‘Um … yeah.’ Why was he looking surprised? Plenty of women on the land drove utes and owned toolkits.
His gaze drifted from her to the plane. ‘I mean, it’s so random. How did you know it was here? And why now, after all these years? This shed’s not been touched in …’
‘Yonks?’ she suggested.
He smiled at her, and his laugh lines creased up in that smoking hot way and maybe even theshedcould feel it, because suddenly she was roasting. That smile. Yowza.
Running away was starting to feel very, very right.
‘So, what was your plan? Break in and fly this bucket of rust out of here? I don’t see an airstrip. Or any rubber on these tyres. Or a pilot.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You’re pretty observant all of a sudden for a fellow who’s never even bothered to look in his own shed.’
His charm came so easy she was beginning to understand why the dog had ditched her jeans to sprawl over his boots again. ‘That is very true. In my defence, I’m easily distracted.’
Was she imagining it or had those rusty-coloured eyes of his given her the lightning-quick once-over? Plenty of time to notice how well worn and threadbare her khaki singlet was.
This was the moment to mention she was a pilot, but shoot … it was the stuff that came next that she was avoiding. No need to mention she was grounded. No need to mention she’d risked the lives of patients and flight crew and then fallen apart in a major and as-yet-unexplained way. She was on holiday from that, remember? Just for a bit. Just until she worked out whether she’d had a stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning or concussion.
She cleared her throat. ‘Well. To be honest, I snuck on to your property in the hopes I could look in the shed and find something that proved the plane was once here. I hadn’t thought much beyond that.’
She frowned as he laughed.
‘You don’t have a plan, do you? You’ve driven across the country chasing some dream and now your dream has grown wings and a propellor, and you don’t know what to do about it.’
What was he, a mind-reader? She decided to brazen it out. ‘Well, of course Iwillhave a plan. Soon.’ When she’d worked out how to find out more information.
‘You know what this thing is worth?’
She frowned. ‘Um, no. If it’s not being flown by someone, it ought to be in a museum.’
‘Everything has a dollar tag. It’s just a matter of finding the right buyer.’
Well shoot. Farmer Handsome was a money-hungry moron. That was too bad; she’d been starting to understand why Terri had been so keen to find a new love-of-her-life in every town she passed through.
‘I don’t think you’ve quite grasped the situation, Joe. TheDoreen Annehas been left to me.’
He smiled at her, and yeah, this time there was a bite to it. ‘I don’t thinkyou’vequite grasped the situation. This plane, this shed, this land … the twenty acres of poorly cared for macadamia trees, the twenty acres of unkempt scrub … all belong tome.’
She frowned. It was time to dig her boot heels in and persuade him to see things from her point of view. ‘Maybe we could come to an arrangement.’
‘Like what?’
Crap. She needed time to think, damn it. ‘Look, you’re right, I haven’t got a clue what happens next, but I will. Soon.’ As soon as she got some help. She took a breath, and it streamed into her lungs as though they’d never choked up and let her down. She checked her hands … yep, they were back to their steady old selves. Vision? Not at all spotty! Guts? Totally settled. Burying her problems under this timely Bluett history project wasworking, so why would she give that up?
‘I need some time,’ she said after a long moment.
Farmer Hottie was nodding his head as though that were entirely reasonable. ‘It’s hot here in the shed and my ten-month-old groodle has disappeared somewhere outside. He’s got the brainpower of a broom handle so I’d better go find him. Why don’t you come up tothe house and you can tell me how it is the Bluett family just turned up today to find their long-lost plane.’
It was an offer she shouldn’t refuse if she wanted to visit the shed again, and the man didn’t seem like the kind of guy who needed to abduct random women in remote country paddocks. He looked … kindish, she decided, under all those sun-kissed good looks, if a little hard-eyed.
‘I … need to do a bit of research first,’ she said. Because as it was, what she knew about the Bluett family would fit in a teaspoon. No way would anyone listen to her claim without a little more proof. She also needed a shower, and she wanted to brush the highway tangles out of her hair and eat something more nutritious than a bag of jelly snakes. ‘I’m going to book a room in town for a few days. Can I come see you in the next day or so?’
His grin was just as scrumptious as it had been the first time. And kinda flirty. ‘Sure. No need to break in next time; just come up to the homestead.’