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My luggage was somewhere between Chicago and Austin. The airline had almost lost my dog in the bowels of the second busiest airport in the USA. And I’d had a really bad week.
I deserved a drink.
Plus, the man making the offer made my dried-up, dusty ovaries feel like doing the macarena.
“Sounds great.”
Chapter 2
Atley
“Whatisaplanetarium?”Rae chirped, getting the last question in the first round of Jeopardy! correct. She got all the others right, except a few in the baseball category. It had been impressive watching her play along. Must take a unique brain to store that much information and access it so fast.
We sat in the back corner of DFW airport’s hotel bar. She insisted on the hotel because her gold medallion whatever membership guaranteed her a room and they would accommodate her dog. I understood putting an animal’s welfare above all else. It was my life’s work, in a way.
Georgie was a damn cute little thing if you wanted a snow-white ankle-biting version of Cousin It. Right now, he was living large in the two-bedroom suite that Rae had booked. One of the last rooms in the hotel.
While she’d settled the dog upstairs, I’d stopped at the gift shop for a box of condoms and gotten us a table in the bar. The condoms might prove to have been putting the cart before the horse, but I felt optimistic. Something had been growing between us since she took my hand.
“That was impressive.” I took a sip of my beer.
She blinked and shrugged. “I’ve never studied. Weird facts stick in my head. I don’t even know where most come from. You know how you sit in a doctor’s office waiting room and flip through an old magazine to pass the time? I do the same, but I’ll end up remembering something from an article like,” she looked up at the ceiling, her forehead wrinkling, “the Yangtze River is the third longest in the world. And bam, I can pull it out to answer a trivia question three years later.”
She lifted her glass of red wine to her lips and took a delicate sip, and I held my breath. Her lips fascinated me. They were her only oversized feature. Everything else, from her small stature and slim body to her button nose and doll-like eyes, was petite and adorable. But those lips were sinful and plump.
“So have you tried out for the show?” I looked up at the TV, still on a commercial break.
I wasn’t great at small talk. Cows and horses weren’t interested in the skill of pretty conversation, so I’d gotten out of the habit. This was me trying, and that said a lot about my attraction to this woman. I didn’t try for most people.
“A long time ago. I didn’t make it. Honestly, it’s been a few years since I caught an episode.” A frown caused her lips to thin for a moment. “Thank you for reminding me how much I enjoy watching this show. New vow,” she held her glass up, “I commit to watching three episodes of Jeopardy! a week for the rest of the year.”
I clinked my bottle to her glass. They had diverted my flight home from Montana to Dallas, and so far, I hadn’t been complaining. This woman was nothing if not entertaining. Sitting in a bar with Rae was definitely the better option compared to trying to rent a car and battle the bad weather and traffic on the four-hour drive to Elmer.
“Atley, that’s an interesting name.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is it a family name?” She dipped her head and raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to fill her in.
“In a way. It means in the meadow; you know, like grass.”
She took another sip of wine, and my pea brain lost the trail of the conversation when a drop caught at the corner of her mouth. It trembled, glistening like a ruby in the low lights of the bar. I almost groaned aloud when she licked it off. The brief glimpse of her tongue was enough to make my jeans uncomfortably tight.
“Grass is a family trait?”
I blinked, trying to figure out her question. Oh yeah, my name. “We’re ranchers. Without grass to feed the cattle, you have nothing. So Atley... “
“It’s pretty.”
I felt my left eye twitch at her words.
“Sorry, it’s handsome,” she amended.
I chuckled. “I took some grief for my name growing up. Boys in the Texas panhandle aren’t very kind to anything unique.”
“They bullied you.” She patted my hand and her face flushed. She started to remove her hand. I covered it with mine, trapping it on the table between us.
“Only until my first growth spurt.” I smirked.
