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Ella folded her arms. “Who says I don’t like you now?”
I leaned forward, wishing I didn’t have to remain buckled. Even so, I rested my elbows on my knees and gave her my most bedeviled smirk. “Do I make your blood race?”
“No.”
“Your palms sweat?”
She lifted her hands. “Dry.”
“How about your stomach? Butterflies?”
The plane lost more altitude, giving me that exact sensation.
“None,” she said, composing herself.
I sat up and pressed my back against my seat once more. “That settles it. There’s my secret. I want you to feel exactly all three of those thingsabout me.”
“That’s so cute,” Adelie said, placing her hands on her chest.
Patches of pink smattered Ella’s cheeks. I trapped her gaze with my own as the sounds in the cabin increased and the wheels hit the runway.
Ella didn’t speak to me the rest of the time, not even when I handed her bags to her or when I gestured for her to take the stairs off the plane first. Adelie gave me an apologetic grimace and thanked me for the flight.
A sleek, bright blue Hummer pulled onto the runway. I shook hands with the pilot and tipped him. By the time I joined the others, Adrian was loading the women’s luggage into the back of his car, and Gabby was greeting her cousins with little squeals of excitement, her blonde hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun.
Ella bestowed on her a ravishing smile. It lit her entire face, and my resolve settled back in once more.
I was determined to win one for myself, to get her to flutter like that overme.
I just wasn’t sure how.
I’d shown my hand. Now, it was time to make the next play before the wedding tomorrow was over.
THREE
ella
I wasthe worst liar in existence.
Hawk’s questions as we were landing didn’t just hit the bullseye. They’d struck me dead center.
Every time his gaze caught mine, every time he smiled, every word he spoke to me—throughout the entire flight—I did every single one of them:
My stomach burst with butterflies at the directness of his blue eyes.
When my name touched his lips, my blood sprinted.
And the clamminess in my palms hadn’t stopped.
He had more of an impression on me than I wanted him to, and I had no doubt he would render me the consistency of sap if he made good on that secret of his.
I had to steer clear of him.
“It’s so pretty here,” Adelie said, gazing out at the golden wheat fields as we bumped along the gravel road.
She, Hawk, and I were wedged into the backseat of Adrian’s Hummer, and I was only glad Adelie was in the center. I could smell Hawk’s cologne even from here, and it didn’t help the situation in the slightest.
“I love the fields,” Gabby said in agreement.
