Page 29 of The Friend Game

Right. Just as friends. My heart sinks back down where it belongs. “Of course,” I squeak. “Yes, I can meet for lunch tomorrow as friends.”

“Okay, great. I’ll swing by your classroom.” Luke gestures to the house. “Shall we go eat?”

I nod and start forward. Friends. It’s for the best, really.

All the chemistry between us is clearly one-sided, a figment of my overactive imagination. Besides, I’m not going to make the same mistake I made with Marshall by intertwining a romantic relationship with a working relationship. That’s how I ended up moving back to Tucson to live in my sister’s guest house rent free. If I got involved with Luke and things ended badly, I might end up out of work and desperate to leave town again.

And I don’t have any other sisters with guest houses to flee to.

Chapter 11

I’M FLIPPING THROUGH a stack of paintings done by one of my second grade classes when Luke sticks his head in my classroom the next day. Butterflies take flight in my stomach at the sight of him. He’s wearing jeans and a black blazer over a charcoal sweater, and he looks so good it makes my mouth dry.

I force my thoughts back to our budding friendship and smile at him in a completely non-romantic way. No come hither stares from me. I am here only for the just friends show.

Seriously, go ahead and put multicolored dots between all the letters, because like the NYC crew before us we are F•R•I•E•N•D•S.

“Hey there, Pastor Abbott. Please come in.” I set down the paintings and rise to greet him, circling around to the front of my desk.

“Hey, Miss Garza,” he mimics my formal tone with a wry smile. “I did tell you that you can call me Luke, right?”

“Oh. Yes.” I nod. “It’s just, I noticed everyone else around here seems to call you Pastor Abbott, so I feel a bit funny calling you Luke at school.”

“Fair enough.” He clears his throat, then lifts up a brown paper bag. “So since you only have a thirty minute lunch break, I brought us some sandwiches from the deli nearby.”

“Oh, thanks.” I chew my lip. “Would you like me to pay you back for mine?” I add a little awkwardly. I hope he says no. Until I get my first paycheck I’m dangerously low on funds. But he did say we were just friends, so I don’t want to assume he’s buying. Buying me lunch is more date-like than friend-like.

“Oh no.” Luke shakes his head. “My treat. A way to welcome you to Grace Canyon.” He approaches my desk and sets the bag down. “And an apology of sorts.”

“An apology?” I ask in confusion.

“Yes,” he sets his shoulders, “the other day when I brought you those flowers from your dad, I let things get out of hand between us.”

“Oh.” I don’t know what to say to this. Sure, I remember flirting with him on Monday, how could I forget? But that’s all we did. Flirt. Then again, as I’ve established many times, he’s a pastor. Maybe for him flirtingisletting things get out of hand. Especially since he only wants to be friends with me.

“The thing is,” Luke seems undaunted by my silence, choosing to simply press on, “I was flirting with you, and that was unfair of me. I just lost my head.” His eyes go down to my lips, then jerk back up. My stomach flips. “I always seem to be losing my head around you,” he adds with a shake of his head. “That’s no excuse though, because the fact of the matter is, I shouldn’t have been flirting with you because I’m not going to ask you out.”

I wince. Here I thought there’d been a spark once more, but now he’s shooting me down again. Clearly even if he didn’t have a contract to think about he wouldn’t be asking me out. What a total bummer.

If only he knew that I know about his contract, then we could avoid this painful, I-don’t–like-you-that-way conversation.

“Right, got it. You’re not interested in me.” I force a smile. “No worries, Pastor Abbott, you don’t need to tell me twice. Message received. Lucky for you I have my big girl panties on, so I can handle the truth.” Oh my word, why did I just say panties?Pick a better idiom, Hannah!

“Hannah.” Luke holds up his hand to stop my blubbering. “No, you don’t understand. Probably because I’m messing this all up.” He rakes a hand through his hair, then meets my eyes. “Believe me, I am definitely interested.”

I freeze. “You are?” Given the way this conversation is going I’m a little scared to believe him. If the next words out of his mouth areinterested in being your friend, that is,I will unwrap the sandwich he bought me, stuff it into his face, and hope it has mayonnaise on it.

“Yes.” Luke nods. “I would really like to ask you out, Hannah.”

Angels are singing. My heart is flying in my chest. The corners of my mouth are competing to see who can get closer to their respective ears. I’m on cloud nine.

Luke drags in a breath, “But I can’t.”

And I fall back to earth. Ouch. You’d think my previous knowledge of this fact would’ve lessened the pain of impact, but no. Hearing him say it still feels like my heart smacked pavement.

“And that’s not just a line,” Luke hurries on. “It’s a bit complicated to explain, but essentially, when I started here at Grace Canyon, I agreed to remain single for the first year so that I could dedicate more of my attention to the church and school.”

“Luke,” it’s my turn to stop him now, “I actually know about the contract.”

---