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“Or if you’re sick of me, I can leave you alone,” I joke, trying to make sure she doesn’t feel guilty about turning me down.
“It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with you. I’m just still really tired with the jetlag and my bad sleep last night,” she says, and when she looks at me, I can actually see the exhaustion in her eyes.
“No, I totally understand,” I say. “I’m usually up way before the sun, so it’s getting a little late for me, too.”
“But I’ll see you tomorrow?” she says, though I hear the hint of a question in her voice. “I’m excited about the bonfire. That will be fun.”
My heart sags just a little, realizing she’s talking about seeing me there, not about spending more time together during the day.
“Yeah. It’ll be a good time.”
We both get out of the truck and I walk her down the little pathway to her door, battling with myself on what to say when we say good night.
It’s the weirdest sensation, trying to come up with excuses to hang out with her. I’ve never had to think things over like this. When I’ve wanted to spend time with a woman, it was usually for one purpose, no complicated or messy emotions involved.
Now that I’m here, in this place where I want to spend time just hanging out and shooting the shit with Ruby, I realize how floundering I feel hoping she wants the same.
She’s verbalized a few times that she doesn’t want to impose on me or my family, so I decide to take a risk, hoping her mention of the bonfire was her way of not trying to dominate my time and not her lack of interest in hanging out with me.
“So, listen, I know you’ll be at the bonfire tomorrow night, but maybe I can make you breakfast in the morning?”
Ruby eyes me as she bites her lip, seeming to mull something over in her mind.
“Any interest in doing morning yoga with me? It’s my routine and I like to—”
“Absolutely,” I interrupt.
I don’t care if she wants me to learn how to swallow fire. I’ll do whatever she asks.
Ruby beams at me with tired eyes as we come to a stop in front of the door to the guesthouse.
“Sunrise yoga and breakfast?” she says, reaching forward and playing with a button on my shirt. “My kind of man.”
I bite my lip at the blush on her cheeks, enjoying the way her soft, pale skin looks slightly pinked up under the porch light.
“I’ll see you in the morning, then.”
She nods, and I take her hand in mine, kissing the inside of her wrist, enjoying the little shiver that seems to race through her at my affection.
It’s a first for me, not trying to kiss her up against her door or convince her to ask me to stay.
But I don’t want a quick fuck with Ruby Rae Roberts. I want something different.
I just hope I figure out what exactly that is. And soon.
chapter nine
Boyd
“She’s cute.”
My brother plops down next to me on one of the other deck chairs then props his feet up on the footrest before sticking his beer bottle out to clink with mine.
“She is.”
“No bullshit—did you two really just start chatting on the plane? Doesn’t seem like you.”
I roll my eyes. “Like you’re an expert at knowing what I would and wouldn’t do.”
