Plus, he didn’t trust this guy at all.
“I need you to hurry up, honey. We gotta meet Heidi and Nina. We’re already late,” he called over to them, and Lucy looked up, irritation flying off her.
“We are,” Lucy bit out, untying Angie’s skates and sliding them off her feet.
“Well, if I didn’t have to drive over here and you would have met me, we wouldn’t have this problem,” he snapped back at her and she looked up, glaring.
Whoo-wee, that girl was scary.
“And I told you that she has hockey Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and games starting next week on Saturday. This is important to her.”
“No, it’s important to your family. She doesn’t want this,” he said, his voice rising. “You care more about making them happy than about what Angie wants.”
“Excuse me?” Lucy roared, standing up. Her eyes cut to Benji’s and she paused, her hands clenching at her sides.
“Mommy, don’t fight,” Angie said, slamming things into her bag before sliding her feet into her shoes. She then looked up to her father. “I do want to play, Dad. I love it. Mommy doesn’t even have time to bring me, but she does. Stop being mean.”
The guy glanced down at Angie, and Benji didn’t like the way he looked at her. Like she was a nuisance and not the best damn thing in his pathetic life. “Whatever, we’ll talk about this later. Let’s go. Heidi’s waiting.”
Turning to Lucy, Angie wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. Lucy’s arms basically wrapped around the girl twice as she kissed her hard on the top of her head. It was almost too much to see. It was obvious Lucy didn’t want to let her go, and when Benji looked away, his gaze met Rick’s.
“Did you need something?”
Benji’s eyes narrowed. “Not from you. Just want to make sure Angie was good, and I had to talk to her mom about the game next weekend.”
Rick glared and then rolled his eyes before looking to Angie. “Let’s go, Angie. You’ll see her Sunday.”
“I love you, Mommy,” Benji heard Angie say, and honestly, he wasn’t sure how Lucy did this. He would lose his fucking mind. Hell, he was and Angie wasn’t even his.
“I love you too, baby. Have fun, okay? And I’ll see you tomorrow at the recital. I can’t wait,” she said happily as she pulled back, cupping Angie’s face. She was trying. She was trying so hard to be positive, it was killing her.
“What? You’re coming?” Rick asked, and Lucy didn’t even look at him.
“Of course, we wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said and Angie grinned.
“We? The whole Sinclair clan, I’m guessing?” he seethed, and Lucy just smiled at Angie, her little dimples peeking out. It was his first time seeing them, and boy, what a sight.
“Yup, we can’t wait.”
Angie was beaming up at her mother, and when she wrapped her arms tightly around Lucy again, Benji swallowed hard. These two were something he had never seen before. Or maybe he had, but he was too drunk to remember. Which made him a bit sad.
Kissing her once more, Lucy patted her back. “I’ll take your bag. Go on, I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, bye, Mommy,” she said and then trudged to her father.
“Bye, baby, see you tomorrow,” Lucy called as they walked toward the door. Once they were out of sight, her shoulders fell and she sucked in a deep breath. Benji didn’t say anything, just watched as she slowly shook her head, swallowing hard. When she looked to him, she shrugged. “Sorry you had to see that.”
Benji shook his head. “Don’t apologize. You okay?”
“You’d think, after four years, that giving her to him would be easy, but it’s not,” she said. She looked so defeated. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her in the hopes she’d feel better.
“Yeah, doesn’t seem so.”
Shaking her head, she picked up Angie’s bag and then looked over at him. “Yeah, anyway, what did you need? Is it, like, my snack day or something?”
Benji smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay.”
“You didn’t need anything?”
“Nope,” he said simply. “Just wanted to make sure you two were safe.”
“Oh.” She looked surprised by that. Her sweet eyes widened as her lip quirked a bit. She didn’t smile, but at least she didn’t glare.
“Yeah,” he said, looking away and drawing in a breath. As much as he wanted to ask her out again, he knew that wouldn’t be appropriate. She was upset and it wouldn’t be fair of him to take advantage of that. So he’d wait. His moment would come. He’d just have to be patient. “Okay, well, be careful going home and have a good night.”
“You too.”
He went to turn, to hit the ice, but then he paused. Looking back at her, he saw she was turning, about to walk away, but he called to her, “Hey, Lucy.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she met his gaze. “Yeah?”
“You look really pretty tonight.”
As her lips curved and those dimples appeared, Benji found himself fighting for his next breath. Slowly, her cheeks reddened and then she was fully smiling at him. Yeah, that breath he was fighting for…?
He lost the fight.