Sex sold and, dammit, Daniel was sex on a stick. Alex tipped her head to the side and looked at him, dressed in his white button-down shirt and khaki pants, designer sunglasses hanging off his shirt pocket. If he ever became sick of being a cowboy/businessman, he could find another career as a male model. She could easily see him diving off a cliff, into a blue sea, swimming up to a boat and crawling all over a sexy, skinny model...
Modeling... Hmm...maybe next year she could do a skin calendar featuring Daniel and all the sexy, sexy men of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. God knew there were a bunch of them.
Daniel narrowed his eyes at her. “No. Whatever you are thinking, just no.”
Alex just smiled and didn’t bother to argue. When the time came, she’d have him posing naked, maybe against a tractor or one of his fantastic quarterback horses, his Stetson covering his essential bits.
“Forget it, Slade,” Daniel muttered, now looking nervous.
Alex handed him a coy smile and glanced at her watch. “So, what are your plans for today?”
Daniel tapped his index finger against his thigh. “I need to catch up with my foreman, get my PA to reschedule some meetings I missed, return calls. You?”
“Pretty much the same. Except that I am scheduling some time to kill my grandpa.”
Daniel laughed. “Come on, honey, I thought we’d partially forgiven them. After all, we are back together.”
What did that mean? Was she now his girlfriend, his partner, his lover? Alex looked out of the window as the plane started to descend. They’d only spoken in general terms about her staying in Royal... Did he still want her to move in? Was she supposed to look for a house to rent in Royal itself? What did they tell Gus and Rose?
Where, exactly, did they stand?
All she knew for sure was that she’d agreed to stay in Royal. Was she sure that was the right thing to do? For her and the baby...?
The baby. Alex frowned. “What’s the date today?”
Daniel tossed out the date and she slapped her hand against her forehead. “Dammit, I nearly forgot that I have an appointment with the ob-gyn this afternoon.”
“This afternoon?” Daniel demanded. “Didn’t I put that into my calendar?” he glanced at his cell phone and nodded. “Yeah, here it is, five thirty.”
Alex nodded. “She’s fitting me in as her last patient of the day.”
He sighed, ran a hand across his face and glanced down at his phone. He quietly cursed. “Can you reschedule? I’ve got a crazy day.”
“I don’t think I should. I should’ve seen her already and I won’t be able to get an appointment for another two weeks if I miss this one,” Alex told him. She lifted her hands and lied. “I can go on my own—it’s not that big a deal.”
“It’s a very big deal and I told you I want to be there,” Daniel retorted. “Today is just not a good day.”
“I can’t help that,” Alex pushed back, becoming annoyed herself. “When I made this appointment, I didn’t know we were going to be kidnapped and out of touch for a week.”
Daniel scrubbed his hand over his face before speaking again. “Okay, let’s calm down. You said the appointment is at five thirty? Where?”
Alex gave him the doctor’s address before adding, “I’ll understand if you can’t make it, Daniel.” Well, she’d try to understand.
Daniel leaned forward and covered her hand with his. “I said that I’d make you and the baby a priority, Lex, and I mean it. It would help if I could meet you there.”
Alex linked her fingers in his and squeezed. She felt the warmth his words created and instantly relaxed. This was going to be okay; they were going to be okay. “Sure, we can do that.”
Daniel leaned forward, brushed his mouth against hers and smiled. “Ready to go home?”
Alex smiled against his mouth. “No.”
“Me neither. And please don’t kill Gus. Prison orange is not your color.”
Ten
Much later that day, Daniel gripped the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. A headache pounded at the back of his skull and his shoulders were flirting with his ears.
It felt like he’d been back in Royal eight months instead of eight hours and he didn’t know if he could fight another fire. He had cattle missing, he’d had to call the vet for a sick mare and one of his best men—who also happened to be one of his most experienced hands—had suddenly decided to retire.