Page 30 of Deception and New Direction

“She’s been alone for a long time,”Hankreplied solemnly.

I shook my head. “Notanymore.”

“You’re right.She’sgot me,”Hanksaid, crossing his arms and looking at me like that was all she needed.

“She’s also got me and a lot of other good people at her back, including my sister and the group of women she hangs out with.”

“Y’all may have her back, butI’mguessin’ she keeps everyone at arm’s length.”

Hank wasn’t wrong.Itwas that comment thatI’dbeen thinking about a lot.

We’d had food delivered to the house, andHankhad given me the name of a contractor he knew who did good kitchen renovations—whichIneeded to get working on.

On the drive homeI’dthought more about whatHanksaid—and ultimately how to getRuthieto break out of her shell when it came to letting people in.Moreimportantly, taking a chance on me.

WhenI’dcome home tonight,I’dbeen pleasantly surprised to see the jealousy fromRuthie.Itconfirmed for me thatIwasn’t the only one who felt something between us.I’dlong suspected but never had any real proof from her side.

I had only stopped asking her out on a date because after she moved in with me,Iultimately got whatIwanted without her realizing it.

We’d had dinner together every night, except tonight.Wespent most evenings getting to know each other while she andIsat out on the back porch throwing a tennis ball forDashor just relaxing on the couch watching movies.

From my point of view, there was no need to ask her out to dinner to get to know her better becauseIwas currently getting both of those things every night.Shewas still tight-lipped about her past, butIhad learned things about her thatIlikely would have learned hadIactually taken her out on a date.

She also cooked many nights, which was great becauseIsucked at everything that couldn’t be made using a toaster, a microwave, or a grill—and even then,Istuck with the basics.

NowIneeded to up my game.

I knew there was no way it wasn’t going there with her.Shewas hands down the most gorgeous womanI’dever met.Shewas full of grumpy sass, but it was love at first sight for me.

I hadn’t pushed too much before becauseIwasn’t a hundred percent sure she was fully interested, but after my conversation withHankand her unintentional possessiveness on display tonight,Iknew it was time to give it my all.

Game on,Ruthie.

12

RUTHIE

We were atVince’sloft for family game night.Byfamily,Imeant work family.Ihad mentioned toArcherthat we should consider doing some kind of team bonding thing since we had so many new employees now.

Back whenIworked at the hair salon inVegas, our managers were always trying to do fun things to build up the relationships among the staff since we often had pretty high turnover.

Diego had chimed in with the suggestion of a game night.Hecame from a large family, and game night was a big bonding activity for them.Sowe set it up atVince’sloft since his living room was huge and we could all spread out.

We ordered a bunch of appetizers, pizzas, snacks, beer, soft drinks, and more and had it on aFridaynight so no one had to come in to work the next day.

Everyone fromRangerShieldwas here—Vince,Wade,Jack,Diego,Archer,Dane,Axel,Delia, and myself.Catwas also here—not just because she lived here, but because she also worked out of our office space regularly, so it counted.

I had broughtDashalong since he had come to work with me that day.InitiallyIwas worried becauseCatandVincehad a hairless cat namedHarry—yes, that was his real name.Ididn’t know howDashwould do around cats sinceIhad never really seen him interact with them, butCatsaid her sisterValhad come by earlier to collectHarryso we wouldn’t have to worry about them.

Dash, of course, could tell the moment we arrived that another animal lived here because his nose was on the hunt instantly.Heinvestigated every single room in search of the animal he would never find.

We started the night off easy with a game ofHeadsUp.Holdinga cell phone up to one player’s forehead, everyone around them had to give them clues so they could figure out what word was showing on the phone.

We broke up into teams of two since the male egos in the room couldn’t stand having this not be a real competition.

The three females teamed up, plusJack, who for some reason announced he wanted to be on my team.Axelalso joined us, stating that “women are scientifically smarter than men,” so he wanted be on our team.

Axel was up first, and he picked animals as his category, whichIhad a feeling would be funny since some things got lost in translation with him, given he was originally fromSwedenandEnglishwas not his native language.

---