Page 16 of Fighting Gravity

They chatted for a few minutes as Rosie scanned the crowd for Elle. And Tate. Quinn was running around, tablet in hand, tapping furiously. A photographer and a videographer trailed behind her. A fiery sliver of sun was starting to appear over the desert hills on the horizon.

“Good luck today,” she heard her dad say.

Rosie brought her gaze to Chen. She didn’t want to dampen the mood, but they’d been reminded the other day of the test flight’s risks. “Be careful.”

He grinned in response, seemingly unconcerned. Tate glided up as Chen walked away, sending Rosie’s pulse into a racing, stuttering non-rhythm. He smiled at them both and offered his hand to her dad. “Professor Flynn, I’m Tate Geier.”

“OrbitAll’s Chief Operating Officer,” Rosie supplied. She met Tate’s aqua gaze. “Welcome back.”

He smiled and dragged his eyes back to her father.

“Wilson, please. Thanks for letting us be part of this occasion.”

“Any time.” He gestured to a nearby woman with a headscarf and a clipboard. “Let me introduce you to Adira, one of our lead engineers. She can answer any questions you have about the spaceplane or the test flight itself.”

Delight all over his face, her dad followed Tate while Rosie stayed behind. Where was Elle? But then Tate was back at her side and all else was forgotten as she drowned in those eyes.

“Introducing him to Adira was a not-so-subtle way of securing some alone time with you. I hope your dad doesn’t mind.”

Rosie laughed. “He’s a kid in a candy store right now. Seriously, thank you for letting us—” Crap, she’d almost saidcrash. “Come.” She blushed. That response was not much better. “How was the trip to Florida? I imagine the funeral was pretty hard.”

Tate pressed his lips together and looked away. “Being with George’s family was painful. Then I got to my—” He paused and gave a small head shake. He brought his gaze back to her. “Sorry, I’ve never told anyone about this.”

Rosie raised an eyebrow. She recalled Quinn snapping at him about a disappearing act. If Quinn didn’t know this secret of his, why share with Rosie, of all people?

“My cabin. I have a cabin in the woods in Washington state. Wow. That wasn’t so hard.”

She couldn’t help but smile back. “So, you went to your cabin to decompress?”

“Decompressing was the plan. That’s not what happened, though.” A shadow seemed to pass over his face. A shadow and a plea. For some reason, the change in his expression made her nervous. She shifted her weight. Even in flats she had an inch of height on him.

“Look,” he said, voice hurried and low. “In the interest of truth and trust, I need to tell you something.”

Rosie’s stomach clenched into a ball.See?her subconscious jeered.

“Something…intimate…almost happened with my neighbor.Almost. I need you to hear that word.”

She was no longer smiling.What the hellhad been the correct response. Tate, as her client, had no business kissing her. Rosie, as his architect, had no business liking it. They both knew better.

His finger brushed against her wrist. “Rosie?”

She silently cursed the ice forming in her stomach. The kiss had been a blip. Tate was just her client. His admission shouldn’t hurt so badly. “What?”

“What’s going on between us?”

A bit of her anger dissolved at the question, and the soothing circles he was drawing on her wrist with his thumb. “I don’t know,” she admitted. Tate certainly felt like more than a client. More than a blip.

“I know you wouldn’t be upset by what I just told you if you didn’t feel for me what I’m feeling for you.”

“How can you feel anything for me?” she deflected. “We don’t know each other that well.”

“I don’t know how I feel so drawn to you. I just know that I do.” He leveled his gaze at her. “When I got to my cabin, I learned that Donovan, my neighbor, my friend, had died. On the heels of losing George, his loss hurt.” He exhaled. “I wanted closeness. Comfort. Maisie offered it. But I can’t tell you how glad I am that nothing happened. Wouldn’t have been fair to any of us when the only person I’ve been thinking about is you.”

Longing flashed through her veins at those words. But longing was dangerous. “I’m sorry for your double loss. Truly. But youkissedme. I think I’m allowed to be unhappy that you almost slept with your neighbor afterward.”

If she was being generous, she’d say Tate gave her a half smile. Right then she was learning toward calling it a smirk. “I kissed your neck. If I’d have kissed you properly, like I wanted to, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I never would have left the parking lot because I wouldn’t have been able to stop kissing you.”

Rosie tried to glare at him. “Not true. You would have gone to Florida. You would have done the right thing.”

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