Page 24 of Playboy For Hire

“Yeah, but that would defeat the purpose.”

“What purpose?” he asked suspiciously.

“Getting you away from our table before you have an aneurysm.”

“What?” He blinked. He’d been paying so much attention to our conversation that he’d forgotten to step on my feet for the past fifteen seconds—a new record. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not sure exactly,” I told him. “But I know something’s bothering you, and I think it has to do with Julie and Brandon. You’ve spent the past thirty minutes conspicuouslynotlooking at them, which is impressive for a round, eight-person table.”

“No I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have. I’m not saying you have to tell me why. I’m just saying, I noticed that you seemed uncomfortable at our table, so I thought dancing might be a good idea.”

“So I can be even more uncomfortable?”

I laughed in spite of myself. “Something like that.”

Quinn looked away, his gaze traveling around the dance floor. I saw the moment he caught sight of Brandon and Julie. I felt it, too. His posture went rigid, and he froze, stamping on my right foot.

I turned us so Quinn was facing the opposite direction. “So, I never got to ask. What doyoudo in your free time? I’m assuming it’s not dance classes.”

“Definitely not.”

“So what do you do instead?”

He looked down. “Nothing too exciting. My life is pretty boring, really. And nerdy.”

“I can work with nerdy. Nerdy how? Are you a member of your grandma’s book club too?”

“No, but I do read a fair bit. I like hiking in Rock Creek Park. I got kind of into birding during the pandemic, and I still do a bit of that. I like crosswords. I play bridge with Auntie Thea and her friends.” He shrugged. “Basically, if it’s something an eighty-year-old would enjoy, I probably do it too.”

“That’s cool.”

He made a face. “It’s the opposite of cool, actually, but I don’t mind it. I work a lot, so I like my free time to be low stress.”

“What kind of law do you practice?” I asked. “Are you out there in the courtroom every day? ‘Your honor, I rest my case,’ and all that?”

He laughed. “God, no. I’m a law librarian. As far away from the courtroom as you can get.”

“Wow. You must have had to go through a lot of school for that.”

“Undergrad and law school. Well, a joint program where I also got my masters in library science. Just to add to my nerddom,” he said with a rueful smile.

“If you’ve found something you like, who cares if it’s nerdy?”

“Spoken like someone who’s never been called a nerd in his life,” Quinn snorted. “Anyway, enough about me. What are you gonna do when you graduate?”

Heat flooded my face, but I kept an easy smile plastered onto it. “Oh, I don’t know. Some boring business job.”

“You must be doing lots of interviews right now. I remember how stressful it was, making sure you had something lined up after graduation.”

Sweat broke out on my brow, and my stomach twisted, the way it had all year, any time someone brought up applications and interviews and job prospects. Because Ihadbeen putting in applications, but I hadn’t gotten a single interview. Most places didn’t even write back to thank me for my interest.

“Yeah, more or less,” I said, but it was getting more and more difficult to keep my face relaxed.

“I’d be curious to learn more, if you want to talk about it,” Quinn said. “After all the first dates I’ve been on, I’m an expert at pretending to care about people’s jobs. And I actually like you—” He broke off suddenly, looking horrified. “I mean, I don’t—not like—you know what I mean.”

He was so flustered, it was cute. And distracting from my own worries.

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