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‘You can’t tell if aa mask,’ Ruby pointed out, ‘and you already know that I don’t hold to Mum’s mantra that a woman isn’t complete without a man on her arm’

‘Muainst her’

‘I don’t hold it against her I’ to follow in her footsteps’

‘By not dating at all?’

‘I date,’ Ruby defended, tucking a recalcitrant strand of her blonde hair back under her poufy white wig ‘When I have the time’

Molly gave her a good-natured eye-roll ‘The last time you went on a date, dinosaurs roamed the earth’

Ruby laughed at the visual ‘I’m not a romantic like you and Mum I don’t see “the one” in every man who looks my way’

‘That’s because you never give any guy a decent chance You find so with all of them and quickly move on But seriously, Rubes, just because Dad left Mum for another woman it doesn’t mean every man will do the same to us’

Ruby couldn’t deny that their father’s desertion had left her somewhat jaded when it came to romance, but that wasn’t the only reason In her experience ive and she had yet to ed that theory

Even Sam Ventura

Especially Sam Ventura—even if he noas her best friend’s brother-in-law

And why did his name leap into her head every tie? He was the very last o he’d char a trite proh on it

Not that she should have been surprised She’d been taken in by his good looks and intelligent conversation, but neither of those things was a precursor to nice manners and true decency At least not where he was concerned!