Horatio, it is a beautiful ring. But I can’t wear it. She was suddenly inspired. I already have a fiancé, and he would be jealous. Perhaps he would feel better if he thought she’d already had a boyfriend before the school year started. Her phone beeped another message indicator.
?
He didn’t understand. Of course he couldn’t read well, since he’d just started first grade. She texted back. Talk 2 U Monday.
Ben was watching with undisguised curiosity. “Your face is white. Who are you texting? Is that Brad?”
Grace felt the blood rush into her face and lifted her hand to tug at her short hair, hoping to hide her face. “No. It’s not Brad.” She nodded at the baseball game. “He’s too busy to be texting me.”
Grace’s eyes almost bulged out of her head as she watched Leanne flip her hair behind her. She had taken off her outer shirt, leaving behind a very low-cut shell with spaghetti straps. She didn’t appear to be paying much attention to the game, instead turning toward Brad and leaning against him to speak in his ear. He didn’t even flinch as she pressed her breasts against his arm. It suddenly occurred to Grace Leanne might not have given her card and flowers to Brad as she’d promised.
Emily must have noticed her tormented expression. “Grace, I don’t think he’s encouraging her.”
The only way to save face was to pretend she wasn’t bothered. “Oh, I don’t care if he’s with Leanne. After all, I’ve got Horatio.”
“So you’re not interested in Brad anymore?” asked Ben in a low voice.
“I still care about him. I want him to be happy.”
“But you don’t want to get back together with him?” Ben insisted. “Not ever?”
“Well, you see... I’m the one who broke it off. And he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, so I’ll just stick with Horatio.”
“But you said you haven’t actually been out with Horatio. So you don’t even know if you like him.”
“What are you getting at?” asked Grace.
“I think you should go out with me,” Ben whispered from the side of his mouth, with his eyes fastened on the television.
“Ohmygosh!” said Emily. “Did you see that?”
“Yes, I saw it,” growled Spencer.
“What happened?” asked Grace, thinking she’d missed part of the game.
“She kissed him,” said Ben, whose face looked like he’d swallowed dill pickle juice.
Leanne had kissed Brad? Grace stared at the television as if she would see an instant replay, but the camera was trained on the coach who was yelling at the umpire. She felt bile in her throat as the reality of the situation hit her. She’d gotten what she asked for a week ago, even though she’d since changed her mind. Brad had refused to consider talking to her, and he was dating another girl. And evidently, he’d given his brother the go-ahead to ask her out. She jumped up from the couch and barely made it to the bathroom before her stomach emptied its meager contents.
*****
Emily immediately regretted mentioning the kiss. She’d spoken aloud without thinking. Grace hadn’t even seen it happen—if only she’d kept her big mouth shut. She saw Grace spring off the couch and rush to the bathroom. She started to follow her when she noticed Ben was using the opportunity to peruse Grace’s cell phone.
“You shouldn’t do that,” she scolded as she moved to look over his shoulder.
Ben made a point of covering the screen. “If you’re going to criticize me, I won’t tell you what she was texting about.”
Spencer frowned, “Hey, that’s an invasion of privacy.”
Ben let out a low whistle as he scrolled through her messages. Emily said, “What? What is it?”
“I shouldn’t say,” said Ben, cocking an eyebrow toward Spencer. “It’s an invasion of privacy.”
“You’ve already done it, so you might as well tell us now,” said Spencer.
Ben leaned forward and spoke in a soft voice. “The thing is, Horatio is evidently pressuring her to wear the ring, and she’s telling him she’s engaged to someone else. So I’m thinking she doesn’t really want to date this guy. And from her reaction to that kiss, I’m pretty confident she still likes Brad, whether she admits it or not.”
“So what are we going to do?” asked Emily.