“Why is my head screaming ‘Technicality’ when you say that?” Ruby demanded. “I’ll rephrase. Has any sexy man kissed you with mind-blowing passion since Frankie?”
Deanna sighed. “You’ve been hanging out with lawyers for too long.”
“Dee?”
“You’re relentless.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am,” Ruby said with pride. “Well?”
“Okay, no.”
“You did kiss him back, didn’t you? You didn’t freeze up or, worse yet, slug him?”
“Oh, no,” Deanna said, feeling her cheeks flood with heat. “I definitely kissed him back.”
Ruby beamed. “This just gets better and better.”
“It was a kiss,” Deanna reminded her. “It lasted all of thirty seconds, tops. Then he apologized and bolted out of the kitchen.”
“Smart man,” Ruby said with approval.
“Smart?”
“Always leave ’em wanting more. I think that’s especially applicable in your case. If he’d swooped in for another kiss, you probably would have slugged him.”
Deanna regarded her with dismay. “I do not make a habit of slugging men.”
“Only because none prior to this have been brave enough to ignore the Do Not Touch warnings posted all around you.”
Deanna took an exaggerated look around. “I don’t see any signs.”
“Trust me. Men do. Our Sean is a very brave man. He gets my vote.”
“Vote for what?”
“Guy you’re most likely to sleep with.”
Deanna ignored the fluttering that Ruby’s words set off in the pit of her stomach and held up her hand. “Hold it right there. It’s a pretty big leap from letting the man kiss me once to hopping into bed with him.”
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no,” Ruby replied knowingly. “I’m betting it’s not much more than a baby step for Sean.”
“Then isn’t it a good thing I don’t intend to see him again?” Deanna shot back.
“Coward,” Ruby accused softly.
Deanna met her friend’s direct gaze without flinching. “Darn straight.”
For nearly a month now, Deanna had been going out of her way to avoid him, Sean concluded when Kevin and Ruby showed up at the fire station without her yet again. It was getting on his nerves. So was watching this bizarre dance Hank and Ruby seemed to be doing. They barely spoke. Hank merely watched her as if she possessed the key to eternal youth.
After observing this same ritual for an entire afternoon, Sean finally decided he’d had enough. Since Hank wouldn’t answer his questions, he decided to try Ruby. He sent Kevin off to the kitchen to bring back sodas for all of them.
“You and Hank have a fight?” he inquired as casually as possible.
Ruby regarded him with an unflinching gaze. “No. Why do you ask?”
Sean shrugged, uncomfortable in his unfamiliar role as meddler. “Seemed for a while as if you two were really hitting it off. Now it doesn’t.”
Her expression brightened. “Sort of like you and Deanna?”
He frowned at that. “Who said anything about Deanna?”
“Since we’re discussing our personal lives, I figured it was a fair question. You going to ask her out?”
Sean was flustered by the question. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
“Why not? Didn’t you enjoy kissing her?” Ruby asked bluntly.
He groaned. He’d thought that was a relatively well-kept secret. “She told you about that?”
“Not willingly,” Ruby admitted with a grin. “I pried it out of her.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and wished he had the power to make himself sink through the floor. “Yeah, well, that was probably a mistake.”
“Me prying or you kissing?”
He chuckled despite himself. “Probably both.”
“You regret kissing her?” she asked, clearly disappointed. “Because I don’t think she does. I think she’s scared, not sorry.”
Sean was intrigued by her interpretation. “Why would she be scared?”
“Because she hasn’t dated much since Frankie left. The scumbag really destroyed her self-confidence, if you know what I mean. She doesn’t trust her own judgment when it comes to men, so she avoids all of them.”
Sean studied her with a narrowed gaze. “Is there a point to all this insight you’re sharing with me?”
“Just that you’re the first guy she’s shown any interest in. Add to that the fact you’re a nice guy, and that makes you the perfect candidate to help her get her feet wet.” She surveyed him closely. “Unless that kiss scared you, too. Is that it, Sean? Are you as much of a coward as she is?”
Sean ignored the taunt. “Who told you I was a nice guy?”
“Nobody told me. I am a good judge of men. Not that you could tell it by the one I married, but I learned a lot from that mistake. My standards have improved.”
“Is that why you ended things with Hank?”
She regarded him with surprise. “Who said I ended things with Hank?”
“I just thought…”
“You thought I’d dumped him because I figured out that he’s a big flirt.”
“To be honest, yes.”
Ruby patted his cheek. “Honey, that just makes him a challenge,” she said.
Shaking his head, Sean watched her as she sashayed off toward the kitchen in search of Kevin. He had to give her credit. She understood Hank probably better than Hank understood himself, which raised an interesting point. Did she understand him, too? Was he avoiding Deanna because he was a coward?
Yep, no question about it. With his reputation on the line, he picked up the phone on the wall, took a slip of wrinkled paper from his pocket and dialed her number at the restaurant. He was relieved when Deanna was the one who answered on the first ring.
“Ruby, is that you?”
“No, it’s Sean.”
“Oh.”
“I thought maybe we could go out for dinner sometime. Are you interested?”
Silence greeted the blunt question, then she finally demanded, “Did Ruby put you up to this?”
Sean chuckled. “Sweetheart, Ruby may be able to manipulate your pal Joey, but she doesn’t get to me.”
“That doesn’t mean she didn’t try. I know she and Kevin are over there.”
“Look, leave Ruby out of this. It’s a simple question. Would you like to have dinner with me sometime or not? Yes or no?”
“You could come by Joey’s,” she conceded eventually. “We could eat together when I take my break.”
Sean bit back a grin at her attempt to avoid being on
