Date Shark (21 page)

Luke and his chestnut mare eased into a canter and approached the first jump. She could tell even from a distance that Luke had mistimed his signal. He tried to spur the horse to jump too early. Luckily the steady mare ignored him and jumped when she was ready. Luke was not prepared.

It was such a small jump there was no real danger of his falling, but he was jostled on the landing and had to correct his posture once they were back on the ground. Every time, Luke tried to jump too early as his eagerness pushed ahead of logic. An early jump led to a rough landing. It put them off rhythm for several steps after each jump.

“Is your boyfriend the competitive type?” Becca asked.

Leila considered the question. Energetic and adrenaline fueled, definitely. Competitive? They had never actually competed at anything, but Leila could make an educated guess. “I’m sure he is.”

“That sucks for you.”

Leila looked down at the girl. “Why?”

The “you just asked the most obvious question” expression was one Leila had failed to master as a teenager. Not so for Becca. It was plastered across her face. “Hello, because you’re obviously way better at this than him. I bet he’s going to whine about this forever.”

At the time, Leila passed off her words as juvenile, but she soon realized how right Becca had been. Luke didn’t exactly whine about his failure to mastering jumping, but his copious comments on how good she did made it very clear that he was having a hard time dealing with being shown up by his girlfriend. There was a small amount of satisfaction his behavior inspired, but mostly she felt bad for making him uncomfortable. Leila wouldn’t have purposely done worse to appease his ego. She was competitive as well, in her own way. She was, however, the type of person who thought everyone should get a prize for competing no matter how badly they did.

That opinion did falter a bit after the dozenth mention of how easily she picked up jumping as they ate lunch. At first, she did what she usually did in a situation like that. She played down her accomplishment. After a while, she got tired of Luke’s veiled whining and said that riding had been her favorite pastime on her aunt’s ranch and jumping was merely an extension of that.

Her frank words were enough to stifle Luke’s wounded pride. He nodded, and moved on to a new topic. Leila was thankful for the change. The rest of their lunch passed pleasantly. The only downside after that was Luke telling Leila that he would be going out of town again. It was only for a few days, but the news worried Leila.

As they walked from the bistro they’d had lunch at and back toward the stables, Leila knew her first reaction shouldn’t have been worry, because her worry wasn’t for his safety while traveling. For just over a week, Leila had been admittedly using Luke as a distraction from Eli. Escaping him entirely since … Leila shook away the memory of Eli standing in front of her without his shirt, his runner’s body begging for her touch. She tried to forget how having his hands on her hips had electrified her whole body. Most of all, what had troubled her sleep since that day, she wanted desperately to get rid the feel of his lips pressed roughly against her cheek.

A shiver ran through Leila’s body in spite of the warm summer day. She glanced up, searching for something to take her mind off Eli. As luck would have it, two women jogged past her and Luke at that moment. The sight of them only made it more difficult to escape her thoughts. Leila had not called Eli or stopped by his apartment all week, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t seen him.

Every morning, Eli met her at Holstein Park to run. Once it had been her favorite time of the day, but lately their time together had been quiet and strained. She walked the two blocks to where they met every morning fearing and also hoping that he wouldn’t be there. It was impossible for her to say which feeling was the strongest. What had really been torture was that even though Eli carried on as if nothing had happened, he had yet to kiss or even hug her again. That, Leila feared, was gone forever.

She sighed and looked away from the runners. Her gaze landed on the familiar sight of the Japanese tea house that had recently become her one of her favorite spots in town. She was so startled she stopped. She hadn’t realized they were so close. For a very brief moment, she wished she had remembered sooner and chosen it for lunch, but the twisting of her stomach that sharing the special place with anyone other than Eli threw the idea away.

“Leila?” Luke asked. “Something wrong?”

Feeling foolish, she tried to wave him off. “No, sorry. I’m fine. I just … I didn’t realize we were so close to this place.” Luke’s expression became confused. Leila gestured at the tea house. “Have you ever been here?”

“No. I’m not much for tea,” Luke responded, “but I’m guessing you are?”

“Yes, actually, and this place makes the best.”

Luke looked around the street. What he was searching for, Leila had no idea, but when he turned back to her he seemed perplexed. “How did you find this place? It’s a bit out of your comfort zone.”

The hint of irritation she felt at his assumption was quickly beaten down by the truth of it. “A friend introduced me to it. We have lunch here every once in a while.”

Every week actually. What day depended on Eli’s schedule, but whenever he ended up near her office he always stopped by and invited her to the tea house. The disappointed she often felt when he didn’t show up made many lunches a rather dismal experience.

“Why is it,” Luke asked as he pulled Leila into his arms, “that I keep hearing about these mysterious friends of yours, but I’ve yet to meet any of them. I’m beginning to think you’re making them up.”

Leila tried to smile, tried to laugh off his teasing, but she couldn’t. His assumption that she had multiple friends he had yet to meet pricked at her sense of honesty. There were no
friends
, there was only Eli. And aside from mentioning that he had offered Leila an extra symphony ticket, his name had never come up again. Any other mention of him was a vague reference to a friend she went out with.

“Are you hiding your friends from me?” Luke teased.

It wasn’t his question that drained every last bit of color from her face, it was the melodic ring of the tea house door hitting the wind chime as it was pushed open by Eli Walsh. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments before Eli broke contact and directed his gaze at Luke. They had never met, but it obviously wasn’t hard for him to guess who she was with.

Leila’s eyes widened as Eli approached Luke. She squeaked something incoherent as Eli extended his hand. “You must be Luke,” he said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

He appeared casual and friendly, but Leila knew that slight tightening of his jaw gave away his true discomfort at seeing her. The fact that he didn’t even say hello to her before turning to Luke spoke volumes.

Luke took the offered hand, but was baffled at the intrusion. “I’m sorry, you are …?”

“I apologize. I’ve heard so much about you I feel like I already know you,” Eli said. “I’m Eli Walsh, a friend of Leila’s.”

After mulling over the name again, Luke remembered. “The symphony. You’re the one that gave Leila that extra ticket to the symphony.”

Eli tactfully withdrew his hand from Luke’s. His lips pressed together before saying, “Yes, I’m the one who took Leila to the symphony.”

“Huh.” The sudden clip to his voice put Leila on edge. “Funny running into you, Eli, we were just talking about how Leila’s friends all seem to be ghosts. And yet here you are. Not a ghost at all.”

Eli smiled, but it wasn’t very warm. “Quite the opposite,” he said.

Leila wasn’t entirely sure of what he meant by that comment, but she knew the conversation was about to take a nose dive. She wanted to run. That would hardly make anything better, though, so she opted to take control of the situation instead.

“Eli, what brings you to this part of town?” She wanted very much to slip away from him, but she also wanted an honest answer. It was absurd that she should care if Eli had been having lunch at the tea house with someone else, or even alone. She had no claim to the place, or to Eli’s time. Beneath her fear that the awkward conversation would turn south, she was hurt that he would visit the tea house without her.

Her question brought the first genuine smile to Eli’s lips. His hand reached into the small, elegant paper bag Leila hadn’t noticed he was holding until that moment and pulled out a canister of tea. “I was out of genmaicha. You drank the last of it and didn’t tell me,” he chided.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to mention it,” Leila said before thinking of how Luke might take Eli’s insinuation. The tightening of his hand on hers was a good indicator that he realized it meant Leila spent time in Eli’s apartment. Enough time that she felt comfortable making herself tea without mentioning it to Eli. Her heart rate spiked along with her desire to run.

Eli seemed unaffected by the exchange. “Well, now I’ll have some the next time you want a cup.”

“Great,” she said quietly, even though she very much appreciated his thoughtfulness.

The air between them grew stale within seconds of no one speaking. Rooted to the spot by a whole host of conflicting emotions, Leila felt powerless to do anything. Luke seemed unwilling to let her off the hook. Eli was the only one still smiling. In the end, it was him who ended the stalemate.

“You two look to be off to some kind of equestrian lesson, judging by Leila’s breeches and boots,” Eli said, “so I won’t take up any more of your time.” He nodded to Luke, saying, “It was nice to finally meet you.”

A none-too-friendly, “Likewise,” was Luke’s response.

“Leila, I’ll see you in the morning,” Eli said, but the tone of his voice phrased it more as a question, to which Leila nodded mutely. Eli smiled and gathered her up in a quick, modest hug. The kiss she was half expecting—wanting for and dreading at the same time—didn’t come. Eli pulled back then, and continued a few yards away to his car. Luke watched him drive away every bit as intently as Leila did. The second he disappeared from sight Luke spun her to face him.

“That’s Eli?” he demanded.

“Yes,” Leila said timidly.

Luke’s body tightened. His arms folded across his chest, dropping her hand in the process. “When you said he was an old friend from work, I thought you meant
Eli
was old!”

She couldn’t blame him for thinking that. She could, however, blame herself for expecting he had made that assumption and not doing anything to correct it.

“Let me guess, Eli is the one who introduced you to this place. Is he the one you have lunch here with?”

“Yes, but …”

“But what?”

Leila’s jaw clenched together at his interruption. “Eli is a friend. That’s it.”

That mantra had been running on a loop in her head for the past week. It hadn’t helped her much, but she hoped the effect on Luke would be better. Judging by the look on his face, it wasn’t.

“How long have you known Eli?”

“A few months,” Leila admitted, “but he and Ana have been friends for years. She introduced us. He’s just a friend.”

“I thought you said you worked with him.”

Leila shook her head. “I met him through work. Eli is a psychiatrist.”

“Is he yours?” Luke asked, disgust etched into his face. Whether it was thanks to the assumption that Leila needed a shrink, or the however unlikely thought of their relationship being an ethical breech, Leila wasn’t sure. She didn’t particularly appreciate either one.

“No, he’s not my shrink,” she answered.

“What did he mean by seeing you in the morning then?”

Leila blanched, but she didn’t lie. “We run together most mornings through Holstein Park.”

Luke was always bursting with emotion, whether it was excitement or pleasure. She loved how full of life he was. The anger that blossomed on his cheeks was new and shocking. She didn’t like it at all, and hated that she had inspired it.

His fingers shot through his hair, almost tugging at it. “You didn’t think I’d like to know that you spend your free time hanging out with another guy?” Luke asked. The anger in his voice made it hard and cutting.

“Luke, I knew Eli before I ever met you,” she argued. Sure, it was only by about a week, but it still counted. “I didn’t mention it at first because I had no idea how things would go between us and there didn’t seem to be any reason because I knew there was nothing between Eli and I. After a while, well, I didn’t want to give you the wrong impression. Eli is a friend. We hang out sometimes and run together. I didn’t want you to assume there was anything else between us and get upset like you are now.”

“Why
isn’t
there anything between you and Eli?”

Leila was now the one taking up a combative stance. As slender and petite as she was, she doubted she made a very threatening figure, but she didn’t care. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I mean, guys aren’t friends with women. Ever. If this Eli guy is such a great friend, why aren’t you dating him?” Luke asked.

“Because I’m not!” Leila spluttered. She had no intention of standing on the street all day arguing about Eli, or anything else for that matter.

“Is he gay?”

A sudden remembrance of Eli’s muscles tightening at her touch, the soft moan that had escaped his lips jumped into her mind. “No,” she said adamantly, “he is definitely not gay.”

“Married?”

This was getting ridiculous. Leila scoffed. “Of course not.”

Luke threw his hands up. “Then why?”

“It’s just … we’re friends …” Leila faltered as she really considered the question. In her deepest fantasies she would lie in Eli’s arms. But those were only bits of little girl foolishness she never quite outgrew. She knew the answer. “Because I’m not Eli’s type,” she admitted.

Luke reacted to the sadness in her voice. His bunched up shoulders relaxed along with his anger. “What is Eli’s type, exactly?”

Everything Leila wasn’t. But she didn’t say that. She said, “Sophisticated, cultured, confident, gorgeous … the type of girl that feels at home in ball gowns and garden parties.”

“And you’re not that girl?” Luke asked.