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“Yeah, about that much. Maybe less.”
We both laugh, then, when it all starts feeling like too much, I look up at the night sky. When I glance back at him, I can see Ty is doing the same thing.
“Is that the Milky Way?” he asks, pointing to the band of light to my left.
“Uh huh. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“I’ve only seen it once before. It’s hard to forget.”
“Did you know until the 1920s, people believed the Milky Way contained all the stars in the whole universe?” I ask.
“I did not know that,” he says, looking back at me again.
Nodding, I say, “It’s true. It was Edwin Hubble who proved that it was just one of many galaxies.”
“Edwin Hubble of the Hubble telescope?”
“Yup. 1920 really wasn’t that long ago, in terms of human history,” I say. “Our knowledge can change in the blink of an eye. Technology too.”
“Gwen, I’m not going to change my mind.”
Offering him a guilty grin, I say, “I wasn’t trying to. I was just making conversation.”
He raises one eyebrow at me, and I squirm on the stone bench a little before looking back up at the stars. I’m just in time to see a meteor. I make an involuntary “ooh!” sound and point up as it leaves a long, bright tail against the darkness.
He swivels around and looks up. “Was that a shooting star or one of your friends doing a fly-by?”
I give him a glare, but not a real one. A real flirty one. “A meteor, yes.”
“Oh, sorry, a meteor. Only us laymen call them shooting stars, right?”
“Well, technically they’re not stars, so…”
“Accuracy.”
“Exactly,” I say, trying to suppress a grin (and losing badly). “Actually, it’s the Geminid meteor shower right now, so we should see more. You’d have to come sit on this side of the pool though because they’re generally in the northern quadrant of the sky.” I blush a little, hoping he doesn’t notice on account of my cheeks probably already being bright pink. Shrugging, I add, “I mean, only if you’re into that sort of thing.”
He glances at my lips, then stands up and strides toward me, allowing me the perfect view of his naked torso. Am I biting my lip while staring shamelessly at his chest and abs? Yes, I think I am. I should stop. I clear my throat and turn my gaze back to the sky, even though it’s the last thing I want to look at right now. Ty sits next to me, so close that if I shift just the slightest to my left, our arms will be touching. My heart pounds wildly in my chest and I swear he can hear it in the silence. “Umm… so, do you see Orion’s belt right there?” I ask, pointing up.
Nodding, he says, “Is it that group of stars that looks like a belt?”
I turn to him with a small smile. “You’re a bit of a smartass, aren’t you?”
“Uh-huh,” he answers, looking down at me.
“No one ever writes that about you. In any of the articles I’ve read.”
“You’ve read articles about me?” he asks, looking awfully amused.
Looking back up at Orion, I try to sound very professional. “It’s good to know everything you can about the man who signs your paychecks.”
“Of course. Smart,” he says, but I can tell by his tone he doesn’t believe me.
“What? That is absolutely why I looked you up. Because you’re my boss. Sort of. I mean, a boss is more like someone who actually knows what you do for a living. You’re more of a reluctant patron.”
He ignores the subtle dig, which I thought he’d jump on. Instead, he says, “And in all those things you read about me, what did you learn?”
I pause, trying to decide how much to say. “That you’re a skeptic. You don’t believe in anything you can’t see, touch, or hear.”
