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The words echoed around her. Her heart did a double kick. There was no doubt from the look in his eyes that he was talking about more than a game. The way a Marine never left a man behind—ever—under any circumstance, she knew as sure as her name was Paige Baron, that Daniel Dupree wouldn’t let anyone down. He wouldn’t let her down. She almost couldn’t catch her breath. Had anyone outside of her family ever made her feel so secure?
“All right, then,” Siobhan shouted. “Let’s see what he’s got.”
Daniel squared his shoulder and threw the first bag. It landed on the inside edge of the hole.
Siobhan narrowed her gaze and muttered, “I think we’ve been hustled.”
The boyish grin Daniel flashed Paige tickled her to her core. He was proud of his throw. “Go again.”
With concentration written on his face, he threw the second bag. It landed near the first one. This time he didn’t smile, just nodded as if to say that was where he’d been aiming.
“Ha,” Siobhan scoffed from across the way. “You’re in Texas now, eh. Don’t mess with Texas.”
“We’ll see about how tough Texas is.” Daniel tossed the next two bags and each landed a hole in one.
High fives flew, along with comments about ‘Canucks’ and ‘All Hats No Cattle.’ Her siblings and Daniel had her almost doubled over in laughter.
Shaking her head at Daniel and flashing that smile, Siobhan crossed her arms. “How are you at ’Smores?”
“Smores?” Daniel turned to Paige. “Is this a competition too?”
Slightly bent over, catching her breath from laughing, her arms still around her waist, Paige moved her hands to her knees and glanced up at Daniel with one eye. “Probably.”
“Is everything always a competition with you guys?”
“You’re just figuring that out?” Paige straightened, brushed her hands together to wipe off the chalk from tossing the bean bags, and smiled at Daniel. “That’s why in the end, Barons always get what they want.”
Siobhan and her brother walked away to where the Governor in an oversized chef’s hat and white apron that covered him from chin to cowboy boots was doling out lunch.
Daniel’s gaze drifted to their departing backs and back to Paige. Slowly, that lazy smile that could make any woman weak in the knees teased at the corners of his mouth. “And what do you want, Paige?”
Her mouth suddenly went dry and her palms began to sweat. Wasn’t that a loaded question?
“Was the question that hard?”
Was it?
“Tell you what.” He set the beanbags on a table beside the cornhole boards. “Let me show you a piece of my world.”
That question was easy. She shook her head. “I don’t have time to go to Canada.”
A deep rumble of laughter made his eyes sparkle. “I was thinking of something a little closer. Do you own a pair of skates?”
“Skates?” Intuition, or maybe plain common sense, told her she was going to like where this conversation was going.
“Never mind. I’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow morning. Wear a warm jacket.”
“But today is the last day scheduled for your Houston visit. I thought tomorrow you had to leave for the next city?”
He shrugged. “Don’t have to be anywhere for several days. This is as good a place as any to do laundry.”
There was absolutely no reason for such a ridiculous statement to make her heart leap and her cheeks tug hard at the corners of her mouth, but they did. He wanted to stay longer, and she sure as hell hoped it had to do with her and not hockey.
Chapter Nine
Today would have been the beginning of his between-city break. Time to do laundry, check the snail mail, and maybe consider what he’d seen so far. His brain needed time to recharge before the next run of cities with overeager committee members anxious to bring the team to their hometown. Though he seriously doubted any city could compete with the welcome Houston had shown him. And he knew for darn sure there wasn’t another woman like Paige anywhere else in the country.
Who was he kidding; Paige was one of a kind anywhere in the world. He’d known plenty of women in his lifetime, some more interesting or beautiful than others, but none who made every nerve ending in his body feel so alive, who made his mind stop and think twice before opening his mouth and letting any stupidity tumble out, who doled out surprises as easily as a mother doled out love.
