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“Yes.” His tone told her that he wasn’t going to say more on that topic.
“So what do you do when you aren’t fending off women?” she asked. “Besides being entertaining.”
He gave her a sidelong gaze. “You’re going to enjoy that, aren’t you?”
“Totally.” She grinned. “So? What do you do?”
“I’m trying to figure that out,” he said vaguely. “I’m exploring my options.”
“Options are nice.” She made a face. “Maybe I should go into entertaining so I have more options.”
“Everyone has options,” he said with absolute certainty. “It’s only a matter of identifying what you want and deciding to go for it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, it is.” He thought about it for a moment. “You’re right. Sometimes identifying what you want takes some time.”
“So you’re saying you don’t do anything right now?”
“I’m on sabbatical,” he replied.
“Cryptic.” She tipped her head. “Why did you come to Chicago? Why not Paris or Rome or somewhere?”
“I have fond memories of Chicago, and the people are nice. My friends have never been here, so we thought to try it.” He studied her. “Where would you go if you wanted to get away?”
She laughed. “You have to have money for that. It’s never occurred to me to get away.”
“Not even on a short vacation?”
“Vacation? What’s vacation?” she joked. In reality, the only time she’d ever been anywhere was to Cabo San Lucas for her honeymoon, and she’d gotten sick after eating shrimp the first night they were there. Talk about setting the tone for her short-lived marriage.
His gaze focused on her like a laser, and he reached under his sleeve. “Don’t move.”
She froze. “Is there a spider?”
“No, of course not.” He pulled out his cell phone from some sort of fancy armband and pointed it at her. “The light is perfect right now. I want to take your picture.”
Her hand went to her hair. “I’m a mess.”
“Weren’t you listening to me?” he asked in a distracted voice as he touched his phone’s screen. “You’re beautiful.”
She tipped her head. “You really mean that.”
He glanced over the top of his phone. “Of course I do. I don’t lie, Rachel.”
She watched him as he got up and moved around. He was sleek, prowling around her like a jungle cat, intent on whatever he was seeing in the screen of his phone. He went down the porch steps, mumbling something about the light.
She smiled. It was cute.
He spent a few more minutes taking pictures before he came back to settle next to her. She waited for him to offer her his phone, but he just picked up his lemonade and drank the rest of it.
“You aren’t going to show me?” she asked incredulously.
“Once I polish them,” he promised with a hint of a smile. “You’re photogenic, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t worried.” Kind of, she was. He was probably that sure and confident in every corner of his life. “You looked like you knew what you were doing.”
He laughed outright at that. “I like to think I do.”
