It Takes a Cowboy

He tossed his foam coffee cup in an overflowing trash can and headed outside to greet them as the car turned into the graveled parking lot. Maybe he’d give the boy a flying lesson, he thought, remembering when a kindly old pilot had given him his first lesson. Teenagers usually loved to be behind the wheel of anything that moved.

He stopped in his tracks when Blair and her nephew—her very short nephew—climbed out of the car. Her nephew was most definitely not a teenager, Scott realized immediately. He couldn’t be more than ten years old.

This was the boy Blair wanted to have buckle down and plan the course of his life? The one she worried wasn’t taking his studies and his future seriously enough? The kid didn’t look old enough to spell future, much less to blueprint it!

Rapidly revising several of the plans he’d made for the upcoming weekend, he turned his attention to Blair. She looked great, he noticed. She was dressed more casually than the last time he had seen her, in snug jeans and a forest-green camp shirt unbuttoned over a white T-shirt. Her feet were laced into a pair of hiking boots that looked small enough to fit her young nephew.

He was hit again with the attraction he’d felt for her when he’d met her after the auction. Whether dressed in her professional lawyer clothes or this outdoorsy outfit, she looked spectacular. But it was more than just her appearance that appealed to him; he was drawn to the intelligence in her eyes, the challenge in the tilt of her chin, the confident yet undeniably sexy way she walked. “Hi, Blair.”

“Good morning, Scott.” Her manner was briskly polite, as if she were greeting one of her legal clients rather than a weekend companion. “This is my nephew, Jeffrey. Jeffrey, this is Scott McKay.”

Jeffrey tossed his longish, center-parted hair out of his face and subjected Scott to an intense scrutiny. Scott had the sensation that the boy didn’t miss one detail of his appearance, from his breeze-tossed hair to his denim shirt, faded jeans and scuffed western boots. And he got the distinct feeling the kid wasn’t particularly impressed with what he saw.

“Hi, Jeff. How’s it going?” Scott said casually, careful not to be overly friendly.

The boy shrugged and mumbled something.

He looked so damned young, Scott thought again. So small in his oversize jersey and baggy jeans. So vulnerable behind the defiance in his snub-nosed face. Looking at this boy, Scott recognized emotions he had thought long since behind him.

He cleared his throat, determined to show the kid a good time this weekend—for Jeffrey’s sake, and not just because he wanted to impress the boy’s aunt. “Did you bring the stuff I suggested?” he asked Blair.

She nodded. “It’s in the car.”

“Great. Want to help me load the plane, Jeff?”

“The plane?” Blair repeated as the boy shrugged again. “We’re going in a plane?”

He raised an eyebrow. “We’re at an airport. Did you think we were going by submarine?”

Jeffrey chuckled, then looked rather surprised that he had done so. Blair glanced at him quickly, her expression softening. And then she turned toward Scott again. “I thought you flew in this morning and wanted to meet here for convenience.”

“No, we’re flying. You like flying, Jeff?”

“I’ve never been in a little plane,” the boy answered, glancing at the two-, four-and six-seaters parked nearby.

“I bet you’ll like it,” Scott predicted, then moved toward the back of Blair’s car. “The stuff’s in the trunk?”

In response, she opened the trunk, still looking a bit worried. “Have you chartered a plane? Who’s our pilot?”

“It’s my plane, and I’m the pilot.”

“You’re a, um, good pilot, I hope?”

Grinning at her, he quipped, “You bet. I’ve had my license for a whole week tomorrow. Bought it out of the back of a magazine. You know, one of those ads that begin, ‘You, too, can soar like an eagle....’”

“That’s not funny.”

“Jeff thought it was. He’s smiling.”

The boy immediately changed his expression to a scowl. “Am not.”

Scott knew better than to push it. “Whatever. Got all your stuff?”

Jeffrey pulled a grubby backpack out of the car and slung it over his shoulder. “Okay.”

Blair locked the car, slipped her purse beneath her arm and turned toward Scott with the general air of a turkey at Thanksgiving. “We’re ready.”

Scott grinned and slung an arm around her shoulders for a quick, bracing squeeze. “Trust me,” he said. “it’s going to be a very interesting weekend.”

* * *

BLAIR INSISTED that Jeffrey should take the copilot’s spot in the little four-seater Scott led them to. She explained that she would be much more comfortable in the back, though she was really hoping Jeffrey would find the ride more exciting in the front. She wanted so badly for him to take pleasure from the weekend, to show some excitement about anything. Maybe if he enjoyed being with Scott, he would be more likely to listen when Scott talked to him.

Buckled very tightly into the snug back seat, she watched as Scott matter-of-factly showed Jeffrey all the instruments and gave him a quick explanation of their purpose. After he started the noisy engine, she wasn’t able to hear much of what they were saying, but she noticed that Jeffrey seemed to be listening closely as Scott continued to talk.

She remembered the look of surprise on Scott’s face when she and Jeffrey had climbed out of her car. What was it about Jeffrey’s appearance that had startled Scott? Whatever it was, he had recovered quickly. He’d been quite pleasant to the boy since, using a man-to-man tone that Jeffrey seemed to respond well to. Blair was aware of how much her nephew hated being talked to like a cute little boy.

The plane began to move, the engine noise increasing. Blair swallowed and tightened her seat belt. She wasn’t afraid of flying commercially, but small planes made her a bit nervous. This was the smallest she’d ever been in. And how did she know Scott was a good pilot? Was she crazy to put her life and her nephew’s in the hands of a man she hardly knew?

She kept her eyes on Scott as he taxied the plane to the end of the runway. He’d slid a pair of aviator sunglasses onto his nose, and that, combined with his headphones, made him look the part of a competent pilot. She began to relax a bit, reassured, perhaps, by the image he projected. There was just something about this guy that inspired confidence—which probably explained why she was here with him now.

The engines revved and the plane began to roll down the runway, picking up speed until it lifted, then climbing rapidly until the ground was far beneath them. Blair yawned to clear her ears, looking from the vista beneath them to her nephew’s face. It was the first time in weeks that Jeffrey had looked genuinely enthused. She began to take heart that she had done the right thing this weekend, after all.

Forcing herself to relax, she leaned back against the seat. The droning engine noise cocooned her, isolating her from Scott and Jeffrey in the front. She could see their mouths moving and hear an occasional word, but she made no real effort to follow their conversation. She looked out the window for a while, then pulled a book out of her tote bag. It was a recent nonfiction bestseller, a densely written dissection of the political overview for the U.S. in the new millennium. She’d intended 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.