He found himself looking at her face then, seeing her features more clearly than ever before, concentrating on her perky nose, her easy smile. He smiled back, but then he stopped, because it was the smart thing to do.
He set out the aqua Fiestaware plates she'd handed to him, then rummaged in her drawers until he found silverware. Before, he'd only been vaguely aware of the vintage qualities of everything in her house, but now that it had been drawn to his attention, he concentrated on it, and he thought it was very Penny-simple, no-nonsense, yet full of an unnamable appeal.
Then, of course, he remembered that she wasn't as simple as he'd originally assumed. But outwardly, the Penny most of the world knew, and the Penny he was supposed to see, indeed fit with the home she'd chosen. He couldn't deny feeling comfortable there.
A few minutes later, they sat down together at the table. "This is great," he said, savoring each bite of pot roast he put in his mouth. "I don't think I've had this since I lived at home."
"Really?" Her eyes widened. "I don't think I could live without home-cooking. It's hard to cook for just myself, but I try to as much as possible."
"Is that why you opened a restaurant?"
She shrugged. "Partly. But I'll admit Patti and I were also thinking of money. We chose the pub atmosphere and downtown location with that in mind, and it's paid off. And our menu doesn't have much home-cooking on it-mostly sandwiches and a few soups-but I'm fond of food in general, I suppose. I like making it, and I like eating it."
Ryan laughed, thinking her terribly cute. He noticed that even though she wasn't a pound overweight, she also wasn't sporting that skinny-as-a-stick look girls seemed to find so attractive these days. "I like a woman who eats," he confided in her. "A lot of the girls I've dated recently are the types who order a salad, no dressing, then watch me eat a huge steak. It makes for a pretty boring meal. I like to eat with someone."
Penny grinned. "I know what you mean. I don't mind eating alone, but if I'm sharing a meal with somebody, I want to really share the meal."
Ryan nodded his agreement, surprised she actually understood what he was talking about, since he'd never really thought about it before.
"So what brings you to Cincinnati from a bustling place like Chicago?"
"Just felt like I needed a new start," he said, keeping it simple. It was one thing to confide your eating quirks to someone, but another entirely to admit a history of job failures, especially considering the circumstances of their own relationship so far. "Martin made me a good offer and I liked what I saw in the company."
Penny nodded, and Ryan was sure he'd just imagined her disconcerted look at the mention of Martin's name. "Martin's a good boss, and a good businessman. I'm sure you'll be very happy with him."
"Can I ask you something?" he asked, after a moment. Part of him knew he shouldn't keep taking them back to that night, yet they were getting along so well he didn't think it was unreasonable to seek clarification on this.
She looked a little worried, but said, "Okay."
"About you and Martin. Did you, uh, tell me you were engaged? I … missed some of the details when we were discussing it."
Penny pushed back a lock of stray hair, dropped her gaze, then said, "No, we're not engaged, at least not yet. He's proposed, but I haven't given him an answer."
He nodded. "I see." He'd thought that was what she'd said, but hadn't been sure, and he'd wanted to know how deeply he'd encroached.
"And speaking of Martin, that reminds me-" she lifted one finger to her bottom lip "-he once showed me a program for another restaurant that had this nifty feature where you click on the item someone orders and all the little options pop up beside it, so no matter what someone wants or doesn't want on their food, the server doesn't have to let anyone know anything special because it's all right there in the extra menus." Then her pretty laughter washed over him. "Do you have any idea at all what I'm talking about?"
Swallowing the bite of baked potato in his mouth, he grinned. "Believe it or not, I do. It's a pop-up option box that displays a list of all the possible choices. There are several ways it can be programmed, and I've got some templates for it loaded on the laptop, so I can let you take a look at them before I leave."
"Great," she said, and they shared another smile.
Unfortunately, though, Ryan had the scary feeling that maybe these were getting to be more than just normal, professional smiles. Especially this one, because their gazes locked for a long time. He felt the connection in his gut, and he couldn't help noticing how deep the blue of her eyes shone in the dim lighting of the kitchen as the sun started dipping behind the trees outside.
"Well … " she said, suddenly sounding nervous again.
"Dinner was great," he said, taking over for her. "Thanks a lot. Now I'd better show you those templates, then get out of your way for the evening."
He rose to his feet as Penny nodded in agreement, then wasted no time making his way back to the living room to his laptop. Taking a seat, he used the built-in mouse to maneuver his way to the windows he wanted to show her.
When she dropped into the chair next to him, he kept his eyes on the computer. "This screen shows the most common way to display the options," he said, then clicked to open another window, adding, "and this layout takes up less space on the monitor, but it's a little harder to see. There's a third method I personally like-" He reached to click the mouse again, but suddenly Penny's small hand came down soft on his.
His stomach clenched.
He swallowed and looked at her.
"Can you go back to the first option?" she asked. Yet when she saw his expression, she quickly drew back her hand as if realizing her error.
"Uh, yeah." His heart thumped like a seventh grader's who'd just been touched by a pretty girl. Eyes on the computer, he reopened the first window. "Sorry if I was going too fast."
"No, I just wanted to compare the two I've seen so far. Can this print be made smaller?" She reached across him to point at the monitor with one long, tapered finger, leaning closer than she had any time throughout the day.
"Not really." His senses began to swim with the fresh scent of her perfume. "Makes it too hard for the computer to distinguish which option is being selected with the screen-touch method," he continued, but he thought his voice sounded sort of strangled now.
"Ah," she said. And although she started to pull her arm back, she did it way too slowly … slow enough to give him time to wonder, to consider, to make the impulsive decision to reach up and gently catch her wrist in his hand.
Angling his body toward hers made it even clearer to Ryan how close they were to each other, how near her sweet eyes rested, and her soft lips, parted now in something that was either passion or surprise, he couldn't discern which. Time moved perilously slow. "I … " What? He what? "Oh, hell," he murmured, then leaned forward to brush a short but tantalizing kiss across her lips.
Penny nearly melted as the featherlight kiss swept through her. She hadn't expected it, but it had felt like a taste of heaven. Except for one thing. It was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Yanking her arm away, she kicked her feet out to send her desk chair rolling across the room. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Kissing you?"
She couldn't believe he'd done it, no matter how nice it might've felt! "You can't be kissing me!"
Ryan nodded emphatically. "I know that, believe me."
"Then why did you do it?"
He gave a helpless sigh. "I have no idea."
The words left her even more stunned, only in a different way now, and she gasped, affronted, almost insulted. He was kissing her and he didn't even know why?
"What I mean is … "
"Yes?"
His demeanor shifted. "I have a lot to lose here, you know. Like my job."
"Then don't you think kissing me is a bad idea?"
"Absolutely." He suddenly looked determined, stalwart. "In fact, you're exactly the last type of woman I need in my life."
She pulled in her breath sharply. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well," he began, lifting his gaze to hers, "frankly, you're too wild for me."