wits.
“See you, Eden.”
“Yeah, see you, Blake.” She slumped against the fence as he walked away. At her side, the mare snorted and jerked against the rope. “Sorry, girl.” She stepped away to give the horse some breathing room.
Eden could relate. Given her druthers, she’d run, too. Because if she wasn’t careful, pretending to have a thing for Blake might not require any acting at all.
Chapter 5
As the Learjet lost altitude, Blake glanced over at Eden, who sat in the club chair opposite him. “So, what do you plan to do all day?”
She turned away from the window and shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe go shopping or something then check into the hotel.”
“You don’t sound super excited about it.”
“I’m not a huge fan of hanging out in malls. I’d rather go for a hike, but I’m not familiar with Boise, and I don’t want to rent a car to get out of the city.” She nodded toward the thick gray clouds outside the small circle of glass as the plane bumped and shook on its descent. “Anyway, it’s supposed to rain.”
Blake leaned back in his seat. “You can come with me if you want. The memorial won’t be much fun, but it’s a two-hour drive through some beautiful country each way. Blue Valley sits out on the prairie at the base of the mountains, and any direction you walk will have a view. The forecast is calling for sunshine there since the weather we’re having here has already moved through.”
He wasn’t sure why he was trying so hard to convince her to go with him. He and Eden didn’t know each other very well, and they’d only talked sporadically on the short flight to Boise. Having left at dawn, he’d been half-asleep for most of the trip. But facing a long drive with nothing to do but think about what waited for him at the end was the last thing he wanted. Eden would be a welcome distraction.
“Wouldn’t it be awkward for you to show up at the service with a stranger?”
His stomach tightened. “Honestly, I’d appreciate the company.”
Her blue gaze met his and held. “During the flight, you didn’t say a word about who…passed away. I figured you didn’t want to talk about it.”
The plane engines roared as they skimmed over the tarmac and touched down in a smooth landing. He stayed quiet as the jet slowed then turned off the runway to roll toward the terminal. They stopped with a slight jerk.
He released his seatbelt but didn’t stand. “Maybe it would help me to talk about Josie.”
He must have looked as desperate and needy as he felt because her expression softened.
“I’ll go with you, then.”
A long breath slipped out. “Thanks, Eden. Let’s rent a car and hit the road. If we arrive in Blue Valley early enough, I can give you a tour of my old hometown before the memorial.” He tried for a hint of humor to lighten the mood. “All two blocks of it.”
“I’m good with two-block-long towns.” With a nod and a smile, she released her belt and stood.
They collected their luggage, exited the jet and hurried into the terminal then followed the flow of pedestrian traffic toward ground transportation. He kept his head down and avoided making eye contact with the people who stopped and pointed on their way to the car rental desk. After Blake filled out the form and signed two autographs, they left through the doors by baggage claim and found their vehicle, a small black convertible sports car, in the back lot.
“Nice.”
He glanced at her over the retractable roof of the car and smiled. “Hey, why not have fun on the drive?”
“True.”
After he unlocked the doors and popped the trunk with the remote, she set her overnight bag inside. Blake tossed his in beside it and slammed the lid shut. As she got in on her side, he slid onto the driver’s seat and started the engine. The low growl brought a smile to his lips.
“We’ll put the top down once it warms up and stops sprinkling.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ve never ridden in a convertible before.”
“I live on the beach in Malibu where it’s sunny most of the time. Driving with the top down is one of the perks of Southern California I really enjoy.”
“I’ve heard about the horrendous traffic jams.” She scrunched up her nose. “You can get a tan while you sit on the freeway. I don’t know how you stand all those people crowding in on every side of you. The ranch suits me just fine.”
He turned out of the lot and headed toward the entrance to the highway. “It takes some getting used to, especially after where I grew up.”
“I went to college at Stanford. That was a serious cultural adjustment for me, but I didn’t have a car, and I mostly stayed on campus when I wasn’t traveling with the team.”
After merging into traffic, he glanced over. “Stanford? I’m impressed. You must be one smart cookie.”
“My old roommate, Hannah, crushed her SATs. She’s the smartest person I know. I’m reasonably intelligent and did fine in my classes, but my brains aren’t what got me accepted to such a prestigious school. Stanford signed me for their equestrian team. I took the state championship for the Western team both my junior and senior years and just missed the national title.”
He grinned. “That I can believe. Not that I don’t think you’re plenty sharp.”
“Bright enough to know I’m not cut out to be a city girl.” She waved a hand toward the few tall buildings in downtown Boise, northeast of the freeway. “This is plenty big for me.”
“Boise? Good God, it’s barely more than a medium-sized town.”
“Exactly.”
He laughed. “Then you’re going to love Blue Valley. We have a grocery store, an old-fashioned five and dime and a feed store. Oh, there’s also a gas station, a bar and a diner. That pretty much covers the downtown area. The only school holds kindergarten through eighth grade in three rooms. We had to go twenty miles to the next town over for high school.”
She smiled back. “Sounds perfect to me.”
“I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up, and I didn’t lack for companionship. I had a couple of good buddies, along with Josie, the girl I’d been in love with since second grade, but I wanted more.” He let out a deep sigh and focused on the nearly empty highway as they left the congestion around Boise behind. “After graduation, I went to UCLA to study acting. No one in town understood my choice. My friends were going to the local junior college. Only Josie got me. She was a year younger and had Ivy League aspirations. Too bad she never got to live out her dreams.”
He flinched when Eden reached over to cover the fist clenched on top of his thigh.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Blake. Josie sounds like a special person.”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “She got accepted to Brown. Josie was funny and smart and beautiful and full of ambition the summer I came home after my freshman year in college. We talked about how we could make a long-distance relationship work.”
“Not an easy proposition. I guess life got between you.”
“Not life. Hers ended that summer.” He breathed hard through his nose. “There was an accident. The man who hit us head on was someone we’d known all our lives. He wound up in the hospital with a crushed pelvis and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. I walked away with a few cuts and bruises and a sprained wrist.”
“Oh God.”
He glanced over. Tears brightened Eden’s blue eyes.
“Josie