Love.
He'd said the word "love." Shit, why had he said that word? His throat tightened and his chest swelled and his blood heated. He felt light-headed and lighthearted.
"Hey," she said, dropping causally to the ground at the edge of the springs. "Look in the mirror. You are the most self-confident person I know. You didn't let your rough childhood dissuade you. You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and now you're on the verge of becoming a billionaire."
"Who told you that?" he asked.
"Everyone knows it. You and your drilling technique are the talk of the town. Whether you realize it or not, Ridge Lockhart, people in these parts are proud of you."
"People in these parts gossip too much."
"True," she said, not the least bit offended, sliding off her sandals, setting them aside, and dipping her toes, painted a pearly peach color, into the water. "But that just goes to show how much they care."
"Do you always put a positive spin on things?"
"For the most part." She gave a soft shrug, and slipped out of her tank top. Revealing that red bikini he'd been salivating to see all morning. God, she was gorgeous; her burnished skin glowed. He'd missed so much in the ten years he'd been away, so much about her.
"You know," she said, dragging one big toe back and forth across the top of the water as if she was stroking a beloved pet. "You never did keep up your end of the bargain."
He was so busy staring at her that he drew a blank. "Huh? What bargain?"
"Last night," she reminded him. "You promised to tell me your shameful secret if I told you mine. Then Ember and Ranger interrupted us."
"You have nothing to be ashamed of," he said, swimming over to her, remembering what she'd told him last night. It hurt him to think she blamed herself for what had happened. "You did nothing wrong."
"I still felt ashamed. That's why I kept it a secret."
Except from him. She'd told him everything. It made him feel special to know something about her that no one else knew. Not even her family.
He shouldn't let it go to his head. She most likely told him because she needed to tell someone and she knew he wouldn't be around. That was probably the reason she had told him. He won by default.
"Your turn," she prodded. "Do not leave me hanging, Lockhart."
"Take off your skirt and come into the water and I'll tell you," he invited.
She laughed. "You sound like the Big Bad Wolf."
Teasingly, he wriggled his eyebrows, sent her a leering grin. "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your . . ."
He let the suggestion hang in the air.
She laughed, shucked off her denim skirt, flung her cowgirl hat to the ground, and dove into the water. She surfaced beside him, her hair drenched, her face full of joy, looking at him as if he was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen.
Freakadilly circus. Coming here with her had been a major mistake. They were in the deep. No safe harbor. No touching bottom.
"Here I am," she said. "Now you have to tell me your story."
He dog-paddled. Trying to keep his head above water. She rolled over onto her back, floated beside him like a porpoise, happy and so full of life she blinded him with possibilities. She loved the water, belonged here. She could do this all day, whereas he was floundering. Trying to find footing that was not there.
"You've built it up too much," he said. "It's not going to live up to the hype."
"Stop trying to get out of it. You owe me."
Indeed he did. Because of her, he'd stopped checking his phone every five minutes. Because of her, the weekend he'd been dreading had turned enjoyable. Because of her, he'd started to remember all the things he missed about Cupid. Because of her-
"Sometime while we're still young would be good," she said, doing the backstroke in circles around him.
"You love every second in the water and you know it."
"Yes." She sighed. "The curse of being a water creature born in the desert."
He could take her away from the desert. Wanted to open his mouth and say they could move to Baja and spend their days sipping margaritas on the beach.
If he licensed his drilling technique to a big silver mining company, he could retire with enough money to last a lifetime with millions left over, and nothing to do but make love to Kaia for the next fifty years or so.
"Ridge," she said, and her voice was so full of concern he snapped his head around to stare at her. "You're struggling."