Page 130 of It's Not PMS, It's You

Nick shrugged. “I love working outside and getting my hands dirty, you know that. I love helping people and I want to stay active. I enjoy creating magical places for people to unwind. Continuing to do what I love accomplishes all those things. I charge enough money to pay Brandon’s salary, plus have a little extra to pay for a sushi meal here and there.” He grinned. “Okay, more than a few sushi meals, but you know what I mean.”

“Nicky . . . that is just so sweet and—” I kissed him on the lips.

He pulled away from the kiss, grinning, his eyes still on me. “If I asked you a question, will you tell me the truth?”

I smirked. “You can’t spell truth without Ruth.”

He chuckled. “I can’t believe you’re that corny.”

“But you love it, don’t you?”

He chuckled. “I do.” He hesitated, staring into my eyes. “My question is . . . what do you think aboutus?”

“Wow, this is getting deep, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

We continued to sway back and forth as Bryan Adams sang about being in heaven.

I was in heaven.

“Ruth?”

I laughed. “Sorry. I was listening to the lyrics of this song.” I thought about his question. “What do I think about us? Well, things can happen a lot faster at our age, because we have the experience to know exactly what we want and what we don’t want.”

“Uh-huh. I can appreciate that. And what do you want?”

I was known for having the confidence to say what was on my mind at any given time without fear of what people thought, but my heart rate picked up speed as I anticipated the words that were about to come out of my mouth. “I wantyou.”

Nick grinned. “What a coincidence.”

And his lips were on mine again, this time with more passion, more feeling.

He pulled me closer, tighter.

I felt my legs getting weak and—

“Okay!” the DJ said on the microphone, causing me to jump and bump teeth with Nick’s. “That’s the end of the night for us. Thank you for coming. Good night!”

I pushed back a little from Nick’s arms. “Do you want to go back to my place?”

“I think Ihave togo back to your place since I drove you here, remember?”

I squeezed his arm. “Youknowwhat I mean . . . do you want to go back to my placeandcome inside?”

Nick nodded. “There’s nothing more I would rather do.” This time, Nick grabbed my hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

We thanked the woman for inviting us to dance with her and walked out of the banquet room toward the front of the hotel.

“Ruth,” Gary said. “There you are.”

Crap. Talk about bad timing.

I stopped and flipped back around. “Hey, Gary. What’s up?”

“I’ve been looking all over for you for the last ten minutes.” He glanced back at the banquet room. “What were you doing in there?”

I decided to tell him the truth. “Dancing.”