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Amy looked up when Ryker didn’t laugh. He had a strange expression on his face.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Just thinking about work for a second. But I’ve gotta tell you it’s good to see you being all feisty. I’ll be right back.” He got up and went back to the mini-bar and came back with peanut butter crackers. This time he didn’t sit on the chair across from her. Nope, this time he sat on the sofa, right next to her.

“Don’t worry, Honey, I’m just getting close so I can rub your feet.” He smiled. “Hurry up with your Snickers bar.” He reached over and opened up her bottle of mineral water, then opened up his Coke and drank down half the can.

By the time Ryker was done with everything he’d brought over for himself, Amy had finished her packet of cheese and crackers, had four sips of her mineral water, and two bites of her Snickers bar.

“Do you need help with that?” Ryker asked as he eyed her candy bar.

She folded the wrapper over the uneaten portion. “No, I’m saving it for later. If you’re hungry, go spend another twenty dollars for another candy bar for yourself,” she sniffed.

Ryker’s brow furrowed as if he were deep in thought, then he smiled. “Nope. I’m good. I shouldn’t need to eat for at least another fifteen minutes. Just enough time to give you a foot rub.”

How did he know exactly how to make her feel comfortable? He was reading her like an open book, how was that possible?

“Come on, Honey, it’s sharing time. Now put your pretty little tootsies on my lap and let me start massaging. I promise, no funny business.”

Amy slipped off her shoes and slowly brought her feet up onto the sofa, making sure that her dress stayed pressed down where it was supposed to, right to the top of her knees. Just as carefully, Ryker picked up first her right foot and brought it up so that it rested over his thigh, not coming into contact with his crotch, then pulled up her left foot to rest beside her right.

“These straps really do a number on your feet. They look like they really hurt, Amy,” Ryker frowned as his thumb smoothed over the indentations made by the leather.

“Nah. It’s not too bad. When you’re moving around you don’t notice it much. It’s when you’re standing still that it suddenly kills.”

“No wonder you’re such a dynamo.”

“How would you know, you’ve only met me in person the one other time.”

“Are you trying to tell me you aren’t?”

Amy shook her head.

“Tell me about me. Just like I got to know you so well after four months on the phone. I’m thinking you’ve gotten to know me pretty well over the four months we talked so much.”

Amy paused to really consider what she was going to say. “You’re brash.”

Ryker let out a loud laugh. “Brash. I’m brash? God, I like that word. I’m going to have to tell the guys that you said I was brash.”

“What’s wrong with that word?”

“It makes me sound like some wet-behind-the-ears kid from the forties, a brash young man, or some such shit. It’s just funny is all.”

“I could have called you reckless, hasty, impudent, or irreverent.”

“Did you swallow a thesaurus?”

“Nah, I just like words. You know I read a lot.”

He nodded, as he picked up her right foot and started to gently massage her insole.

“You can go harder, you know.”

“I’m starting out. I want to see what hurts, and what doesn’t. You don’t always have to wear the manager’s hat for every little thing, Honey. I’ll take care of this.”

Amy settled back against the arm of the sofa. She’d wait and see how he did.

“You know,” Ryker started. “It occurred to me, during our time of silence, that we talked a lot about what we wanted out of life, who our friends were, our goals and ambitions, but anytime I brought up anything about my family, or I asked you about yours, you shrugged off or side-stepped the question.”