unfazed,” she muses. I perk up and waggle my eyebrows. A secret little grin settles into the pointed corner of her mouth. “I feel nauseated by it at least three times a day.”
My smile grows as hers does. She’s amused herself greatly, and I have to admit, I’m enjoying watching her bask in the glory—even if I am the butt of the joke.
“Proud of that one, huh?”
“You bet,” she says, waggling her eyebrows up and down. “I might even take this show on the road. Forget the books. Forget law school. I’m going to be the next Netflix comedy special.”
A wistful sigh leaves my lungs. “I hear life on the road can be hard…”
“I’ll adapt,” she says easily, looking around the park and smiling every time she sees a new dog. “I’ve done it before.” She snorts. “Well, not the stand-up comedy, but life on the road.”
“You have?”
She nods without looking over at me, watching as a poodle prances along the path, its owner walking in much the same way behind it. “Between college and law school. I spent a year traveling all over the US.”
“Doing what?”
She shrugs. Laughs. “Seeing. Doing. Experiencing. Life is so different from one place to the next. We all live in these tiny little bubbles, with our tiny view on ideals. Even those of us who think we’re enlightened. Seriously. There are parts of this country so few people know about.”
Her eyes are bright and expressive, her heart quite obviously fully engaged. And I can’t stop looking at the way her mouth curves up and into her face, all the way into the corners of her eyes.
She tilts her head. “What?”
I try like hell to pry my gaze away from her, but I can’t.
It’s stuck.
“Hey, Ruby!” a woman calls, just as a Pomeranian jumps up into the spot between us on the bench and yelps for Ruby’s attention.
“Oh my God! Julie! Hi!” Ruby nearly shouts, jumping up from her spot, scooping up the pup to give it cuddles, and wrapping her free arm around the woman affectionately.
“I didn’t know you guys came here! Oh my goodness. Hi, Rosie, you little sweetie!”
“Oh,” I marvel quietly. “So, this is how she greets someone she likes.”
Ruby doesn’t hear me; she’s too busy snuggling the hell out of the little fluffy dog, but her friend does and smirks.
“Who’s this, Ruby?” she asks suggestively. Ruby draws her eyebrows together at her friend’s tone, and then she rolls her eyes.
“Oh. That’s just my boss.”
I shake my head at her less than impressive greeting and stand to take the woman’s hand in mine. “Caplin Hawkins. Nice to meet you.” I put my lips to her knuckles.
She blushes, putting a hand to her chest. “Julie Lahitch. It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Julie is engaged to my friend Kevin,” Ruby says pointedly, a scowl in place on her face.
“That’s great,” I say, biting my lip to keep from laughing at her worry. I have no attraction to her friend, but even if I did, there’s zero chance I would mount her out here in the open like one of the dogs in the park. I turn to Julie with a smile. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Julie replies, clearly more smitten with me than her friend. “Are you married?”
Ruby scoffs audibly.
“No,” I say, ignoring the little minx. “I’m not.”
“Engaged?” Julie asks, a sly smile edging its way onto her face as she glances at Ruby out of the corner of her eye.
“Nope.” My smile deepens. “Single.”
“Single but very much manwhoring…wait, I mean mingling,” Ruby says derisively, and I tilt my head in teasing offense.
“I’ll have you know I haven’t mingled in a while.” I try to calculate how many days it’s been and lose track when I get over three weeks. God. This might just be the longest I’ve ever gone, and I can’t even mentally pinpoint a reason.
Has it really been that long?
Like, over a month since I did anything besides flirt with a woman?
Jesus Christ. The almost-kiss with Ruby is the most action I’ve had in…a long fucking time.
What is happening to me?
“Feeling self-conscious about your winter body?” Ruby teases and pulls me from my mental calculations and overall confusion over the long sexual drought.
Her little, confident grin has me shaking my head and chuckling at the same time. “There’s only one body when it comes to Caplin Hawkins, doll. And it’s always a good one.”