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Lydia snatched her coffee back. She knew Luke was just messing with her, and she supposed that was better than having a serious conversation about it. Though she would have preferred if he’d simply ignored the whole damn thing. “I’m officially not talking to you.” Lydia took a long drag from her cup, hoping the burn of the coffee down her throat would ease the burn in her cheeks. She was grateful when her phone started ringing.
“Hey,” she said, answering Ashley’s call.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Um, I’m with Luke. We were just about to leave that architect mixer I told you about and head to training.”
“Could you do me the world’s biggest favor first?”
“Of course,” Lydia said.
“Meet me at the City Clerk’s Office at two o’clock.”
She frowned. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s good. Great. Bring Luke if you want.”
Lydia caught Luke’s eye. He looked as concerned as she felt. “Ash, what’s going on?”
“I’m getting married.”
Sixteen
Luke
“Thanks for coming with me,” Lydia said again as she paid for a small bouquet of flowers from a street vendor outside the City Clerk’s Office. “You didn’t have to, and I know it’s eating into our training time. Gosh, is it weird thatI’mnervous?”
“It’s not every Thursday afternoon your sister springs a last-minute marriage on you,” Luke said.
“I’m still shocked. Eloping was the last thing I expected from Ashley.” Lydia thanked the vendor for the flowers before pushing through the revolving door. “My mom’s going to lose it when she finds out.”
They entered the lobby. The Office of the City Clerk was like any other government building Luke had ever been inside—stark, absurdly clean and quiet. It was the complete opposite of the youth center. “Manhattan Marriage Bureau,” Luke said, pointing to a small gold sign on the wall. “I think we’re in the right place.”
Lydia headed in that direction, the first door on the right, but before she reached it, someone called her name. It was her sister, Ashley, who Luke recognized from the gym. They’d never formally been introduced, but he spotted her from time to time as he rushed off after clients and she made her way to yoga. She wore a soft white sundress, and beside her stood a tall, bookish man in a suit.
“You came!” Ashley said.
“Of course I came!” Lydia said. They hugged, then Lydia handed her the flowers. “You’re eloping?”
“We’re eloping.”
“And this is what you both want?”
Kurt nodded. “It is. We can have the party later. We just want this moment to be for us.”
Luke watched Lydia smile. “Then let’s get you married.” She turned suddenly. “Oh, Ash, you remember Luke, right? From the gym? And Luke, this is Kurt.”
“Yeah, hi,” Ashley said, reaching out to shake his hand. Luke traded her hand for Kurt’s. “I don’t begrudge you trying to teach my sister how to run. Maybe she’ll come to yoga with me next!”
Luke laughed. “I don’t know about that, but there’s a marathoner in there somewhere.” He was grateful for the reminder of their professional relationship, that they weren’t acknowledging the less professional elements of his friendship with her sister. Not that he expected Lydia wouldn’t have told her—from everything he’d heard they were especially close—but he didn’t think the marriage bureau was the right place to try to sort through his feelings on the subject.
Feelings that became more complicated when he thought about Jack. He hadn’t been able to put a face to Lydia’s office crush until today. He could see why she’d liked him—the guy was basically perfection walking around in a suit—but he wasn’t quite sure where Lydia and Jack stood. Last he’d heard, Lydia was pretty disillusioned by him. Then Jack had called Lydia his running buddy, and as much as Luke had teased her, determined not to make things weird, he’d also been caught off guard at how strange it made him feel.
But it wasn’t Jack she’d asked to come witness her sister’s marriage.
It was him.
“Shall we?” Kurt said, gesturing to the door, pulling Luke from his tangled thoughts.
