Adjusting his sunglasses, he reached back and tucked his water bottle in one of the side pockets. “I guess I’ll level with you.” Still he hesitated.
It was strange, how you could think you knew somebody, think you had an inkling of the person you thought they were, and then they’d turn out to be so different. She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “We should get going.”
He stood and grinned at her. “Yes, let’s get going … but I will tell you part of the reason I brought you.”
She tried to calm her heart and met his eyes. “Tell me.” She did want to know.
He started up the hill. “Because I didn’t want Chase to have dibs.”
Chapter 16
“Dibs?” she said, scurrying to fall into step with him. She could feel herself blushing, horribly blushing, but she was totally confused. “Is this some competitive thing?” If it was, it totally ticked her off. “Look, I don’t want to be part of some contest or bet … or whatever.” Even though it hurt her feet, she picked up her pace a notch and pulled ahead of him.
He easily matched her. “No.” He cleared his throat. “No, see, Chase and I have always had this thing.”
“Dibs?” she asked distastefully.
His laugh was light, and oddly relaxing. “Dibs. It started when Chase was in junior high and wanted to take a girl I liked to one of the ninth grade dances.”
“So you started it?” If it weren’t so ridiculous, she might have laughed. Chase seemed like he was always flirting and interested in lots of girls, but she hadn’t expected this of Adam.
“Hey, you know how my brother is.”
She scoffed, then grinned. “He’s persistent.”
“Exactly.”
Destiny stuck by Adam’s side, taking care not to trip on a large tree root in the path. “So you created ‘dibs’ to make sure you get the women you want.”
He puffed out a sigh. “I guess so.”
Her mind was spinning; her mouth felt dry. He liked her? Is that what he was saying? “Oh.” That was all she could get out. Adam Moon didn’t want Chase to call dibs on her, and now he had taken her hang gliding. Was this his way of making his intentions clear? She felt like Elizabeth with Mr. Darcy. What was she supposed to say?
“Anyway.” Adam flashed her a grin. “Tell me about your painting.”
No. No. No. By trying to make small talk, he’d actually stumbled onto a topic she didn’t want to talk about … mostly because it had become the source of much hounding from her mother every time she spoke to her. “What’s there to say?”
“Well, you’re good.”
She knew he was referring to the painting she’d done for the Flower Girl. She shrugged. “I enjoy it.”
He didn’t speak for a few seconds. Then he sighed again. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing again?”
“Well, because I’m not great at this.”
“What?”
“Small talk.”
For the first time, she realized that the cocky, arrogant, amazing programmer was vulnerable. She couldn’t hold back her smile.
“Oh, you like my discomfort?”
“Well, yeah.”
He snickered. “Of course you do.”
“Can you blame me?”
“For liking my discomfort? Yeah, I can blame you.”
This made her snicker in return. “Well, you are ‘the brilliant Adam Moon.’” Her fingers dipped to trace the air quotes. “The Adam Moon that can’t be bothered because he’s ‘studying to get into the most prestigious college.’” She said the last part all uppity, the way she imagined a Harvard professor would say it. “People in this town treat you …” She trailed off.
“What?” He frowned.
“They treat you like they should be so grateful you grace them with your presence.” She bit off the words, unable to help that she kind of resented them.
At this, he grinned. “Well, except you.”
“I’m not from this town.”
His hand brushed hers. “No, you’re not.” Then he stopped short, and she couldn’t help but stop too. For a second, his eyes flitted to her lips. “You are … beautiful.”
To claim that his compliment didn’t make the center of her chest soften would be a bold-faced lie. Opting to hide how much she liked it, she took off up the mountain again.
He matched her pace, and they walked in silence.
As the minutes passed, the pain in her feet substantially increased, and she suddenly slowed. “I can actually feel the blisters forming.”
“Hold up.”
She stopped and looked up the hill. They were roughly almost three quarters of the way there. They probably had at least another fifteen minutes.
Gently, he put his hand on the lower part of her back and moved her to a rock. “Let’s look at those feet.”
“No, I’m fine.” She tried to push past him.
He grabbed her wrist. “No, let’s look.”
Knowing how stubborn he could be, she relented. She sat and undid one boot, pulling her foot out and then peeling the sock back. To her surprise, white bumps already covered the tips of her toes, and the big toe was bleeding.
“Oh.” Adam sounded startled. “It’s bad.”
Unperturbed, she pulled her sock back on and shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing to do but get to the top of the mountain.” She quickly put the boot back on and tied it up, then stood.
“No.” He shook his head, and the little muscles in his jawline flexed. “You’re not hiking the rest of the way. Your feet are already bad enough, and … well, I know you have the dance tonight.”
“Is he still planning on that?” She had thought his head injury might change the plan.
Adam bent his head and cocked an eyebrow. “Persistence, remember?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh dear.”
“Yeah, and he’ll be mad at me if he finds out you can’t go because I made you hike in boots that didn’t fit.”
It did worry her that her feet were hurting so badly. “Well, I just might have to cancel on Chase.”
Adam’s head-shaking got more vehement. “Oh no you don’t.” He pulled his pack off his back and stood, moving behind her.
“What are you doing?”
He slipped the pack on her back. “I’m going to carry you.”
She didn’t have one of those I’m-never-skinny-enough complexes that most of her sorority sisters had, but she wasn’t about to be carried up a mountain. “No you’re not.” Then she booked it.
“Hey.” He was beside her immediately, gently taking her arm. “Stop,” he commanded.
“No.”.
He whipped in front of her, blocking her. “Please let me carry you. It’s good for me.”
That wasn’t the argument she’d been expecting. She sputtered. “Right, ’cause you’re in training for an Iron Man?” She tried to push past him again.
“Just …” He pushed back his sunglasses, and their eyes met. He reached out to take her hand. “I brought you up here. I did this.” He averted his eyes and sighed. “Plus, Chase is home today in bed, and …” He grinned. “I kind of took advantage of the fact that he was down today to get a date in.”
It was all starting to make sense. “Oh, this is because of that ‘dibs’ thing?” she accused.
Adam went completely still, taking her hand gently. “No, this is because I’m on a date with you, and I got you into this mess, so I want to fix it.” Lightly, he put his other hand beneath hers, so it was sandwiched between them.
Everything about Adam Moon—his presence, his smell, the way his eyes were already beginning to haunt her and know her—made her completely alert. “Fine, you can carry me. But this isn’t a date.”
He nodded, still holding her hand. “Destiny.” His tone was serious.
“Yes?”
“At some point, I might kiss you.”
“You think?” Her heart pounded even harder.
His dimple deepened. �
�Well, if you’ll let me.” He inched closer to her.
She could feel his breath on her face. She knew that if she leaned just a bit forward, their lips would touch. Every part of her felt scattered, and her knees were going weak. “Go ahead,” she challenged.
For a moment, he seemed like he might. Then he pulled back from her. “Nah. I think I’ll let you decide when that kiss will be.”
She breathed out, releasing her tension as well, and pulled her hand back. “So you’re telling me that you’ll kiss me whenever, but I have to be the one to let you know when?”
“That pretty much sums it up.”
She grinned. “Are you going to the dance tonight?”
He laughed. “Ah, no, I don’t dance.”
“Well, that’s too bad, because I never kiss a guy before I put him through a dancing test.”
Adam paused for a second, and then scoffed. “Well, that’s too bad for you, Red. Because I could definitely pass the good kisser test.”
She couldn’t help but grin. “Oh? Has this data been measured, coded, and put into a program?”
He rolled his eyes and turned around. “Of course. I’m about to market it. What do you think of the website ‘geekswhocankiss.com?’”
She laughed.
He bent his knees. “Get on, Red.”
“But …”
“If you don’t want to kiss me yet, the least you can do is leave my male ego intact by letting me prevent you from having bloody feet.”
Chapter 17
Adam dropped her off at the ranch and headed to the flower shop. There was a stupid grin on his face, but he didn’t care. It had been fun—the most fun he’d had in a long time. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed himself so much.
It wasn’t that he didn’t get out, do things. He did, he told himself. Well, Chase made him. Often Chase would come home from classes and rodeo and hound him so much that he’d finally give in and go do something with his brother. Often Chase got him by promising rock climbing. He loved that, and MSU was the perfect place for it.
If Adam was honest, the reason he had a social life was because of his brother. Granted, he had friends: other programmers, the other TAs in the department. But he’d steered clear of most social opportunities. Maybe it was too easy to rely on Chase for social stuff, so he just didn’t worry about it. Again he thought of Laura, the only girl he’d really had a relationship with. They still ran in the same circles and often bumped into each other.
But now that he thought about it, he realized that he’d never felt as strongly about Laura as he did about Destiny, not even at the point when he’d been the most “into” her. The effect that Destiny had on him, since that first day in the flower shop, was like rocky road and cookie dough mixed to make one delicious flavor. It was electric. Fun. And the chemistry was something he knew he could never measure.
It was not like anything he’d ever experienced with a woman. He thought about today, and how it felt to hold her while hang gliding. The way she laughed and the wonder in her voice as she pointed to different things. She was both curious and elegant. He could see her taking pictures in her mind to paint later. He could tell when she cocked her head a certain way or when she closed her eyes for a second that she was taking a mental snapshot. It made her unique, beautiful, and happy.
He’d never met anyone like her. She was so witty. He let out a laugh just thinking about how she could banter with the best of them. She was smart … which, granted, her computer science scores proved, but that wasn’t her thing. No, her interest was in the visual.
Going past his parent’s ranch, he called Chase’s cell number.
“What?” Chase sounded unhappy.
“How’re you feeling?” Adam asked.
“Where did you take her?”
He ignored that question. “How is your head?”
“Fine.”
But Adam worried. “Dude, just stay in bed tonight.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“I’ll take her to the dance.” Adam honestly couldn’t believe those words had come out of his mouth.
“Right.” Chase breathed hard and grunted. “You wish.”
Adam could almost see him getting out of bed. “Lay back down.”
There was nothing for a moment. Then he heard another grunt. “The fact that you actually volunteered to take someone to a dance tells me there’s no way I’m not going to that dance.”
Adam cursed under his breath. His mother would not be happy about this. “Just hang tight. I’m shutting down the shop, and then I’ll be home. I’ll bring you some dinner.”
“Oh brother, you’re shutting down the shop?” Chase sounded incredulous. “She has you doing her bidding? This is bad.”
“I volunteered,” Adam said, not wanting to tell him that she needed time for her feet to soak. He knew he should feel worse about her feet getting so banged up, but secretly he’d liked carrying her up the mountain. It’d winded him, he wouldn’t lie—but he was in shape, and he had liked it. Liked her, the feel of her close against him. Liked that he was helping her and taking care of her. That was not like him. Chase was the do-gooder type, not him.
“Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?” Chase demanded in a gravelly voice.
“Chill out. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Five minutes later, he parked behind the shop and then jogged to the door. It was five after five. He swung the door back.
Faith sat there behind the counter. All of the flowers were put away, and she was blowing on a fresh coat of finger nail polish. She beamed at him.
“Hey,” he said breathlessly.
“Hey,” she said tentatively and stood. “How was it?” The way her eyebrows pulled up expectantly made him slightly embarrassed.
Still, he grinned. He’d always liked Faith Haven. Of course, he’d known the Havens his whole life. He hadn’t been close to Fate like Chase was, but when he was smaller, he’d eaten cookies in her kitchen on more than one occasion. “I think it was good.” Then he frowned. “But her feet are sore.”
“Oh.” Faith nodded. “Darn. I guess I should have let you buy her boots.”
Adam shrugged. “But I think she had fun.” At least, he hoped so.
Faith nodded, looking like she wanted to say something but stopping herself. “Well, good. I put all the flowers away, but I didn’t want to mess up your system.” She winked at him. “So I didn’t try to shut everything down.”
He approached the computer, casting her a meaningful look. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She moved for her purse. “It was actually fun. I think I might tell Janet I wouldn’t mind helping out more. You see more people than you’d think around here.”
“True.” He’d worked in the shop on and off for the past few years. He did enjoy seeing people, though he hadn’t lately. He started punching keys to shut the computer down.
“Adam,” Faith said expectantly.
He looked up at her, keeping his fingers on the keyboard. “Yep.”
“Do you like her?”
He knew his face was getting red, but he didn’t know how to answer. So he told the truth. “Yeah.”
She grinned.
He wanted to be honest. “But my brother likes her, too.”
Faith winked at him. “I like Chase. You know that.”
This worried him.
“But I see the way you look at her.”
He felt caught. “How’s that?”
She grinned and shook her head, blowing out a breath. “The thing that matters most is the way she looks at you.” She pointed at him. “That’s what makes me worry.”
Chapter 18
Chase knew it was petty. He did. He stood in front of the Haven home, all dressed up in his Western gear—boots, winning belt buckle, and red button-down shirt. Seconds ago, he’d taken off his best hat out of respect for Faith and John.
He knew it was petty to be upset that his brother
had taken her hang gliding today. Apparently Adam had tricked her into going with him. They’d had, in his brother’s words, “a good time.”
But he hadn’t kissed her. There was that, at least.
Hmm. Chase never knew what to expect with women and his brother. Adam didn’t date much, if ever, and this aberrant interest he seemed to have taken in Destiny ticked Chase off. After all, he’d called dibs, dang it!
Sucking in a breath, Chase tried to clear his mind and focus on tonight. The dance was a barn dance at the Wilson place. Yes, they did have some traditional music, but they always had mainstream country hits. He’d heard the Iron Stix was playing at it this year. Of course, Fancy had asked if he was going. He’d told her yes. He knew she had been fishing for a personal invitation, but he knew she’d be coming with the rest of the rodeo team and assorted friends from Snow Valley, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Plus, he’d been unable to not invite Destiny. Yeah, he’d admit it: he was drawn to her. He’d been kinda weirded out when he’d first seen her two days ago at the flower shop, and even more weirded out when she’d fallen into his arms. Their eyes had locked, and his mind had gone blank. All he could think about was her.
Of course, he’d made that initial mistake of not only cataloguing all the differences between her and Fate, but also saying it out loud. After seeing her run around the field like a natural athlete last night, he was beginning to see more of who she was.
Fate had been feisty. A loud feisty. Destiny was also feisty, but in a fierce way. It was like the difference between cinnamon and spearmint gum, and he had to admit he liked how they both tasted. He wanted nothing more than to get to know Destiny better.
He wouldn’t worry about Adam’s skills with women. Quite the contrary, he told himself. Heck, Adam usually had a knack for finding ways to anger women.
Steadying himself with the door, he ignored the dull ache in the back of his head. He’d taken some ibuprofen. He was fine. Totally fine. He’d endured worse on the football field and in rodeo. He could do this.
Plus, there was no need to give his brother any reason to “help” out by taking Destiny to the dance for him.
Spring in Snow Valley Page 35
