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“What?” I ask.
“I didn’t expect to see this.”
I glance down at Jack. “Me holding a baby?”
Ruby smiles. “You’re better at it than I would’ve guessed.”
“That feels like an insult.”
“It isn’t.”
Something about the way she says it keeps me from turning it into a joke. I shift Jack against my shoulder and keep humming while he grabs a fistful of my shirt.
Briar looks over. “You know you’re babysitting eventually.”
“Eventually sounds fine.”
Lachlin gives me a look. “We’ll discuss qualifications first.”
“I’m currently holding him better than you were ten minutes ago.”
“That’s debatable.”
Ruby laughs, and I catch her looking at me again. This time I understand what she’s seeing, and I don’t feel any urge to steer her away from it.
She knows the version of me that gets under her skin and ends up naked in her bed. It might not be a bad thing if she gets to know the rest of me too.
Chapter ten
RUBY
I’m still thinking about dinner with the Hales two days later.
Zander looked completely at ease with his family. He argued with his brothers, stole food from his mom’s cutting board, helped clear plates without being asked, and took Jack from Lachlin like holding a baby came naturally to him.
It was a different version of him than the one I usually get next door. Less restless. Less interested in getting a reaction out of me. He looked comfortable there. Settled.
That’s not a word I would’ve associated with Zander Hale when he moved into the other half of my duplex and immediately started rattling my walls with an amplifier.
I’m shading the edge of a peony when my client shifts beneath my hand.
“Sorry.”
“You’re fine.” I stop long enough to let her reposition her leg, then adjust my stool. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”
She takes a breath, nods, and I go back to work.
The piece covers most of her outer thigh, with peonies, ferns, and smaller wildflowers worked around an older scar she wanted incorporated instead of hidden. Today I’m finishing the deeper shading, so the lighter petals stand out once it heals.
I work steadily for another twenty minutes before Nell appears beside the divider and holds up my phone.
“Your old shop has called twice.”
I look up. “Mission?”
“Same number.”
“Can you tell them I’ll call back after this?”
