stairs and landed at his feet, a half grin on her face. “How would you know? You never wave back until you’re told.” Where was this coming from? Angela didn’t have a sassy bone in her body and yet … she couldn’t seem to stop herself from bantering with Ryan.
Instead of moving away, Ryan slid closer, his voice dropping. “How do you know this isn’t how I get women to come to me?”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Ha. If that’s the case, you need more practice.”
“And yet, here you are. Beautiful woman standing at my feet.”
“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” Over the last few short visits, she’d confided in him about Jesse. Even about the photo she’d found in Jesse’s wallet. “Remember the photo I mentioned to you?”
“How could I forget? Your voice went all dreamy with intrigue.”
“Okay, okay, slow your melodramatic roll.”
He laughed. “You should talk.”
“Her name is Olivia Murray. Jesse admitted that they were in love—or so he thought—and that she left at the end of summer without so much as a goodbye.” She didn’t know why she had confided in Ryan, but bits and pieces of the story kept falling out of her. “On another subject, I was talking to Jesse this morning and he told me an interesting secret about you.”
“Is that right? And here, I thought I wasn’t interesting at all anymore.”
She grinned. “Quite the contrary. He said you’re a writer. A novelist, in fact. He’s familiar with your work. Me on the other hand, I’d never heard of you.” There she went again with the sassiness.
“Well, I’m not surprised. I write complicated thrillers.” He half grinned. “You seem like more of a trashy romance kinda girl.”
She sucked a breath. “Is that so?”
“Just an assumption.”
“Well, Mr. Literati, why don’t you loan me one of your modern classics, and I’ll tell you how it stacks up to my romances.” Truth be told, she was out of her romance phase and now she liked book club fiction. But arguing with him was the most fun she’d had in ages, and she didn’t want it to end.
“They’re violent. You sure you’re up to the task?”
“I’ll manage.”
“Scary too, sometimes. You’ll be double checking your doors at night. I’m just warning you.”
She placed a hand to her breastbone. “That is if your work suspends my disbelief. Thank you for the warning, but I don’t scare easily.”
He stepped closer to her, and though his eyes were hidden behind his aviators, she felt the change in the conversation. There was a long pause before he spoke. “I’m counting on that, Angela.”
She could only stand still and try to force some air into her lungs. Counting on what, exactly? That she didn’t scare easily? The possibilities were endless. “You had invited me in to see your house. Does the offer still stand?”
“It does.” He turned, and she followed him inside, grateful for the distance between them.
His house smelled like he looked. Fresh, masculine, a scent that was decidedly Ryan. She liked it. It was unassuming. Unlike the expensive cologne Brice slathered on which never quite hide the stench of his self-importance.
“Jesse is a fan of yours. We’ve had a lot of conversations about classics, but he also loves a good modern-day thriller.”
Ryan walked to the cappuccino machine built into the wall beside his refrigerator. “Cappuccino?” he asked.
He moved with ease and so gracefully around his home, one would never think his vision was impaired. “No thanks, but a glass of water would be great.”
He got a glass from his cupboard. “Crushed or cubed?”
“Crushed.”
“Would Jesse want a signed copy? I just got a box of my next release.”
“He’d love it. Thank you.”
They took their drinks as he showed her around the downstairs of his house. It was cool and breezy, interior matching the beach house exterior. The welcoming soft colors that splashed across paintings and furniture screamed Tommy Bahama designs from the furniture store on the island.
After the tour, they settled on his lanai where she could watch the morning’s armada of various boats head out to the open water.
Ryan took a sip of his coffee. “Has Jesse told you anything else about his first love, Olivia?”
“She’s apparently not dead which is what I’d begun to wonder the way everyone was so hush hush about her.”
“Interesting.” He looked thoughtful. “So, where is she?”
Where? Angela had no idea. In fact, it hadn’t occurred to her to ask where Olivia might be. She was more interested in what had happened between the two