kiss.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. First thing.” He winked at her. “So tell me when it’s midnight.”
“I’m nobody’s timekeeper, Trace. Trying not to be.” She gave her head a quick shake as she echoed her admonishment to him. “Give it up, Skyler.”
“We’re talking past each other here. Look at me.” He waited for her full attention, which she granted. “Right here, right now, you and me. One kiss to start the day. It’s my birthday.”
“Oh.” She smiled. “Well, that’s different.”
“I’m different. Give me a day to prove it.”
“Why?”
“Because …” He glanced at her watch. “It’s midnight.”
“Happy birthday.” She tipped her head and leaned close to bestow a friendly kiss.
He slid his arm around her and met her halfway, raising the ante on her gift by making it interactive, taking her breath away. Her kiss became theirs as she slid her arm around him and smoothed the back of his shirt with her eager hand. She felt trembly inside when he lifted his head and looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes that said gotcha.
“Spend the day with me,” he entreated, and she had to glance away from those glittering eyes to keep from jumping all over the suggestion.
“What’s holding you back?” He raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, and I’ll get it out of your way.”
“I have things to do at home.”
“I’ll help you. Give me one day and I’ll give one back.” She hesitated, and he laughed. He knew he had her, but he offered, “Two. I’ll trade you two days for one, and I’m a damn good hand.”
“Now, that’s tempting.” A crazy idea was taking shape in her head. Lately they’d been popping up like soap bubbles. Crazy notions pushing for bubble-headed moves. She’d made one or two, just to get herself off dead center, and she was about to make another one.
She smiled. “What can I get out of you on those days?”
“What do you need?”
“Mostly horse sense.”
“Well, then, I’m mostly your man.”
“I own horses, condition them, ride them, school them. I’m a natural, really. And I’ve had some spirited horses.” She leaned into her story, trusting him with the girlish enthusiasm that was generally reserved for her horses. “So I thought, why shouldn’t I be able to turn a mustang into a mild-mannered saddle horse? We could learn from each other. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”
“For me?”
“For me. I entered a training competition. But I might have bitten off more than I can chew.” She lowered her gaze to his smirking lips. She could still taste them. “How are your teeth?”
“I’m not missing any, but you’ll have to take the deal before I let you count ‘em.”
She laughed. She liked this man. She truly did. “After two days, can I have an option to hire?”
“Nope.” He leaned back, challenging her with a playful look as he reached toward his glass. “Free agency after three days. Then we renegotiate.”
“Sounds fair.”
“It’s more than sound.” He gestured, glass in hand. “You’re getting a twofer.”
“Can’t pass that up, can I?” She slapped the table. “Okay, I need to rest up for the big day.”
“Oh, no. Today is my day.” He drained his drink and then set the glass aside. “I get to call the shots. You play Hearts?”
“The card game?”
“We’re gonna shoot the moon, Skyler Quinn,” he promised with a charming wink. “We’re gonna make room for sunrise and then watch it together.”
The image made her smile. The image and the challenge. She remembered that shooting the moon meant collecting all the hearts in play, and this man clearly had the knack. But if there was one heart that wasn’t going down on the table, it was hers.
So call your shots, cowboy. The night’s as young as you are, and I’m game.
He lifted a strand of hair from her shoulder and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. “What do you call this color?”
“I think the bottle said strawberry.”
“I don’t see strawberries. I don’t see a bottle. But I have seen this color somewhere.” He abandoned her hair and took her hand, drawing her out of the booth. “It’ll come to me.”
“Where are we going?”
“To find some slow and easy holding-you-in-my-arms music. I just danced out of my twenties and I wanna dance into my thirties.” He squeezed her hand. “You with me?”
“Yes, I am.” She squeezed back. She was getting that giddy feeling again, and she was beginning to like it. “I like your style, cowboy.”
“Skill takes you to the whistle, but it’s style that wins the buckle.”
Trace turned off the highway and followed a familiar dirt road to a spot overlooking the Powder River with a long view to the east. He’d found it back in his rookie days, and it was still a favorite place to pull off the highway and catch a little sleep knowing the sun would roust him in plenty of time to get to Casper to make the afternoon show and then head for Denver or Boise. He slept just fine in the cab of his pickup as long as there were no headlights coming at him, no 18-wheelers whooshing past him in the night.
Skyler was asleep. At his suggestion, she’d cranked her seat back and drifted off in the middle of her own sentence. Something about not being able to sleep on the road. He wasn’t going to let her sleep much longer. He’d flipped the center console upright and made way for a close encounter. With the moon on the run, it was the darkest part of a night that would soon be cracked by daylight. If he’d picked the right spot, they were in for a spectacular moment. But in the dark he couldn’t be sure the landscape hadn’t been sullied since his last visit. Miners and drillers were tearing into the Powder River country like some Biblical plague. He wanted this sunrise—his sunrise—to reveal nothing but pristine Wyoming.
But watching the woman sleep was nice, too. He was trying to decide how to wake her—whether to say her name or touch her bare shoulder, maybe her cheek—when she stirred, edging closer, giving faint voice to her soft sigh. He touched his lips briefly to hers and felt the sweet beginnings of a smile. He lifted his head and watched her lashes unveil her eyes, a gradual dawning. The smile vanished momentarily, but then it returned. It was too dark to see it in her eyes, but he knew it was there. He could feel the connection when she recognized him.
“Are we there yet?” she asked sleepily.
“No,
