … for so many reasons. For one, she didn’t care much for Avery and didn’t want to socialize with her indirect boss. She had also experienced too many uncomfortable moments with those two together and apart. And there was the unhelpful and unhealthy fact that, despite herself, Jordan made her feel things, physically and … non-physically.
“We want to bring everyone together. Gabe will come with Tammy and the kids from L.A., and our apartment is too small to accommodate everyone. The house in Wayford is bigger, and he offered.”
“But weren’t you weirded out by the fact that Luke lived there with Lilac?” Roni asked, sipping her white wine.
“We both were, at first. But it’s water under the bridge now.”
“So, are we invited?” Hope asked, her lips hovering over her glass.
“No,” Libby said. Then, giving Hope’s thigh a little smack with her napkin, she called, grinning, “Of course you are! You’re my sisters from different misters!”
While they enthused over it, Hope wondered what calamity would befall her in front of the eldest Delaney brother this time.
“How’s the science fair committee going with Chris?” Roni redirected the conversation while they were devouring the carrot cake that Hope had baked for the evening. “Any chemistry or physics in action there?”
“Kinda. But with him being recently divorced …” Hope placed her cake plate on the grass next to her chair. She looked between her two friends who sat facing her on their deck chairs, wearing soft smiles. “Eric, Blake … I’m gullible at best. I should avoid men altogether.”
“You’re not. You’re just a good person who thinks well of and gives credit to people. It’s just that some don’t deserve it. Don’t deserve you,” Libby said, leaning forward in her chair and placing her palm on Hope’s knee.
“They’re not all made equal. Men, that is,” Roni said. “And besides, Chris is divorced almost a year now. Weren’t you and Eric divorced that long before he got with Jenna and married her?”
“Thanks for the reminder.” Hope chuckled.
“What I meant is that men are usually faster to land on their feet in these situations.”
“Do you like him?” Libby asked.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s a teacher, too, and he knows what it’s like to be divorced and a single parent. We’re both nerdy. It’s easy for me to talk to him. We have a lot in common.”
“Sounds like you should give it a try,” Libby replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She thought of that conversation two days later when Chris and her were left alone to do the final preparations for the science fair. They were at different sides of the small hall, but at some point, when they were nearly done, she found him standing next to her. His plaid-shirted shoulder, which was only two inches higher than hers, brushed against hers when he helped her hang a large poster of the periodic table.
“I was thinking …” he opened, pivoting toward her. “Would you like to go for a cup of coffee or something sometime? We can discuss the fair.”
“The fair’s tomorrow.”
“We can discuss other things, too.” Chris smiled. His black hair was close-cropped and receding a bit, but it served as a great contrast to his light blue eyes that weren’t hidden behind his rimless glasses tonight.
She returned his smile. “Yeah, we could do that. But after tomorrow, I don’t want to hear about this fair again.”
“Avery gave you her ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’ over every new idea you came up with?” Chris asked, smiling at her.
Hope raised her eyebrows. “I was also honored with ‘don’t try to invent the wheel’.” She couldn’t believe she would have to see Avery at her best friend’s engagement party.
“No shop talk, I promise.” Chris chuckled. “I have Mason over this week, but next week, he’s with Linda.”
“Great.”
They smiled at each other, like the dorks we are, she thought, gazing into his blue eyes.
Had she just agreed to go on a date again? Because, if this didn’t go right, she couldn’t quit school like she had done with the pottery class.
