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      MOLLY STARED UP into eyes the color of the morning sky, trying not to lose herself. She knew why she was out here in the hallway after midnight. But it was too much to believe that he’d wandered into the hall at the same moment, also unable to sleep.

      “Why are you actually here?” she asked. Her voice sounded husky, needy. Too feminine. She might want to pretend Jason didn’t affect her, but that would be a lie. Her father hadn’t held with lying so neither would she.

      “To see the land, to figure things out with you,” he said, but he’d turned away. He put his hands on his hips and looked out the big window at the inky-black sky beyond. She wondered if, when he looked at the night sky, it made him long to be back among the stars.

      She had questions about that part of his life, but mostly, right now, she needed to not turn something meaningless into a big deal. Her dad had died. She felt tears burning her eyes. She hoped one day she’d be able to think about him without this gut-wrenching pain, but she wasn’t there yet. Would she ever be?

      “Hey, you all right?”

      She shook her head. “Just—”

      Her voice, heavy with tears, sounded deep and almost unintelligible.

      “It’s okay. I miss Mick, too,” he said.

      Miss him. She ached with his loss. She still wasn’t ready to be on her own with the ranch or in life. She needed her father’s advice. Now more than ever.

      More tears fell and all of a sudden she was sobbing. She had heard it said that grief was the photo negative of love, but she wasn’t ready to accept it. It was just a huge hole in her that could never be filled.

      Jason cursed and then pulled her into his arms. He didn’t do anything else. Just held her as sobs racked her body and her emotions fell in a gush of tears. She had no idea how much time had passed until she was hiccupping softly and the tears had almost dried up.

      “Sorry for that,” she said, taking a step backward.

      “I’m not,” he admitted. He wiped the trail of moisture off her face and then sighed. “I’m also here because...I have a few health concerns after spending a year on the International Space Station and my commander wants me to take a break.”

      “Oh. I appreciate your honesty. So what’s wrong with your health?”

      “Nothing that some time in Earth’s gravity shouldn’t fix. Everyone is betting on that. But I’m mainly at the ranch for the reasons I gave you before—because we need to talk, to figure out what we are going to do with this place,” he said.

      “And kissing me was...what was that?” she asked. Oh, God, had she once again thrown herself at Jason? What was it about him that made her abandon common sense?

      Aside from his rock-hard body, chiseled jaw and brilliant blue eyes. Those were things any woman would find appealing. But she didn’t normally throw herself at men just because they were attractive.

      “That was us. I guess it’s always been there between us, but we never really took the time to pursue it,” he said.

      She arched one eyebrow at him. She felt energy and anger coursing through her, but she knew focusing on these feelings was just an easy way to pretend she wasn’t still missing her dad. “Pursue it?”

      He shrugged. One of those gestures men make when they know better than to answer a woman.

      “You just admitted you are leaving as soon as you get the all clear from NASA,” she said. “We aren’t pursuing anything.”

      “Maybe, maybe not,” he said, moving closer to her. She felt the heat of his body and found it very hard to look away from his naked chest. Besides the scar on his left side, he had a tattoo that read To boldly go.

      He took another step closer and she put her hand up. Kissing him had been foolish. She was a practical woman. She always had been. And now, with Dad gone, she really needed to think rationally. The ranch was in financial trouble, as it had been for years, and she needed to focus on that.

      Not wonder what it would feel like to run her finger over Jason’s tattoo.

      “What are you thinking?” he asked. His voice was low and it brushed over her senses like a warm breeze. She wanted to close her eyes and tip her face up, but she didn’t. She’d had her kiss. And it was hotter than she had ever expected. But now she had to go back to being Molly.

      “Nothing.”

      Nothing. Really? She was intelligent and her remarks had been known to leave men speechless, but with Jason she felt like she was sixteen-year-old Molly in the throes of her crush.

      “Well, nothing I want to talk about with you,” she admitted. “I’m not myself tonight. And I want to be like Scarlett and put my troubles off for another day.”

      “I’m not myself, either,” he admitted. “Who is Scarlett?”

      “Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind. She’s famous for saying ‘Tomorrow is another day.’”

      “Well, she’s right,” he said. “But for tonight we have two choices.”

      “Only two?”

      “Well, two that won’t get us into trouble,” he said.

      There was a touch of mischief in his expression and she realized it had been too long since anyone had teased her. Everyone had been treating her as if she was fragile since her dad had died.

      “I’m listening.”

      “We can get that bottle of Maker’s Mark out of the cabinet and drink until it’s empty,” he said.

      “Or?”

      “Or we can saddle up the horses and chase the moon as it moves across the sky,” he said. “I recall that used to be one of your favorite things to do.”

      She swallowed hard. It still was.

      How could a man she hadn’t seen in thirteen years be the one person who knew her that well?

      “Ride,” she said.

      “Good choice. Meet you at the stables in ten?”

      She nodded and walked away from him. She didn’t think as she changed into her favorite pair of jeans and her cowboy boots. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and walked out into the night.

      * * *

      THE STABLES HADN’T changed since he’d first visited them as a teenager. The barn was big and cavernous, the scent of hay and sweet corn welcoming him as he stepped inside. There was a narrow aisle between СКАЧАТЬ