“Sorry.” His throat felt as if he’d swallowed a cobweb. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”
She shifted in her seat. “There’s more than enough room for both of us.”
“You’re sure?”
“I won’t hesitate to scream if you misbehave.”
He grinned at her teasing tone. Dropping his belongings, he lowered himself into the hot water and groaned.
“You’ll let me know if you’re on the verge of an orgasm?” she asked. “I’d prefer not to be in the water when it happens.”
He opened one eye, not sure what to make of her, but played along. “I’ll give you plenty of time to run.”
With their heads resting on the edge of the tub and their eyes closed, they sat in comfortable silence for several minutes, listening to the hypnotizing rumble of the water jets. Although his body remained keenly aware of his hot tub companion, his mind relaxed and his frenzied, tangled thoughts unraveled, one by one, until they finally floated away.
All except one. His curiosity about the loner went into overdrive.
“What brings you into the city?” she asked, beating him to the Q&A period.
“What makes you think I don’t live here?”
“I have an eye for detail.”
He lifted his head. “What detail gave me away?”
Her eyes caressed his face before trailing down his chest and into the depths of the water. “Your hands, for one.”
“What about them?” He raised them out of the water, turning them one way, then the other.
“Not a single paper cut.”
He smiled. “What else?”
“Your necklace. It lacks the requisite bling for the city.”
A thin, brown leather rope encircled his neck with a black onyx stone resting in the center. He’d picked it up at a farmer’s market in Black Mountain last year. The woman who made it said the stone would help him make wise decisions and feel more centered and calm. He never took it off.
“Anything else?”
“The most telling bit of evidence is your mud-splashed truck.”
That she’d seen him in the parking lot without him noticing her gave him pause. “Are you stalking me?”
“Nothing so dramatic. My shuttle bus pulled into the parking lot at the same time you were exiting your monster truck.”
“That was a few hours ago, yet you still remembered me.”
“Well, you are hard to forget."
Did she remember him from the dining room? Remember wishing the loser sitting alone a happy birthday?
His fingers tingled with the sudden urge to release the mass of red hair coiled on top of her head. With deliberate movements, he braced his arms on the rim of the Jacuzzi. “Good detective work…”
“Olivia—or Liv, if you prefer.”
“I’m Zeke.”
“Zeke,” she repeated. “I’ve heard that name only once before. Is it short for something?”