Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(37)

       
         
       
        

That he'd just pulled out from under her.

Her entire body tensed.

He dropped his hand. Loosely, casually, as if it had meant nothing. It hadn't meant anything, right? She was reading way too much into a simple touch.

At the small of her back.

Perilously close to her butt.

Every spurt of blood passing through her veins bathed her in a fresh batch of heat and simmered like stew on a burner. Unnerved, she stepped away from him.

Ridge took another sip of coffee, studied her over the thermos as he peeled open the power bar. The murky look in his eyes had her convinced he was feeling the shift between them, as well.

"Um . . ." She cleared her throat. "Um, let's get out of here."

She rushed to the truck, not even checking to see if he was following. But somehow he ended up opening the passenger side door at the same time she opened the driver's side.

As they drove through town, not knowing what else to say, she told him the local gossip, what things had changed over the past ten years, who'd gotten married, who was divorced, who'd had babies, who'd passed away.

That loosened him up and he started talking about Calgary, and he told her how different it was from their hometown. Real mountains, not the foothills Texans called mountains. Green. Cool. Wet. Soothing.

But he conceded there were things he missed about home. Balmorhea State Park and the cool artisan springs. Stargazing because nowhere else on earth had a night sky like the Trans-Pecos. The quirkiness of desert folk. Weird little desert trails and random salt lakes that sprang from nowhere. The incredible shift of colors and light at sunrise and sunset.

"I've never really been anywhere except to A&M," she said. "I have nothing to compare home to."

"It's a big wide world out there." He was watching the road ahead, his chin high, his angular lips parted slightly. "You gotta get out more."

"Maybe someday I'll get a chance to explore. I've never even ridden in a plane before."

"Would you like to go up in the Evektor?" he offered.

"Wow, that would be awesome." She clapped her hands briefly before putting them back on the wheel. "But I doubt we'll have the opportunity before you have to go back to Calgary."

"We could go up this morning." He checked his watch. "Before the hubbub of the wedding hits. It's not even seven yet."

That thrilled her. "Really? Do we have time?"

"We should be able to squeeze in thirty minutes."

"That would be . . . so . . . so amazing."

He smiled. "I love the way your face lights up when you're excited. It makes me feel happy." 

She grinned at him, happy that she'd made him happy. Especially after the troublesome night he'd had.

Fifteen minutes later, they were back at the ranch. They placated Archer, assuring him they would return by eight a.m. Ridge gassed the plane with fuel from a tank used by the crop dusters and did a preflight check.

When he was finished, he turned to Kaia and grinned like a man accustomed to having the world on a string. "Ready to soar?"

"Oh yes." A thrill chased up Kaia's spine, and she squinted against the morning sun, wished for sunglasses. As if reading her mind, Ridge settled his sunglasses on her face.

"Hey, you're the pilot," she protested. "You need these worse than I do."

"I have another pair in the plane," he said.

"Always prepared, huh?"

"Never know what might come up." He nodded. "It's always good to stay ahead of the competition."

"Who are we competing against?"

"In this case? The wedding."

The sky had taken on an opalescent orange glow as the sun banked off a column of dense white clouds, shooting bands of light poking through in spots like magical fingers.

He held out a hand to help her up the steps. Once they were belted in, he turned to her and said with a wicked grin, "I'm glad I'm your first."

For a startling second, she thought he meant her first love, but realized he was talking about the plane trip. "Me too."

He started the engine and her stomach fluttered. Her first time in a plane.

Giddily, she curled her fingers into her palms. She cast a glance at Ridge as he fiddled with the controls. She'd pulled her hair back into a ponytail and the tip of it rubbed across her shoulders as she turned.

His face was alight, his eyes bright, lips drawn into a smile, body relaxed. He was happy in the cockpit. The happiest she'd seen him since he'd returned.

"Excited?" he asked, engines churning loudly.