Rubi lifted her eyebrows slightly. “I assure you, I did not.”
“Do you want to?” He was messing with her, teasing for the sake of getting a rise out of her. Hey, she’d looked at his truck like it wouldn’t last the trip to the conference center, and that rubbed his pride the wrong way. Rubi’s brow furrowed with uncertainty. Pressing his luck, Cash touched her arm.
He thoughthewas messing withher,but the moment he made skin-to-skin contact, a shift happened. Instead of teasing, he was deeply interested in the answer. He stepped closer, their shoes touching.
Rubi moistened her lips. “Do I want to what?” Her firm tone was gone, replaced by a softness that tickled his desires.
“Ask me to kiss you.” He had meant this to be a question, but it came out more as a suggestion. A suggestion he hoped she’d take.
“I—I–.” She stepped back, bumping against the wall. The jarring seemed to bring her out of her uncertainty. “I’m good. Thanks for the offer.” She threw her hair over her shoulder as if tossing away his words.
Rebuffed, Cash stepped back. “I wasn’toffering.”
She cocked her head. “It suresoundedlike an offer.”
He balled his hands and then forced them open again. He took her elbow, careful to be gentle. “You’re right. I was makin’ an offer.”
Her eyes went wide and he had a front-row seat to the panic and attraction that mixed together like silver and glass.
“I’m offering you a seat.” He ushered her to the folding chair. “You’ve been standing for over an hour.”
“So have you.” She tapped her foot and didn’t sit down.
“I’ve been working.”
“So have I.”
Curiosity got the better of him. “What are you workin’ on?”
She hugged the folder to her chest. “Nothin’. Never mind.”
“You know, when you get nervous your accent gets stronger.”
She put one hand on her hip. “It’s not when I’m nervous, it’s when I’m irritated. And you irritate me more than most.” She poked him in the chest.
He laughed. “The feeling is mutual darlin’”
“Ugh!” She stamped her foot. “I’mnotyour darlin’”
He winked and ducked through a slit in the black curtains his heart pounding away. The Expo would begin in less than fifteen minutes and they still needed to unpack the T-shirts. If he was smart, he’d stay on this side of the curtain and as far away as possible from Miss Rubi and her captivating eyes.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rubi hugged the binder to her stomach and covered the tingles on her skin with her hand. At Cash’s touch, sparks of energy went through her body like lightning bugs drunk on moonshine. She could only imagine what would happen if he were to actually kiss her.
Her hand moved to her mouth. She hadn’t been asking to try his lips on for size. She’d been going over lines for her part inEgypt’s Gold. After a rather rocky read-through at the studios where Cindy Knight seized control of the company and ousted her stepfamily from the office, production had gone on without a hitch. Rubi’s co-star, Beau Mckay, was so deeply in love with Cindy that he had a dopey grin on his face most of the time.
Unable to sit still, she pushed her way through the curtains and glanced around for something to do. There had to be some chore she was capable of accomplishing even though her fingers trembled. Major and Cash were folding shirts and laying them on the table on the right. Folding T-shirts she could do. “Mind if I help?”
Cash shook his head. “Can’t you stay behind the curtain?”
She grinned. “Sorry buster, I’m a center-stage kind of girl.”
A smile tugged at his cheek and he turned away.
“Thanks for the offer, Miss Rubi,” said Major as she grabbed a black tees that saidA Bad Day Fishing is Better than Taking Out the Garbage. Major’s eyes were the exact shade of blue as Cash’s. Funny, she never paid that much attention to people’s eyes before. In fact, she spent a lot of time avoiding eye contact with people so she wasn’t recognized. It was a survival tactic, and it worked. Only now was she realizing how much she’d missed out on.
Where Cash’s eyes made her insides go all marshmallow, Major’s eyes warmed her like one of her Daddy’s comforting hugs.
