Page 83 of The Trouble with Wanting

He takes me in as I walk across the room, and I have a split second to decide how to handle myself.

Ultimately, I go with the thing that feels right: boyfriendly.

“Hey, Mr. Bellows,” I say, giving him a smile as I come up behind Ruby and drop an arm around her shoulders. “Good to see you,” I add, extending a hand to him.

Ken’s eyes bounce between the two of us for a second before he does the polite thing, taking my hand and giving it a firm shake.

“Surprised to see you,” he responds. “I didn’t realize Ruby was…friends with anyone in town.”

“More than friends,” I reply, giving him an easy smile before I drop my eyes down to look at Ruby.

Her somewhat shell-shocked expression is mixed with something that looks oddly like…delight?

“We met before she got here. I live in Boston, too.”

I’m aware what I’m saying to Ken is a misdirection, but the last thing I want to do is make him think I’ve turned his daughter into a booty call. I don’t know what their dynamic is or what his values are, but I do know I don’t want to make things more difficult for Ruby, especially when how I feel about her can’t be summed up in just the one week we’ve known each other.

“Small world,” he says, looking back at Ruby.

“Yep,” she says, a smile finally stretching across her face. “So small.”

“Well, I’m glad we’ll be getting together tonight.” Ken shuffles his feet a little. “It’ll give us a chance to talk…about everything.”

Ruby nods but doesn’t say anything in response.

“I’ll see you at 6?”

“Sounds good.”

Then he’s waving goodbye and heading back to his own home, likely still trying to figure out what’s going on with me and his daughter.

Ruby closes the door, inhaling long and exhaling slow.

“Everything okay?” I ask, moving behind her to massage her shoulders.

Her head falls forward, a soft hum coming from her mouth as I roll my thumbs over her muscles.

“Yeah,” she finally says. “I’m having dinner with him and Linda tonight.”

My hands stop moving. “That’s good, right?”

I can tell from the tension in her body that my question was stupid.

“He came by yesterday,” she says. “And it was…not a good conversation.” She launches into what happened last night before I showed up, detailing her interaction with Ken when he popped over, having come back from his trip early.

I’ll be completely honest—the more I’m learning about Ken Bellows, the less impressed I am.

“I can’t believe he was so clueless,” I say, shaking my head once she’s done and the two of us are seated on the couch. “What the hell did he tell Linda before you got here? Did he even tell her about you?”

She shrugs a shoulder.

“I have no idea, but part of me doesn’t really care. What matters is that he hasn’t seemed to do anything right. He didn’t care enough to make sure things went smoothly for the estranged daughter he abandoned two decades ago.”

I purse my lips, trying to come up with anything that might make her feel better, but before I can say anything, Ruby takes in a deep breath and speaks again.

“I feel like…I need to stay here and get to know Ken,” she says, returning her gaze to mine. “He might have done things wrong, and he might be an asshole…”

I grin.

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