He smiled. “Don’t be silly. I’d rather just stay out here and talk to you, but that would be sort of rude. But I’m glad we have a few minutes to ourselves because it gives me a chance to ask for your number—if you might want to go out sometime?” He seemed a little nervous asking and the question took Paula by surprise. She’d enjoyed talking to him, too, but didn’t expect that it was going anywhere.

“Sure, I’d be happy to go out sometime.”

Jason pulled out his phone. “Okay, shoot…”

Paula rattled off her number and he plugged it into his phone and sent her a text message that said ‘test’.

“Now, you have mine, too. I’ll check in with you this week and maybe we can do dinner or something next weekend?”

Paula smiled. “That sounds great.”

Lucy returned to the table a moment later, looking somewhat less annoyed, but she didn’t sit down. “Are you ready to head home? I think I’m peopled out.”

That was usually what Paula said when they went somewhere. “I’m ready.”

Lucy glance at Jason. “It was nice to meet you.”

He stood as well. “You, too, Lucy. Have a good night.”

They said their goodbyes to Mia and Izzy and headed out to the car. Lucy was driving and as soon as they to the car and pulled out of their spot, Paula spoke. “So, that was fun. Did you have a good time?”

Lucy shot her a look. “I did. Until Andrea got her claws into Ben. A golf lesson? Really?”

Paula chuckled. “Yeah, that was a bit much. But it seemed like you and Ben were hitting it off. He asked me if you were single and I gave him your phone number.”

“You did? Thank you. We were hitting it off. That’s why I was so annoyed with Andrea, though I don’t think she saw us chatting earlier. Maybe she was out on the deck. Ben explained that she asked him for a golf lesson and kind of put him on the spot. He asked me out to dinner, for Thursday night. But I wasn’t sure what to think. If he was some kind of player. I don’t want to be dating the same guy as Andrea.”

“I would believe him. That sounds like something Andrea would do. She’s not shy.”

“No, she’s not,” Lucy agreed.

Suddenly Paula realized something. “I have a feeling I know what might have happened. Andrea saw me talking to Ben and when I gave him your phone number, I bet she thought I was the one interested. So, her competitive nature kicked in. If she’d known it was you, I doubt she would have done that.”