It Takes a Cowboy. GINA WILKINS

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СКАЧАТЬ to read it for some time but had been too busy to tackle it. She planned to get well into it this weekend while Scott worked with Jeffrey.

      A couple of days of reading and relaxation while someone else took care of her nephew, she thought with a sigh. This weekend might just prove to be well worth the money she’d spent for it.

      She read the first page of the book, then glanced toward the front of the plane again. Scott was half turned in his seat to look at Jeffrey, leaning slightly toward the boy as he pointed to one of the cockpit gauges. The midmorning sun filtered in through the tinted glass, highlighting his glossy brown hair. His aviator glasses covered the upper half of his face, and his deep, intriguing dimples flashed beneath them. Had she been standing, her knees would have gone weak. As it was, she sank back into her seat, suddenly unable to look away from him. The wave of sheer physical attraction caught her unprepared, held her motionless for several long moments.

      She didn’t have time for this, she reminded herself. The circumstances were all wrong, considering that Jeffrey was sitting right there in front of her. And Scott McKay was hardly her type, anyway. She had never allowed herself to get involved with anyone strictly on the basis of physical attraction. And she couldn’t see how she and Scott could have anything in common—even if he felt a modicum of answering attraction for her.

      As if sensing her gaze on him, he looked over his shoulder. “You doing okay back there?” he asked, raising his voice over the engine noise.

      “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.” She forced her attention to her book, not that she was able to concentrate on it. Her gaze kept drifting toward the front seats, and even she didn’t believe her feeble mental excuse that she was only checking on her nephew.

      She was so involved in what was going on inside the plane that she hardly noticed the landscape passing beneath them until they started to descend. She noted then that they were headed toward a grass landing strip carved out of a stand of trees surrounded by mountains. She saw no lodge or resort nearby. Surely Scott had a place for them to stay. He didn’t expect them to sleep on the ground, did he?

      Her stomach tensed as the plane seemed to dive straight toward the trees. The runway hardly looked long enough as they approached it. The trees and mountains loomed on either side, crowding closer the lower they dropped. At the last minute, she squeezed her eyes shut, keeping them that way until the landing was over. She opened them only when the plane came to a complete stop—still apparently in one piece.

      Scott was looking at her when she opened her eyes. He wasn’t smiling, exactly, but he looked amused. “Sorry,” he said. “Grass strips are a bit bumpier than paved runways.”

      Annoyed with her momentary cowardice, she cleared her throat. “It didn’t bother me at all,” she lied. “You weren’t frightened, were you, Jeffrey?”

      The boy looked insulted. “No. I thought it was sort of cool.”

      Sort of cool. High praise from this particular boy, Blair mused. She supposed the landing hadn’t been so bad, after all, if it had been fun for her nephew. She looked out the window, noting that the surrounding landscape was beautiful but untamed. The only building in sight was a metal hangar at one side of the airstrip. A heavy padlock dangled from the wide sliding doors. Scott revved the engine just enough to taxi toward the building.

      He pulled up almost to the doors, then parked and killed the engine. The sudden silence was startling. Blair’s ears were still buzzing; she shook her head slightly to clear them. Her voice sounded too loud when she asked, “Where are we?” She didn’t even know if they were still in Wyoming.

      “The outback,” Scott replied with a grin.

      She frowned. “Where?”

      “Out back of nowhere.” He opened his door and hopped lightly out of the plane, leaving Blair staring after him in confusion. While Scott unlocked the padlock of the hangar, Blair and Jeffrey climbed out of the plane, Blair a bit stiffly. Scott disappeared into the building and reappeared moments later driving a sturdy-looking Jeep. He parked nearby, jumped out and, with Jeffrey’s help, began to transfer their belongings from the plane to the Jeep. Blair wondered again where he was taking them, but she was afraid to ask, considering the last answer he’d given her.

      When the Jeep was loaded, Scott asked Blair and Jeffrey to help him push the plane into the hangar. He blocked the wheels, closed the doors and secured the massive padlock again. Then he turned to them, rubbing his hands and looking satisfied. “Let’s go.”

      “Where are we going?” Blair asked, following him to the Jeep.

      “Farther out back,” he quipped, opening the passenger door for her. “You sure ask a lot of questions, Counselor.”

      “I like to know what’s going on,” she answered a bit primly, watching Jeffrey scramble into the back seat.

      Scott held out a hand to assist her into the high vehicle. “Don’t you like to be surprised? Just go with the flow?”

      “Not particularly,” she admitted. “I’m a planner. A list maker.”

      He chuckled. “Not this weekend, you’re not.”

      He closed her door and loped around the front of the vehicle to his own seat behind the wheel. “Everybody buckle up,” he said, starting the engine. “The ride gets bumpy.”

      Where was he taking them? Blair was beginning to wonder again what on earth had gotten into her at that bachelor auction.

      * * *

      “THIS IS IT? This is where we’re staying for the weekend?” Blair stared in disbelief at the cabin tucked into the side of a wooded mountain. They’d spent forty-five minutes negotiating heart-stoppingly steep and winding roads to get here. The cabin hardly looked big enough for one person, much less three. And where were the other cabins? The lodge? The restaurant?

      “This is it. What do you think, Jeff?” Scott asked casually.

      Apparently deciding he’d been much too agreeable so far that day, Jeffrey scowled. “Looks like a dump to me.”

      That was unfair, Blair thought immediately. The cabin was small, but tidy and obviously in good repair. “It is not a dump,” she said firmly. “It’s a nice little cabin.”

      Jeffrey shrugged.

      Apparently unperturbed by the boy’s mood change, Scott opened the back of the Jeep. “Let’s get our stuff inside and unpack so we can start having fun.”

      Blair was afraid to ask what Scott’s idea of fun might be.

      To her relief, the cabin was larger than it had appeared from the outside. They entered a good-size main room. Blair noted immediately that, despite the rustic appearance of the place, the furnishings were of good quality, heavy wood with a hand-rubbed finish, the couch sporting duck-print tapestry cushions. Hunting prints hung on the wood-paneled walls. A rock fireplace dominated one wall, and another was made up of bookcases, crowded with paperback and hardcover novels. A spiral staircase in one corner led to a loft, which obviously served as a sleeping area, and two closed doors probably indicated more bedrooms downstairs. An eat-in kitchen opened off the back of the main room. The cabin was isolated but certainly beat sleeping on the ground, she decided.

      “Hardly a dump,” she murmured to her nephew, who only shrugged in response.

      “Anybody СКАЧАТЬ