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sideways and reached under the table out of my line of vision. A moment later, his warm hands wrapped around my ankle. Gently, he slipped off one shoe, then the other. “Better?”
    Too much better. Seeing him all sweet and considerate made him a real person. Someone I could actually fall for in more than a crush way.
    Oh, God.
    I would not fall for this guy. I had to shake it off. Just had to.
    “Thank you.” Stella was right. Hanging out with him had been a bad idea. Even knowing Stella would pick me up in a heartbeat, I couldn't make myself leave.
    I took a bite of my garlic roasted chicken with renewed determination not to let myself develop any more feelings for Dallas than I already had. But while I was there, no harm in learning more about him.
    “If you weren’t an actor, what would you be?” I asked between bites.
    “Acting is all I ever wanted to do.” He lifted his glass for a sip of water.
    That’s how I felt about photography. But it was more practical to get a degree in something else, so I had a career to fall back on. “You must’ve thought about it,” I said. “What else would you do? Back-up career.”
    “Hm.” He tore a piece from his garlic bread and popped it in his mouth. “I didn’t see my older sister for a year. She came back when she was seventeen to drop her baby off with my parents, then she took off again. A couple years later, I started hanging out with these guys and getting into trouble. My parents decided to send me to military camp, rather than watch me follow in my sister’s footsteps.”
    “I guess it worked. Unless you have a kid somewhere no one knows about,” I joked.
    “No kids. Just my niece I told you about.” He smiled. “She’s adorable.”
    With Dallas’s shared genes, she had to be super cute.
    “Anyway, it might be cool to run a camp where troubled kids could work with horses, learn how to fish, hike, maybe build things. I loved it when I went. Straightened me out. Put things in perspective for me. If my sister had something like that back then, maybe little Bridget would have a mom right now.”
    Apparently, Jackie hadn’t met Bridget yet, which made it safe to ask questions. “When was the last time you saw her?” I asked.
    “Last weekend, we went to Disneyland.”
    I’d meant his sister, but I loved how his eyes lit up talking about his niece, so I kept quiet. “I bet she loved that. It’s so magical when you’re a kid.”
    “We had a blast. She’s five now and she’s got this big head of curly, black hair and dimples. And, man, you’d be amazed how much kids can talk when they have a captive audience.”
    I laughed. “Just the two of you went to Disneyland?”
    “Yeah. I told her it was Uncle/Niece day. You gonna finish that?” He pointed at my plate.
    His devotion as an uncle made me all warm and squishy inside. That he loved her enough to endure a full day with crowds and squealing kids left me speechless. I shook my head and slid my plate across the table.
    “So your next movie, what’s it about?” I asked.
    A slow smile spread over his face. “Chick flick. Not for you.”
    If he only knew how much I loved the girly movies. “I always wonder why guys do those when they don’t even like them.”
    “That’s like wondering why a chef cooks meat if he’s a vegetarian. Or why a jeweler sells diamonds if she prefers rubies. It’s part of the business and it was a good script. I don’t watch my own movies anyway.”
    After the comment on the jewelry, I barely heard anything else. Why not used cars or something? Did he suspect that my summer job was really at a jewelry store? It was a quick reminder who I really was and that this dinner was all pretend.
    He ate the last bite of my chicken and set the fork down.
    Time to go. I patted my lips with the linen napkin. “We should probably head home.”
    Dallas rotated his wrist to glance at his watch. “Kind of early to call it a night. For you anyway.”
    As appealing as it was to