Page 125 of The Off Limits Captain
“I am always watching film. Sometimes there are attractive distractions in the frame.”
His eyes drop, then come back up. “That so?”
“Do not look smug.”
“I am eating fries.”
“Smugly.”
A laugh moves through him, quiet and real enough to undo something in my chest.
He leans back against the seat. “Evan saw the lane before I did.”
“And you let him take it.”
“Barely.”
“Barely counts.”
“Not usually.”
“It does with you.”
The words make the truck smaller.
Ryan looks at me then, all the game stripped off him except the parts that never leave. The watchfulness. The restraint. The bruised tenderness he seems annoyed to possess.
“This is not a date,” I say, because the silence presses too close.
Ryan looks at me across the truck cab. “Good.”
“Good?”
“Dates have expectations.”
“And this?”
His thumb brushes the edge of the console, not touching me. Close enough that my body notices anyway.
“This has you.”
The line should be too much. It goes straight through me.
I look out the windshield because I need a moment to recover professional adulthood.
“You cannot say things like that in parking lots.”
“Where should I say them?”
“Somewhere with witnesses who can confirm I handled it with dignity.”
“You did not.”
“I might have.”
“Your ears turned pink.”
“That is a medical condition.”
