Fool, he told himself angrily, as he watched her struggle to come up with an answer, but what could a woman say to a man who’d already made such a hideous mess of things?
“So we’d both better hope that doesn’t happen,” he said gruffly.
If only, Lissa thought, but she smiled brightly, said, “Damn right,” and went quickly past him, to the rack in the hall where she’d left her boots and jacket.
* * *
He was right.
The sky was… There had to be a better word than spectacular, but if there was, it had yet to be coined.
They stood on the back porch, faces tilted to the sky, she inches in front of him, their breath puffing tiny clouds into the still night air.
“Oh,” Lissa whispered. What else could you say when you stared into an endless black sky shot with a million night fires?
“Yeah,” Nick said. “The night sky, especially after a storm, was the best thing about growing up here.”
“Only that?”
“The mountains,” he said, after a few seconds. “The Absaroka Wilderness. I used to hike it. Spring and fall, I’d camp overnight.”
“You didn’t like living on the Triple G?”
“I liked riding. Working with the horses. Checking out the line shacks. That kind of thing.”
She wanted to ask him more. They’d only known each other a couple of days, but she longed to know more about him. Not about Nick Gentry, movie star. She wanted to know about Nick Gentry, the man.
She knew better than to ask.
He was not someone who would share himself easily. And she understood that; she had learned that same kind of caution over the last couple of years.
“Duchess. Look!”
“What?”
“A shooting star. And another!”
“Where? I don’t see them.”
“There. See that bulge in the mountain? Man, there’s another!”
“This is what always happens! My brothers see shooting stars. My sisters see them. And I’m the idiot standing there saying, ‘Where?’”
“Lift your head a little. Now look to the right. Here. I’ll show you.”
Nick clasped her shoulders. Turned her a couple of inches. “There’s one now!”
“I don’t see it!”
“For heaven’s sake, woman!” He curved one arm around her waist and drew her back against his chest. “Follow where I’m pointing. Good. Now just give it a couple of seconds…”
Fire arced across the sky. Lissa gasped.
“Oh! Oh, how beautiful!” Another streak of light raced across the darkness. She laughed with delight. “Nick, this is wonderful!”
“Yes. It is.”
His voice was low and rough. Something in it made her heartbeat quicken. Slowly, she turned her head and looked up at him. His face was shadowed; all she could see with any clarity were his eyes.