“You can stop now. I get it.” He might not be the most sexually savvy man in the world, but he could put the pieces together. Danger word/safe word. Green light/red light. They were talking full-on sexcapades here—a topic fraught with danger and red lights on all sides. He would not allow himself to discuss mommies, daddies, or any of the things they got up to with Ruby.

Mostly because he wouldn’t mind discussing them with her at all.

“Who is that woman?” he asked, finding it best to change course.

This time, Ruby’s laugh was a full, glorious peal. “The bane of my existence and one of my favorite people in the whole world. She lives at the retirement community where I work.”

“She’s your patient?”

Ruby’s eyes shifted down to her feet. “Something like that. She’s the reason I’m doing all this in the first place.” She rolled her shoulder in a half shrug. “She sort of roped me into it against my will. Wheezy winning the West Coast Canine Classic is her dying wish.”

Spencer cast a look of alarm down at the dog. Wheezy was technically qualified to participate in the competition, and Caleb was as good a dog-show trainer as you could get last-minute, but that dog wouldn’t get anywhere near the final trophy unless he sat on it.

“Dying wish?” he echoed. “I don’t think—”

“Oh, don’t worry. She’s not actually dying. She uses that line to force me into doing things I’d rather not.” She laughed again. “She’s also an avid reader of erotica, if that bit about the danger word didn’t tip you off. We have a book club.”

He didn’t want to ask. He wouldn’t say the words out loud.

He did anyway. “You read erotica together?”

She nodded. “And then we discuss it. At length. And girth, if you want to get specific. Why? Would you like to join us?”

No, he decidedly would not. Especially not if Ruby was going to look at him like that while he did it. “If a danger word is what I suspect it is—”

Her smile widened. “It’s basically the opposite of a safe word. It means full steam ahead, all engines are a go, pistons ready. It was in the last book we read—it was kind of cute, actually. The couple would text each other the word porcupine, and then meet up at the nearest seedy motel without asking any questions. Of course, they were also exhibitionists who left the curtains wide open for everyone staying at the motel to see, but it takes all kinds.”