“I don’t know ” That was not how he wanted to spend an afternoon.
She bit her lip. “I wish I could ease you into all this with some other scene, but they’re waiting on me. Please, Cash, please try. I’m an actress. I love what I do. Don’t ask me to choose between you and my career.” Her eyes were moist with unshed tears. He searched for that girl he knew, the one no one else on the planet got to see, the girl who went fishing with him. He couldn’t find her. Maybe she was protecting herself. Maybe she was too upset to let him in.
He could no more ask her to give this up than cut off her arm. She’d been acting her whole life. Not only was it her job—it was part of who she was—it was in her molecules. What would he do if she asked him to give up fishing? He closed his eyes and saw them all wrapped up together on the boat again. That was the girl he wanted. Letting go of her hand was the hardest thing he had ever done, and yet, because he loved her, he knew it had to be done. “I won’t ask you make that decision.”
“So, what? You’re walking away?” The betrayal in her voice was like a knife to his stomach.
“Rubi, I’m not asking you to change who you are. It’s just that I’ve always thought that my wi—” He shuffled his feet. “—girlfriend wouldn’t kiss other guys. And I hear what you’re sayin’about it being an act, but I ” His gaze dropped to her mouth. He’d thought about a lot of things while she was gone and those lips were at the top of his list. “I need to think this out.”
He glanced up to see her hugging herself, like she might break into pieces if her arms weren’t wrapped around her middle. “I’m not trying to hurt you and I’m not saying goodbye. Please, Rubi, I need some time to think.”
She straightened. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Rubi?”
Her arms went to her sides, stiff as tree branches. “I thought we could talk through anything. I thought Well, I didn’t think you’d shut me out.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.” He started pacing. “I can’t think straight with you right here in front of me. You could ask me to climb that cliff with my bare hands and I’d do it just for a smile. Rubi, I’m in love with you.” He cursed. “And I don’t want to be blinded by that love.”
“Then it can’t be love,” replied Rubi. “Love is supposed to make everything clear.”
“Is it clear for you?” he fired back.
“Yes.” She folded her arms. “It’s perfectly clear that I fell in love with an idiot.”
Cash came up short in his pacing. Her words slapped his cheeks, and suddenly everything was clear. He burst out a laugh. “You are so infuriating.”
“Really?” Her lips tugged at a smile. It was that tug that told him she wasn’t acting with him, that he was talking to the real Rubi—the girl who hung out in his boat and chased down her sister’s no-good husband, and spent her afternoon making his business a success.
He closed the distance between them, his hands finding her hips and kneading them. “I can’t say this is gonna be easy.” Nowthat he’d caught sight of his girl in those smoky gray eyes, she was all he could see. “But I’ll try.”
“Really?” Her body melted against his and her hands went around his neck.
He nodded. “I may be a lot of things, Rubi Walsh, but my mama never accused me of bein’ stupid.”
“I think I saididiot.”
“You also said you loved me.” He leaned down until their lips were close enough to create heat. Hovering there, relishing the feel of her against him and the sense of finding his place in the world.
“You said it first.”
“See, I’m not stupid.” He brushed her lips, enjoying the soft, velvet feel of her mouth.
“Are we fixed?” she asked when they pulled apart.
“I’m going to need a little more convincing.”
This time, she didn’t check her grin. “I can do that.” She rose up on her toes to meet him in a passionate embrace that made the whole rest of the world disappear. This was no acting job; this kiss was his girl through and through.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rubi cocked the pistol her grandfather had given her before he passed away. She loved the steel barrel and the polished wood handle. Carolyn had a similar gun in her new apartment, also a gift from Granddaddy.
Carolyn had gotten the job at Leticia’s all-natural bath and body shop without any help from her famous sister. Once the divorce was final, she blossomed with the confidence of a woman who had gone through a heartbreak and not let it break her. Rubi hoped she’d open her heart again one day soon, because Bobby was barely able to hold himself back from sweeping her off her feet.
Taking aim at the target, she squeezed the trigger and the pistol jerked back, jolting her arm. A puff of smoke floated up, and at the other end of the gallery, a hole appeared in the target she’d been aiming for. Not dead center, but in the next circle out.
“Nice shot!” yelled Beau from two stations down. He wrapped his arms around Cindy from behind, showing her how to brace the shotgun against her shoulder and whispering something in her ear that made her cheeks turn bright red.
