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Gerty climbed into the truck and dropped into the passenger seat. “I am, yes,” she said. “I think my mom will have to go back to the house about three times.” She grinned at him and leaned over the console to kiss him.
He held her face in one hand and took his time, and Gerty once again experienced the feeling of free-falling. “I’m excited about this trip, baby doll,” he whispered.
“Yeah?” she whispered back as he pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. “It’s an eight-hour drive.”
“Then dinner with my folks,” he said, and they both started to laugh.
“Yeah,” she said among the giggling and chuckling. “It’s a good thing I like you.”
Mike captured her hand in his and twined his fingers slowly through the gaps in hers. “You do like me, don’t you, Gerty?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“You like me a lot, right?” He lifted her hand to his lips.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
He looked up, the brim of his cowboy hat almost concealing those pretty eyes. “I like you a whole lot too.”
“Yeah?” She felt sparkly from head to toe.
“Yeah,” Mike whispered. “So much that it feels like I’m falling in love with you.”
Gerty stilled, but she didn’t let his words scare her into silence. “Have you ever been in love, Mike?”
“No.” He drew in a breath, which broke the moment between them, and straightened. He gave her a quick smile and dropped her hand. He backed out of her parents’ driveway and then looked at her. “You have, I know.”
“Just the one time,” she said quietly. She looked out her side window, her thoughts exactly where she didn’t want them. “I think it’ll be so much better to have that feeling for someone who feels the same about me.” She offered him a quick smile. “Don’t you think?”
“I would think so, yes,” he said.
Gerty reached over and took his right hand in hers. “How’s the shoulder today?”
“Feels good,” he said.
“If you want me to drive, I can.”
“I’ll let you know.”
Gerty nodded and let a few miles go by in silence before she said, “Mike?”
“Hmm?” He looked over to her with his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses.
“I’m falling in love with you too,” she said, the words so big in her too-small throat. “And I definitely think it feels different than when I was in love with James.”
He gaped at her until the tires bumped over the warning strip in the middle of the road. Then he jerked the wheel to get the truck back in the lane. “Well.” He cleared his throat. “That’s good to know.”
“Yeah, you wish you weren’t driving right now, don’t you?” she teased.
“I would like to kiss you,” he admitted. “You don’t want to kiss me?”
“Of course I do.” Gerty pushed herself up and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You’re gonna kill us, Gerty.” He laughed as she pressed several quick, little kisses all over the side of his face. They laughed together again, and Gerty had never experienced anything so comforting and exciting as being in the cab of this truck with Mike.
“And I’m not even the one driving,” she quipped. She sank back into her seat and sighed happily as she looked out the windshield. “Do your parents know you bought me a farm?”
“Not exactly,” he said.
