so that they were at eye level and she looked at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to see what’s going on in your pretty head,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Try to be charming,” she said. “Sit down and let’s talk about the ranch. That’s all we have between us.”
“We have a hell of a lot more than that.”
“Passion?” she asked, remembering the other night. “Dad always said passion leads to trouble.”
“And he was right. But not this time,” Jason said, putting his hand on her leg. “Are you ticked at me again?”
She shook her head. “Just unsure and kind of mad at myself. It was one thing to have a crush on you way back then, but as a woman I should know better.”
“Better than what?”
“Than to fall for you,” she said. She took a sip of her coffee and looked away from him. Across the street she saw a group of elementary school students all walking in a row and she knew they were heading to the library because it was Tuesday and that’s what they did on Tuesday. They had probably been doing it since the library opened back in 1915.
“Hell,” he said. “You want to do this here?”
“You’re the one who started it,” she said. She hated it, but he brought out her competitive side. Why did she need to one-up him all the time? she wondered. She probably needed to stop reacting to everything he said. But she wasn’t sure she could.
“I am. Well, fine, I needed to get out of the house for the night because you made me want to knock on your bedroom door. I thought, hey, if I am grounded from NASA, maybe this life wouldn’t be too bad, and you know what?” he asked, pausing.
“What?” she asked after the pause lengthened.
“That wasn’t right. I was using you as an excuse to settle. And you deserve better from me than that.”
Settling...it made sense, but it still hurt. She closed her eyes. Cole’s Hill was where he went to escape from his problems. She didn’t want to be an escape for him. She wanted him in her life because he wanted to be there. Not because he felt trapped and out of choices.
“Fair enough. You gave me time to think as well,” she said.
“Yeah, what about?”
“That I don’t want to be a fling for you. Your summer romance before you head back to NASA.”
“You think I’ll be going back?”
She nodded. “I’ve never seen you lose anything you really wanted.” She stood and carefully stepped around him. “I’ll meet you over at Rupert’s.”
JASON WATCHED MOLLY walk away and let her go. He had been honest, but the fact was their situation was complicated and he hadn’t done either one of them any favors by leaving the house for the night because she’d gotten too close. He’d justified it to himself, but then he was good at doing that. He spent a lot of time alone with his thoughts. Training to be an astronaut, spending as many days orbiting Earth as he had—it gave a man time to think.
Time to know himself better than most would be comfortable with. But he’d always been one to keep his thoughts to himself and he’d done that as he’d watched her walk away from the bench. As he’d realized the ranch had a pull on his soul that he’d never known was there.
It wasn’t as strong as the call to explore the universe. But the call was there all the same. And he’d felt a tearing deep inside where he’d always been so sure that nothing could rock him.
A need. A desire for Molly and something that only she could offer him. He’d kept his distance last night because she called to him.
No other woman would tempt him to give up his place in NASA—to give up his dream—but there was a part of him that knew she did.
And he couldn’t justify sleeping with her...having that summer affair she was so afraid of. But he knew if they were near each other it would happen.
They wanted each other. Those kinds of sparks wouldn’t be denied for long. His will would weaken and then...
Stop.
He had to stop trying to control everything. To know every outcome. He was trying to manage Molly as if she was a mission, but he couldn’t be objective. He didn’t think there was a man alive who could be objective about a pair of hips and legs that looked that good. He grabbed his coffee and followed her.
He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned, her long chestnut hair brushing his skin. Her hair was soft, like the cashmere lining his leather gloves. And he wanted to grab one of the tendrils and wrap it around his finger, but he didn’t.
“I don’t want to screw up,” he said and felt better for it. “I want to make sure I don’t hurt either of us.”
“Life’s not like that,” she said at last. “I appreciate it, but you can’t do that.”
“I know. I think that’s why I’ve spent so much time up there.” He looked at the sky. “Up there I am never distracted from the mission. I always know what to do...but with you it’s never been like that.”
“For me, neither. Listen, I know the timing is wrong for this...” She gestured at the two of them and then shrugged.
He laughed. “I have no idea what to call it, either.”
“Flames,” she said. “It feels like a fire inside of me and I have no idea how to put it out.”
“Fire is dangerous for an astronaut,” he said.
“For a cowgirl, too,” she said. “So let’s be smart.”
“I want to,” he admitted, but then he touched her neck, just ran his finger along the column of her throat, and a jolt went up his arm as she shivered.
A light pink flush spread from the skin showing above the scooped top of her dress up her neck, and her lips parted as she went stock-still.
“We can’t be smart with this between us,” he said, softly. He leaned in, putting his forehead on hers and looked into those beautiful brown eyes. “Can we?”
She closed her eyes and licked her lips. “I don’t know. I can’t think when you touch me.”
“I have an idea,” he said, stepping back and dropping his hand. He had a hard time thinking of anything other than the way she’d felt in his arms the other night. The way she had tasted. Had a woman ever tasted as good as Molly? He couldn’t think of one.
“Yeah?”
“We
