Breathless

Chapter 31: How to Woo a Woman - April 4

"Ruby, can you now see yourself as I do?" he prodded her gently a moment later when she failed to respond to him.

"I think so, Blaze. But I might need you to remind me every day for a while. Owen kind of decimated my faith in myself."

He smiled sadly down at her for a little while. "I will gladly remind you how perfectly wonderful you are every single day of your life for the rest of our days."

He lowered his head and brushed a kiss across her lips. Softly. Sweetly. Until she melted. Thoroughly.

Then he straightened and spoke again, "Disheartened, I left you that night. I wanted you to know how much I loved you, but I didn't think you wanted me. At least, not yet. But I knew you still needed your secret admirer.

"I asked myself what gesture could convince you of your worth. I thought about how long I had adored you. I figured it out. To the day. Then to the week. And I realized it was a whole six hundred. What better gesture than to overwhelm you with six hundred roses? I could pile them all in your swing too. To make such a beautiful memory there that you would be drawn to it over and over again."

"You were there, weren't you? When I found them?"

He nodded. "Of course. I wasn't about to miss the look on your face when you discovered I had left you fifty dozen roses."

He grinned with delight. "It was priceless. I'll never forget your expression. Utter shock. Then pure wonder. I wish I had a picture of it, though."

"Where were you hiding?"

"I was sitting in my truck across the street."

"How did I not see you?"

"I think you didn't expect me to still be there."

"But how did you know I wanted to take the flowers to work?"

"Well, I saw you get the tub, but then you carried a bunch of roses inside by themselves. You didn't return for the tub. Not immediately. So I thought about what my sweet Ruby would do. The girl who gave me her Ho Hos when I had no lunch. And I realized she would find other girls with no roses and give hers away. That's when I realized you'd taken some inside to put in vases but left the others in the tub to take with you to work. I knew that tote must weigh a ton, so I moved it to your car for you. I would have put it in the trunk, but it was locked."

"You found the poem I left you?"

"But, of course," he murmured with a tantalizing smile dancing upon his lips. "I loved the poem you wrote me, Ruby."

She beamed. "You did?"

He bobbed his head slowly. "It was beautiful."

Her face lit up with pleasure at his praise.

"So...you followed me to work?"

He nodded. "I knew you'd need help lugging that tub inside."

"So you came to my rescue. My veritable knight in shining armor."

He grinned at her, his teeth nearly twinkling at her.

She laughed. "Then later I saw you at the Taylors' party. Mr. Taylor introduced you as the chef." She frowned. "I questioned you about that later, Blaze. And you lied to me. You acted like he'd mistaken your identity. But he hadn't, had he? You are the chef of The Picnic Basket. And you own it too, don't you?"

He nodded. "I thought it was too soon. I thought that if you put all the pieces together and figured out what I'd been up to, that you'd get scared and run away. I didn't want to scare you away. We were making such excellent progress."