Page 59 of Summer Affair
“It’s a wind tunnel. It gives the same experience as sky diving without actually plummeting to the ground.”
Her heart squeezed in her chest over the fact that he’d listened when they’d been on their pretend date. “You remembered.”
“I remember everything you say.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Learning Italian or reading the other sixty-four classics on the first date seemed like a lot of pressure.”
“You went with skydiving.”
“Ah.” He held up a finger. “Mom-approved skydiving. Ten minutes of extreme vortex, fast enough to make you float, in a skydiving simulator. And today it’s all ours.”
“It is?” This time when her heart lurched it was for a whole other reason. When she’d made that list, she’d been twenty-two, a senior in college, staring down what was going to be a gap year filled with travel and adventure. Then she met Dirk and moved her bucket list to the delete folder—until Clay, who’d brought her to a wind tunnel to check off one of her adventures.
“Unless you’d rather do something else.”
“Nope. This sounds fun.”
It sounds like a death trap!Panic filled her chest and created a complicated knot of excitement and sheer terror. In the end, terror won out.
“Then why did you stop as if Godzilla is headed our way.”
Jillian looked down and realized that her feet were stuck to the ground as if wearing cement shoes. Pretending that he hadn’t just called her bluff, she gave a bright smile and started walking. He didn’t budge.
“Are you afraid of heights?” he asked quietly.
“I didn’t think so.”
“Owen’s afraid of heights.”
“Really?”
“Yup. I think it comes from the time Rhett dared him to jump off the roof and into the pool. My mom lost it and grounded all of us for the rest of the summer. We were sentenced to scrubbing down the bar’s floor with toothbrushes.”
“Why on earth would he do that?”
He shrugged. “I guess it’s a boy thing. First, Owen had dared Rhett to ride his bike off a skateboard ramp, and he wound up with some serious road rash and a broken arm. So then Rhett dared Owen to jump off the roof.”
“A boy thing? Is this supposed to make me feel better?” She couldn’t imagine the stress and worry Margo had gone through raising six boys.
“It was supposed to make you smile.” He tightened his grasp, creating a stronger connection. “How about we forget this part and go into part two of the date.”
“There’s a part two? Does it involve food?”
“Lots of food.” His smile was warm and sympathetic despite his suggestion of skipping something he’d put a lot of thought and time into.
Dirk would have freaked, making a big deal about her being difficult and claim that with her it was never enough. Heck, if Dirk were there, they wouldn’t be doing something off her bucket list, because he never cared enough to ask if she had one—let alone what was on it. They always did his favorite activities and she’d gone along with it to avoid a fight.
Not Clay. He went out of his way to make the day special for her.
“Then it’s probably best that we do part one first and part two second. Moving them out of order might be a mistake. You planned correctly.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
Pretending she hadn’t heard the question, she began to walk again. After a moment he caught up. She could feel his eyes on her but didn’t acknowledge the concern that lay there.
“Hey,” he said quietly, bringing her hands to his lips and kissing the tips of her fingers. “Let’s go to dinner. Have some wine, some good Italian food, great conversation, and maybe even a cannoli if you’re a good girl.”
“Italian?” She looked over at him. “You’re taking me to Italian for dinner?”
“Please don’t tell me you’re gluten intolerant or allergic to tomatoes.”
