where the hell had that wild-ass thought come from?
Clay had never been one to mess with the touchy-feely stuff. And the fact that he’d let down his guard and nearly done so, didn’t sit well with him. So he did the only thing he could think of. He offered her another drink.
Interestingly enough, she agreed without much hesitation.
“A little turbulence is no big deal,” Clay told her. “Really. Think of this as a car going along a bumpy road.”
Yeah, right, Dani thought.
When it came to aerodynamics, that was probably true. But it felt as though there were only clouds holding them up, and the waters of the gulf below were waiting to swallow them whole. That is, unless they’d already crossed over the Mexican border, in which case…
Oh, for Pete’s sake. Her fear of flying was as real as it was embarrassing.
She knew what Clay was doing. He was trying to make her feel better, and she appreciated his efforts.
“I don’t suppose we have to let Martin know about this, do we?” She took a sip of her drink, expecting to scrunch her face at the taste of the vodka and force herself to swallow. But this second screwdriver tasted better and seemed to be going down a lot easier than the first.
“Let Martin know about what?” the rugged rancher asked as if he hadn’t picked up on her distress.
“I had a bad experience a few years ago,” she admitted. “We almost crashed. Once we got back on the ground, I swore I’d never get in a plane again, at least not a small one.”
He took a swig of his scotch, then nodded at her glass. “Drink up. Then let’s share battle stories.”
“You had a frightening experience, too?” she asked.
“More than my share—on the land, air and sea. But I’ve always lived to tell about them.”
She took another big swallow, then decided to reveal her one-and-only adventure first. “When I was in college, some friends invited me to ski with them in Vail. Between them, they loaned me all the gear, and one of our classmates had a private plane and a brand-new pilot’s license.”
The memory alone was enough to bring on a shudder, but talking about it seemed to help, making her realize this trip wasn’t anywhere near as awful. Not yet, anyway.
“College students on their way to a party and a spanking-new pilot,” Clay said, sizing up her experience. “That sounds like a bad mix to me.”
“We weren’t going to a party,” Dani corrected.
She’d always been too responsible for that, too diligent with her studies to play. But it had been winter break, and she’d always wanted to know what the fuss was about snow skiing.
“So what happened?” Clay sat back in his seat, his legs extended, a long, lean cowboy completely at ease. His calm demeanor was reassuring, his presence comforting. As were the two drinks he’d fixed her.
So she settled, somewhat, into her seat. “The sky darkened, and lightning bolts shot all around us. The thunder was incredibly loud, and the turbulence was terrifying. We bounced around like a splatter of water on a hot griddle, and after what seemed like forever, we finally landed in Denver.”
“See?” he said, taking another drink, chunks of ice clinking against the glass. “You came out all right.”
“Yes, but I also left my friends in Colorado, purchased a bus ticket and went home before the weekend got underway.”
Without asking, Clay fixed them each another drink. Dani should have politely declined, but took it from him anyway. To be honest, the taste wasn’t so bad anymore. And the intoxicating effect had numbed her nerves to a tolerable level. Of course, the plane was also traveling smoothly now—or relatively, she supposed.
By the time she’d downed her third drink, she decided Clay Callaghan was not only a handsome older man, but he was also the nicest guy she’d ever met. He was very quiet, a great listener.
Or maybe the alcohol had loosened her tongue. Either way, she found herself babbling about one thing or another. After she’d told him about how hard she’d worked to pass Chemistry 103, Clay paused a beat, considering her.
“So you were the studious sort.” A slow grin deepened the lines around his eyes—green, with flecks of gold that glimmered—and brought out an interesting pair of dimples. “I thought all college kids liked to party.”
“Not me. I was practically born responsible. I had to be.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “My mom was a lot younger than my dad. I guess you could say she was flighty and irresponsible. When I was in kindergarten, she left us, so Dad and I had to fend for ourselves. Even as a five-year-old, I tried to do everything I could to make things easier for him. For us, actually.”
“At the age of five? That’s a mighty big chore for a little girl.”
“It wasn’t so bad. I helped with laundry and cooking. By the time I was ten, I could fix a hearty meal.”
“So the attorney is a whiz in the kitchen, as well as the courtroom.”
“If you like Mexican food.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, I can fix a pretty decent casserole, as long as I have a box and all the fixings.” She tossed him a smile.
His lips quirked as though he found her entertaining, and it warmed her heart. It warmed her cheeks, too.
In fact, it was getting hot in here.
“Whew.” She fanned herself with both hands.
Clay chuckled as though he wasn’t at all bothered by the temperature or by her attempts to cool off. “Well, now that you’re a high-priced attorney, you ought to be able to hire a chef.”
“Yeah, right.” She took off her jacket and laid it on an empty seat. Then she kicked off her shoes and rubbed her bare feet along the carpeting. “With three kids to raise and student loans to repay?”
“You’ve got three kids?” His voice rose an octave and a decibel level, bearing evidence of his surprise. As his gaze roamed over her, it seemed to peel away her clothes, as well as her facade.
But for some reason she didn’t care. In fact, she felt compelled to confide in him. “I’m not their birth mother, if that’s what you think. My dad remarried when I was ten. And my stepmom wanted a family of her own. So pretty soon the babies started coming, and I helped out with them, too.”
“You sure took on a lot of responsibility in your family.” His voice returned to normal, that deep, graveled drawl that seemed to suit him so well. A pleasurable sound a woman could get used to. “When did you manage to find time to study?”
“In the late evenings, when the house was quiet.” She smiled. “But it wasn’t that bad. Academics came easy for me and I did very well in high school. College,
