There was a feeling inside her as she gazed into the brightness of his eyes and the dazzling quality of his grin that felt as eager as two grappling hands on her heart. It was likely the first taste of perhaps-returned infatuation, the feeling of a beginning, and for all people could misconstrue of Ruby, it was not a feeling she was used to. She wondered then, desperately, what she should wear and how she should act and what, most of all, Graham suddenly liked so much in her that he'd decided to ask her out after all this time. She supposed it was a pointless question, as it did not change that she'd said 'yes' and that she now had a Valentine's Day dinner date with the Sheriff.

Perhaps, in time, if something came of the two of them she would have to ask, but wasn't that silly to even think of? Ruby wasn't the sort of girl to start building castles in the sky from the first moment an attractive man showed her any sort of attention, so she briskly shoved those thoughts back onto whatever long-forgotten shelf they'd fallen off of. She detested it when her friends became stupid over men, and she would not make the same mistake.

"I think it will be very good," she said, deciding to continue the light, teasing quality of their conversation. It would certainly keep her thoughts from straying to more matronly things. "I'll have to find something very special to wear for my favorite Sheriff. Not every day a girl gets asked out by the best lawman she knows."