Page 27 of Austin
A rare occurrence for her.
“You seemed to hit it off well with Ellie.”
“I like her.” Ellie had an easy way about her that made Kristen feel as if she’d known her for years. Clinton was the same. How was it that intense Austin had such laid-back friends?
“What happens when we hit Salt Lake City?” Austin reached out to take his sunglasses off the dash and put them on one-handed as they turned onto the freeway and started driving into the sun.
She’d been wondering the same thing. She imagined that she could talk Austin into letting her bunk with him for the night and then beg Whitney to forgive her and drive down to get her. It was a seven-hour drive, so they’d have to spend the night, and it really wasn’t fair of her to ask that of her sister under the circumstances—
“I have a proposition for you.”
She gave him a slow look, doing her best to ignore the mental picture that the word “proposition” inspired. “What’s that?” she asked in a remarkably normal voice. She was getting better at this.
“If you would like to stay with me until after the event, I’ll give you a ride to Marietta.”
Red flags started waving wildly. “Why would you do that?”
“I have two weeks off after this event. I have a few commitments the second week, but I figured I could visit my brother on the Forty-Six Ranch the first few days off.”
She was immediately cognizant of a strange mixture of relief and disappointment. “So this has nothing to do with me.”
He glanced over at her, tipping down the sunglasses with one hand so that she could see the very serious expression in his very blue eyes. “It has everything to do with you.”
Her heart stuttered.
“How?” Her voice sounded nowhere near normal now.
He brought his gaze back to the road. “The choice is entirely yours. I’m just offering you this opportunity.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
He glanced back at her, but she could no longer read his expression because the sunglasses were once again in place. “You told me you wanted to break free. I’m giving you the opportunity to do something different.”
Kristen’s back stiffened. Yes. One of the things she’d said under cover of darkness that she now regretted. “It’s not your job to help me do that.”
“Agreed.”
And that was all he said, which was way more effective than an argument. His offer was…nuts. And tempting. Her carved-in-stone strategies were no longer working. She needed to be flexible, but she was afraid to be flexible. He knew that. He also knew that she was competitive.
Several days with Austin Harding. Did she dare?
She’d spent so much of her life not daring and what had it gotten her?
Austin eventually broke the silence as they started across the Bonneville Salt Flats, where the earth shone startlingly white in contrast with the ultra-blue sky. “You were different yesterday. And this morning.”
“I felt different,” she conceded. “And I felt comfortable with your friends.”
“I think you should work toward feeling that way all the time.” His voice dropped ever so slightly. “Unless you want to settle for safety?”
She studied his profile. “It sounds like you’re drawing a line in the sand.”
“You seem to do well with lines.”
Yes, but she tended to box herself in with them instead of crossing them. “So essentially you’re—”
“Challenging you to hang out with me until after my ride? I am. Then I’ll drive you to Marietta.”
“Will we share a room?”
