“Well,” Connie mumbles with a shrug. “You never know.”
“We’d love to come,” Mark interjects without waiting. He’s obviously been the referee between the two of them for a long time, and years of experience have taught him it’s best to get the situation under control before it gets out of hand. “And thankfully, when we get back, there’ll be a bathroom with a door to empty the pipes.”
I raise my eyebrows in question, but Ruby shakes her head, mouthing, “You don’t want to know.”
I nod slightly, just enough that she can see it, and she returns the gesture. She means it to be a quick exchange—she still hasn’t really forgiven me for dragging her out here without a choice—but her eyes get caught on mine like a fly in a spider’s web.
Just like a spider at work, I wrap them up tight to keep them there.
“Well, what time do we leave?” Mark asks, breaking the spell by forcing me to look away. I swallow against a newly formed sensation in my throat and take a quick drink of water to clear it.
What the hell is that?
Am I coming down with something?
“Four thirty. Stands open at five thirty.”
“Fantastic. That gives Connie and me a little time to get in a nap. We didn’t sleep much last night what with being on the plane and in the taxi and then pretzeling our asses onto pillows the size of my thigh around Rube’s table.”
My eyebrows shoot up in question again, and Ruby shakes her head. I shake mine back because her avoiding anything personal is starting to feel an awful lot like a trend. She silently promises me great genital retribution if I don’t drop it, and for a half a second, I actually consider just how bad it would be to let her maim me. I mean, she’d at least be touching my dick, right?
“You bet. Just let my housekeeper Greta know if you need anything.”
Mark nods and stands up from the table, and Connie grabs both his dishes and her own and carries them to the sink. Ruby makes wide eyes at me across the table as I take another bite of my sandwich and stretch an arm out along the back of the chair next to me.
When Ruby’s parents finally disappear down the hall, she lays her head down on the table and groans.
“Good God, what did I do to deserve all of you?”
I smile. “Well, I guess you were a good girl in a past life—”
“No!” she shrieks with a laugh, lifting her head up in a spray of blond hair. “It’s not a good thing. They showed up unannounced in the middle of the night, and you kidnapped me on some random, unexplainable trip to your lake house. I ought to leave all of you wackos out here together and head back to the city on my own.”
“Sounds horribly boring, doll.”
She laughs. “Peaceful.”
“Monotonous,” I challenge back.
“Serendipitous.”
“Ah, see, now I think you’re describing what it’s like to be here instead of home. You weren’t expecting it, but look…” I lift both my arms in a presentation of everything around us. “Look at where it’s gotten you.”
She opens her mouth to protest, and I wag a finger. “No, Ruby. Really look.”
When she turns down the corners of her mouth, I jump up from my seat, round the table, and help her out of hers.
“Cap,” she groans, but I won’t have any of it as I guide her by the hips over to the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of the house.
“Look,” I order, turning her face to the windows with a gentle finger.
She scowls but complies, and I stay there, behind her, the front of my body pressed to the back of hers.
A gentle breeze blows through the trees down by the lake, and multicolored leaves flutter gracefully down to the lawn below. The lake shimmers in the midday sun, and the reflection of the dense trees on the other side makes a stripe of rainbow in the water.
As Ruby’s body finally settles, I push myself even farther into the warmth of her back, lean down, and put my lips to the tiny shell of her delicate ear. The smell of her citrusy hair envelops me, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from burying my entire face inside.
“The red leaves are my favorite,” I whisper. “On the water, they look like little rubies.”
Startled, she turns her head to meet my eyes. “Cap…” I nod. “What are you…? What’s going on here?”
“We’re talking.”
“Don’t be a smartass.”
“It’s the only thing I know how to be, Ruby.”
She sighs and turns back to look at the water again, and I don’t hesitate to move my lips back to her ear again.
“I like you, Ruby. What if, just for tonight, you let yourself see what it might be like to like me?”