Ryan shakes his head, seeming amused as he surveys our tower, and I inwardly worry his engineering background will give him some sort of advantage. “Do you only read the type of books you write or do you read other kinds, too?”

I make my next move and easily stack my block on top. “Honestly, I’d like to say I venture out more into other genres, but ninety-nine percent of the time, I stick to romance.”

“Don’t you ever get bored?” he asks. “It has be repetitive after a certain point.”

“I can see why you would think that, but to me, they’re really not repetitive at all. There are so many subgenres of romance that if I ever do feel like things are getting a little stale, I just switch it up that way.”

“What do you mean by subgenres?”

I’m happily surprised by Ryan’s line of questioning and I immediately get a second wind. It’s crazy how just talking about books gives me life.

“I mean that novels can be categorized even further within romance. There are subgenres but then there are also subgenres inside subgenres. So my main subgenre categories of interest would be historical, which we already discussed, and contemporary. Within the historical subgenre, I love a good Western/cowboy romance but I have also yet to meet a Highland/Scottish romance I wasn’t down to read. In contemporary, I love a fun rom-com but I’m also always ready for a sexy military novel.”

“So the romantically horny possibilities are actually endless.”

I cough on my drink as I laugh a bit. “More or less.”

“Interesting.”

Then I pause, wondering if I should reveal this next bit.

Screw it.

“I also take pictures of books.”

Ryan pauses just as he’s about to place a block on top of the tower. “You take pictures of books? As in, professionally?”

“No, not professionally—I take pictures of books around my apartment for my author page on Instagram.”

“Got it,” Ryan says, finishing off his move. “Pictures of the books you wrote?”

“Sometimes, if I’m hosting a giveaway or if I have a new book coming out. But I mainly do novels I’m reading or ones I’ve already read. I deleted all my private social media after we...”

“I’m aware,” Ryan adds, filling in the short silence.

My breath catches a little but I go on, sliding out my next block. “So when I got my first book deal I started up my author page to try to get some sort of a following. Once I did, I noticed I only liked and followed pages that had pictures of books that were staged in these beautiful settings or that wrote reviews. I decided to give it a try and I liked it.”

“That sounds fun-ish,” Ryan says, seemingly trying to imagine what I’m describing. “So you’re like a secret librarian photographer?”