Ruth paused with the lip of the glass just a whisper away from her lip. "Has she mentioned anything to you?"
Nick was watching her carefully.
She could feel his gaze on her.
It was both soothing and... stimulating at the same time.
"Not exactly, but she didn't just okay us going out," he explained, "she put together a checklist with twenty-one points where I had to pass muster before she'd let me go and pick you up at your door."
The sip of Moscato tickled her tongue.
She had to concentrate to swallow it down before she spoke. "Twenty-one?" She held the stem of the glass between her fingers as she looked at him. "I'm surprised you were able to escape!"
He nodded. "Me, too. But I appreciate that she wanted to make sure that things went smoothly."
Ruth took another sip of her wine. "I don't want to disappoint her."
"I think when you care about someone the way that she's coming to care about you, she wanted to make you happy as much as I do."
Those words.
The timbre of his voice.
It felt like a physical touch.
"I... I care about you both," she could hear a slight tremor in her voice. It mimicked the tremulous feeling in her chest, around her heart. "When you asked me out for a date, I worried that I'd make a colossal mess of the whole thing and we'd go back to being near strangers on each side of the fence."
She felt something warm on her thigh, shifting the fabric against her skin.
Ruth looked down and saw Nick's hand on her leg.
She watched as his thumb swept back and forth against the soft, silken feel of the fabric.
When she lifted her gaze to find his, he was watching her carefully.
"I don't want us to go back to the way things were."
"Don't worry," she shook her head, "no matter what happens between us, Nick. I won't let Katie suffer. She... she's become a part of my heart."
She winced. "I know that might sound silly, but it's true."
He shook his head. "How is that silly? It took me one second looking at her to fall in love for the rest of her life."
Ruth nodded. "Looking around here, I can see it, too."
She gestured at the room.
"Katie said that the two of you moved here to make new memories," she watched Nick's expression carefully without staring. "She said she didn't even really look at the furnishings when you two moved in." She turned her head to look in one direction and then the other. "The furnishings here look more like your style."
He looked back at her with a curious look in his eyes. "I have a style?"
Easing back against the cushions she nodded and took another sip of her wine. "The dark colors of the furniture. The warm wood of the tables and chairs. It reads to me like 'guy stuff.'"
Nick almost choked on his sip of wine. "Guy stuff?"
Ruth nodded. "Yeah. Like I opened a catalog for stuff that hot guys would buy and here it all is." She turned on the sofa cushion and picked up a colorful pillow that was shaped like a dragon with glittering eyes. She turned back toward Nick with a grin. "Hot guy stuff mixed with adorable daughter stuff."
He was still staring at her face with a big grin on his. "You think I'm a hot guy?"
