Page 30 of Rating the Book Boyfriend

He shakes his head. “No, she prefers to shop with her friends, so I got the bank to issue her a card from my bank account. She gets the best of both worlds, shopping with her friends while Ipay from a distance.” He flashes me a chagrined smile.Wow, that’s… something.

“What about her favorite foods?”

“A mixed greens salad with two tablespoons of light Italian dressing,” he says without pause. “Always.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Riggs pauses with a chip halfway to his mouth. “What’s that look?”

“What look?”

“That uncomfortable look on your face.”

Damn, he really is perceptive. “I just feel a bit over the top right about now,” I say with a laugh. “Mine changes with my mood, and salad is no part of it. My comfort food is probably Oreos, but I love McDonald’s french fries with extra salt too. And shrimp. Any kind of shrimp.”

He tilts his bottle toward me. “I bet I can change your favorite food with one meal.” I lift my eyebrows at him. “I make the best red snapper you’ve ever eaten.”

“You cook?”

Nodding, he takes a long drink. “Yep, my Nana Viv taught me. If you want, I can cook that big boy you caught for our next meeting.”

He’s going to cook for me?“That sounds wonderful.”

I’m so impressed with this man, and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Why did Lucinda sign him up for Book Boyfriend Builders? I read the application she filled out, and it was very vague, only stating that she wants her boyfriend to be “swoonier.”

Maybe he’s nice on the surface but acts like an ass to his girl in private.

“What’s the last gift you bought for Lucinda?”

Riggs swallows his food and says, “Diamond earrings I bought while I was in Colorado. I always bring her somethingback when I travel, but she’s not really into what she callscheesy souvenirs. She says they’re cheap and stupid and she prefers jewelry, so that’s what I get her.”

I’m beginning to get the first inkling that maybe I don’t like this Lucinda chick very much. But it’s not my job to judge. It’s my job to make this swoony man somehow swoonier.

“That’s good, Riggs. It’s important to know your woman’s preferences.”

He smiles, but it seems forced. “Yeah, I try. I also brought my sister some earrings and a funny shot glass. She collects them.”

I lick my finger and make a tick mark in the air. “Bonus point for being sweet to your sister.” He laughs, and I say, “I collect magnets. When my dad would go away for work, he’d always bring me one from whatever state or city he went to. I still have all of them on my refrigerator.”

“It’s nice that you have those. What did your dad do?”

“Insurance sales. He only had to travel to conferences once or twice a year.”

Riggs’s smile is soft and kind. “Will you tell me about your parents? If it’s not too hard to talk about?”

We spend the rest of our meal talking about my family. We even discuss how my birth mother was a troubled young woman and ran away from home when she was eighteen, losing all contact with her family.

I know we’re supposed to be discussing him and Lucinda, but he just seems so interested, which is a nice change. I’m not sure Logan even knows my parents’ names.

Darryl pops his head outside, his eyes moving tentatively between us. Poor man’s probably afraid of walking out on a scene like the ass rubbing incident. “I’m going to move us to another location, if that’s all right with you, Riggs. We had some good luck there yesterday.”

“Sounds good, man. Thanks.” Riggs stands as the captain returns to his cabin. “Fuck it’s hot,” he says, reaching for the hem of his T-shirt. “Okay if I take this off?”

I barely hold back from screamingfuck yes, take it all off, big boyand manage to nod placidly. “Of course. I think I’ll take mine off too, if you don’t mind.”

His grin is positively wicked. “Don’t mind a bit, Liberty.”

Is he flirting with me? Surely not.

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