Read Midnight in Ruby Bayou for Free Online Page B

professional distance, Faith couldn’t help smiling at him with warmth as well as teeth. It was nice to know that someone outside of her family could share an off-the-wall joke with her. Tony hadn’t liked her “snotty” sense of humor.
    â€œKyle used to claim that trying to follow my sister’s and my conversation was like trying to predict where a butterfly would land next,” Faith said.
    â€œEasy. Wherever the nectar is sweetest.”
    Walker’s vivid, dark blue eyes lingered over her mouth. Then his smile faded and he walked the few steps that separated him from the workbench. The hitch in his gait irritated him more than it hurt. It was a reminder of how stupid he had been. Almost as stupid as he was being now, swapping smiles with Archer’s little sister and wondering if her mouth tasted half as hot and sweet as it looked.
    Faith’s smile wavered. While her unwanted guard wasn’t as big as her brothers—much less Tony—there was something very solid about Walker. It made her grateful for his limp. If she had to, she could run rings around him.
    â€œDo you have a loupe in one of those drawers?” he asked.
    â€œShore ’nuf,” she said, imitating his soft drawl.
    He ignored her, because it was smarter than doing what he wanted to do.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said quickly, rummaging in the drawer. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
    He looked at her bent head and the teeth biting into her lower lip. “What way?”
    â€œInsulting. You know. The male ego thing.”
    He knew that the Donovan males didn’t insult that easily. Neither did any man worthy of the name. “I suppose you’re talking about ol’ road apples again.”
    Faith stiffened.
    â€œWell,” Walker drawled. “I’m male and I have an ego and teasing me about my accent doesn’t insult me or threaten me or any of those man-woman discussion-group things. Your southern accent needs some work, though. Good thing I’m an expert.”
    She let out a soft breath and gave him the loupe. “I’ll keep my childish attempts at humor to myself.”
    His eyes narrowed at the echoes of old pain in her voice. “Now, that would be right disappointing, sugar. Nothing is as wearisome as a female with no sense of play.”
    â€œSugar!” Faith’s head shot up.
    Grinning, he opened the loupe. “Gotcha. Nice thing about sisters. Their brothers teach them how to rise to the bait real quick.”
    â€œI knew it. You’re somebody’s brother.”
    The humor vanished from Walker’s eyes, leaving them the deep, empty blue of high-mountain twilight. “Not anymore.”
    He propped his cane against the bench and focused his attention on the box of tiny paper parcels.
    â€œI didn’t mean—” she began.
    â€œI know,” he said, cutting across her words as he selected a fragile little parcel that was barely half the size of his palm. “Forget it.”
    She sensed that he meant it. Literally. But she couldn’t forget the emptiness in his eyes. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, yet she knew she had. She just didn’t know how.
    After a moment’s hesitation, Faith let it go. Walker’s pain or pleasure was none of her business. She wasn’t his girlfriend; the care and feeding of his male ego wasn’t her full-time job. It was a good thing, too. She had been as lousy at it as she had been as a lover.
    But I’m a hell of a good jewelry designer , she reminded herself fiercely. That was where her future lay—business, not pleasure. She would be the artistic, eccentric aunt who kept cats and brought her nieces and nephews gifts from all over the world at Christmas.
    Broodingly she watched Walker unwrap the first ruby with quick, deft motions. His familiarity with the thin paper told her that he had unwrapped a lot of gems.
    Curiosity flicked through her, the same