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He gave her a mock hurt look. “Here I was hoping to impress you, and all you can say is that mine is tiny?”
Her eyes widened in shock, and then she burst out laughing. “I said no such thing!”
He didn’t miss the way her gaze dropped to his lap momentarily. Shit. He shifted in his seat, hoping he could keep that under control.
She rolled her eyes, and her cheeks turned pink. “Yours isn’t tiny.” She looked around the cabin before looking back at him. Her gaze dropped to his lap again and when she looked up, she said, “Yours is very impressive. I’m just not used to all this luxury!”
He was torn between hoping that she had noticed how hard he was – and that was what she was calling impressive – and hoping that she was only talking about the jet. And even so, there was a much more pressing question on his mind.
“Do you think you could get used to it?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded slowly. “You want the truth?”
His heart leaped into his mouth. Was she about to tell him that she couldn’t get used to it? That she wasn’t comfortable? God, he hoped not. But even if she were, he’d rather hear it straight away than drag things out. “Always.”
She smiled. “You mean that, don’t you? That’ll help. I like to tell and be told the truth, but a lot of people don’t – they think they’re being kind by not hurting your feelings, but it usually hurts worse in the end – when you find out.”
He nodded, wondering if she was about to hurt his feelings – the feelings he had for her that were already stronger than they should be. “I’m the same, Becca. For me, it’s the truth or nothing. I won’t lie to you, and I ask you not to lie to me, either.”
“I won’t. Shoot. Now, I feel like we got all serious, and all I really wanted to say is that – even though all this – the luxury, for want of a better word – is new to me, and makes me feel kind of out of place, I think I could get used to it – for you. But …” She blew out a sigh. “I don’t want you to think that I’m after you for your money. That’s so not who I am. It’d be easier for me to like you if you didn’t … if you hadn’t … if you weren’t a gazillionaire.”
Her cheeks turned bright red. “Shoot, I know that must sound stupid. I don’t know – and I don’t want to know – what kind of -illionaire you are. It’s just something that I’m going to try to ignore if we’re going to see each other.”
She met his gaze and gave him a rueful smile. “If you’re still going to want to see me after I just said that.”
He chuckled and unfastened his belt so that he could get closer to her. He rested both hands on her knees and looked into her eyes. “I do still want to start seeing you. Possibly even more than I did before, after hearing you say that. I hope that you’ll be able to overlook a lot of thestuffthat comes with living the life I live.” He smiled. “But I also hope that you’ll learn to enjoy some of it, too. You have to admit that having a jet on standby made life a little easier today. And it can come in handy when we just want to take off and go somewhere fun, too.”
She laughed. “I don’t just admit that it made life easier – I shall be forever grateful. Though I’m not sure Fred’s going to be too happy about it. And as for just taking off to places … It sounds awesome. I guess we’ll just see, huh?”
She was right, of course. They hadn’t even gone out on a date yet. He shouldn’t be talking about taking her on trips – especially since that raised the question of sleeping arrangements. He shifted in his seat again. One part of him was more than eager to figure out what his sleeping arrangements with Becca were going to be.
Chapter Eight
Becca couldn’t believe how quickly they got back to Napa. She held her breath when the plane touched down and shook her head at Jacob as it thundered down the runway.
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “What’s up?”
She laughed. “Did we go through some kind of time warp?” She checked her watch. “I swear we were still in Oakland fifteen minutes ago.”
He lifted a shoulder. “The flight time is only nine minutes. That’s how I was able to get to the parking lot before you.”
“Wow!” She shook her head in wonder. “The map thing said it would take an hour and a quarter to drive, but the teachers at school told me to give it at least two hours to get there when I was leaving. And with the afternoon traffic, I expected it to take even longer than that to get home.”
Jacob smiled. “And yet, here we are.”
“Yes. Here we are.” She felt like she was still trying to play catch-up with herself. Half an hour ago she’d been bracing herself for a long drive home – now she was here.
Jacob unfastened his seatbelt while the plane taxied toward a low building that was surrounded by fields – fields full of vines.
Becca unfastened her seatbelt, too. She was starting to wonder how this was going to work. Was he going to take her straight home? And if he did, would he want to wait with her until Slade got there with Fred? It suddenly occurred to her that Slade didn’t even know where she lived. How was he going to get there?
She didn’t get the chance to ask Jacob what the plan was before the door to the cockpit opened and Jamie came out. He nodded at them and went to stand by the door.
As soon as the plane came to a halt, he let the steps down and stood back.
“Thanks.” Jacob nodded at him.
When he got to his feet and offered her his hand, Becca clung to it as they went down the steps. She didn’t know what it was about the guy, but Jamie really creeped her out.
