Authors: Audra North
The older man took it with a nearly palpable excitement. “Thanks, Mr. Colt. Will do. Great to meet you.”
He sauntered off, and Ranger had to fight the strange urge to run after the guy, tell him there had been a mistake, and demand his card back.
No. He’d wait until he heard the terms of the deal, then figure out what to do. Surely Kerri would understand. He was holding up his end of the bargain, and she would hold up hers.
“Ranger, she’s coming in!” Grady’s shout pulled his attention to pit road.
Time to celebrate.
On Tuesday morning, Kerri awoke feeling excited. She and Ranger had an actual date scheduled today. Not just a quick dinner where a reporter might happen to catch them holding hands, but a real couple-type
excursion
, as Ranger had called it.
She smiled to herself. After finishing in fourth place on Saturday, she’d been crushed. Losing to Ty wasn’t so bad; he was a good friend and she’d won plenty already. But a part of her was still having a hard time trusting that everything was going to be okay. She’d never met a man she’d felt so much for—both good and bad. Fifteen failed relationships in a year was more than proof enough of that. And now she’d found the kind of closeness and chemistry that she’d wanted all along … and it was in a very fake, very temporary relationship. Everything she wanted but couldn’t have.
So when he’d proposed this day off to get away from racing and just be themselves, she jumped at the chance.
She got up and dressed—Ranger wasn’t there, but he had said they were going to the water, so she chose a sundress over a bathing suit and an old pair of flip-flops. She unearthed a floppy straw hat from the back of her closet and stuck it on her head before heading downstairs to pack a bag.
Ten minutes later, he walked in the front door, looking adorably casual in cargo shorts and a T-shirt. He walked over to her, slipped an arm around her waist, and kissed her.
“Ready?”
She nodded, too breathless to speak. He picked up the bag and dropped another kiss on her lips. “Let’s go, then.”
They loaded up her car and he drove to Wilgrove Airport, a small airfield in Charlotte, where a beautifully equipped Honda—“They make jets?” She turned to him in surprise.
He nodded. “Yeah. They haven’t been around as long as some of the other guys, but they make a nice aircraft. I chartered this one for the day. Hope you don’t mind a short flight.”
Kerri laughed. “Like I’d pass up an adventure like this. It’s like you don’t even know who I am.”
The pilot came out for a few minutes to talk to them beforehand, and turned out to be a hardcore racing fan. They chatted about the season and some of the other drivers, then she signed a Matchbox car for the pilot’s son. Ten minutes later they were in the air.
“Where are we going, anyway?” She rubbed Ranger’s thighs and laughed when he grunted and tried to shift away. She’d learned his body well in the past few weeks and loved that touching him like this could arouse him so quickly.
“It’s a surprise.”
But just then, John, the pilot, came on the intercom. “Well, Ranger and Kerri, just wanted to let you know it’ll be a smooth ride for the remaining twenty minutes of this flight. Looks like you’ll have some great weather on Emerald Isle.”
Kerri laughed so hard, she nearly split her sides. Poor Ranger.
He grinned. “I couldn’t exactly keep it from John. He nudged her foot. “It was
supposed
to be a surprise, anyway.”
“It’s great, really.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “Really. I grew up in North Carolina but I’ve never been, so this will be a new experience for me. How did you decide on it?”
He looked out the window. “Growing up, my mom and I went there nearly every summer when I was in third through tenth grades. She cleaned houses for a family who had a house along the beach, and they would take us along in exchange for my mom working as their maid during the week.”
The thought of Ranger as a young boy playing in the sand made Kerri smile. “So is this a trip down memory lane?”
He shrugged. “Sort of. I actually own a vacation home and keep a boat there now. Probably not the best investment, since I don’t go there often enough, but…”
He trailed off with another shrug.
God. She could imagine how special those vacations must have been to him. Growing up poor, just he and his mom, a week at the beach had to have been magical.
The intercom crackled, making Kerri jump. “Ranger and Kerri, we’re about to land. Please secure your seatbelts. We’ll be on the ground in about five minutes.”
They held hands in silence as the plane descended. A man holding a sign that read “Colt” was waiting just outside the exit. He greeted them and led them to a gorgeous Audi S8, but to her surprise, instead of getting into the driver’s seat, he handed the keys to Ranger, tipped his hat to Kerri, and walked away.
“He’s not driving us?”
“I thought it would be better if we had more flexibility.”
“You just want to have sex with me in the car.”
“That too.”
She laughed and let him steal a kiss when he opened the door for her and helped her inside. Soon, they were heading east toward the beautiful coastal town of Emerald Isle. When they pulled up alongside the dock, he pulled into a parking space marked “Reserved for Ranger Colt.”
“You really pulled out all the stops for this date, didn’t you?”
“It’s not a date, it’s an excursion.” He grinned. “I told you I wanted to get us away from the racing scene. That means further than a restaurant in downtown Charlotte.” He gave her a quick kiss and jumped out of the car, going around to the other side to open her door.
He grabbed her bag and a cooler from the trunk with one hand and took her hand in the other, leading her down the dock to a lovely little sailboat with blue trim.
“Is this one yours?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, it’s nice.”
“It does the trick. It’s a great way to escape, whenever I have the chance to get down here.”
Within minutes, they were on the water, heading out into the Atlantic on a lovely breeze. Ranger was doing all kinds of boat-type things that she hadn’t the first clue about, so she decided to stay out of the way and appreciate the view instead, lounging on a bench in the back of the boat.
“Just watch the boom.” Ranger tapped his fingers on the large pole that ran directly above her head. The boat was large enough and the benches were set low enough, that she could sit without worrying about it smacking into her head, but from the way he occasionally let it snap from one side to the other, swinging the heavy thing so fast, she could imagine how dangerous it could be to get hit with it.
After about half an hour, they could barely see the shore; the breeze had calmed, and Ranger wasn’t rushing about as much. He took a seat next to her and opened the cooler, passing her a bottle of water.
“Thanks.” She patted the space next to her and looked up at him through her lashes. “Why don’t you sit a little closer?”
He grinned and obeyed, draping one arm over her shoulder and leaning his head back to look up at the sky.
“This is beautiful. Thanks for taking me out here. Where did you learn to sail, anyway?”
Ranger took a long pull of his water before answering. “When I left college, I was given a consulting project in Maine. I spent a lot of weekends there, learning to sail. I don’t know why I connected with it so deeply. Maybe because it was the only place where I felt like I could go at my own pace, with no real goal at the end except going out on the water and doing nothing.”
“So does this count as ‘doing nothing’?”
He turned and smiled down at her. “No. This is … well, I don’t know. But it’s definitely not nothing.”
Oh. Oh, wow.
“Ranger—”
He stopped her words with a kiss. No urgency, no rush, just a slow, sensuous exploration of her mouth that left her feeling hot and restless. She stroked her hands down his chest, trying to pull him against her. On top of her. But he pulled back and ran a finger down her cheek, studying her face as though trying to memorize her.
“I had a call yesterday with a potential sponsor.”
That pulled her out of her sensual haze. “Hey, I thought we weren’t going to talk about racing today.”
His brows knitted together, just a bit. “Sorry. The call came in late in the day and I—well, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how you were going to react.”
Uh-oh. This did not sound promising. She leaned away from him. “Why don’t you just tell me and find out?”
She could feel him tensing, but to his credit, he took a deep breath looked her in the eye. “Natural Light Cosmetics—”
“No.” She immediately shut him down. What was he thinking? He knew how she felt about things like this. She knew he had a job to do. She’d come to accept that. She’d even accepted that he wasn’t in this for the long haul, and any emotions she might be attaching to him were her problem alone. But still, this hurt.
“I told the guy that.”
Well, that was a surprise. She gaped at him. “You turned him down?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t turn him down. I told him you weren’t okay with it and I asked him if there was something else he wanted to offer.”
Her heart soared, but she pushed the feeling down. She couldn’t stop her curiosity from bubbling up, though. “What was the initial offer?”
“Six million.” He said it so calmly that she didn’t process the words at first.
Six million?
Six million dollars meant that they could hire more mechanics. They could build more cars. She could compete in the Intercomm Cup. If someone had offered her six million dollars, she’d be shrieking it, not saying it calmly like she was talking about the weather or a cup of coffee.
“Oh my God.”
“Yep. But in addition to prime placement on the car and your suit, they wanted TV and print ads and more hours at the booth, all with you wearing their products. And I know how you feel about getting sexed up. I told the guy—Hugh—as much. He said they wouldn’t ask you to do things like wear your jacket unzipped or pose with your ass stuck out and stuff. It would just be about wearing makeup. But I also told him I’d be fair about it and give you a chance to accept or decline for yourself. I wasn’t going to do it on your behalf.”
She’d been an idiot. “I’m sorry, Ranger. I just assumed—”
He reached out and squeezed her hand. “I understand. I hadn’t given you any reason not to. But I admit I’m not completely innocent in this. I-I respect you, Kerri. Respect how you feel about things like this. But no other sponsor has even come close to this offer. A couple have come in at half a million but the time you’d have to put in to earn it will probably end up costing you more than it’s worth. Six million dollars, on the other hand … that’s an amount of money that isn’t just about you anymore.”
He was right. Six million dollars meant that they could give the crew a break. Maybe some of them could actually see their families more often. Six million dollars meant that Grady wouldn’t have to be stuck in a job he hated just because they couldn’t afford to lose a single headcount. Six million dollars meant … helping the people she loved. The people who had helped her.
Could she do it? Would it really be compromising her principles if it was just makeup?
She sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”
“You don’t have to decide right now. The offer is good for two weeks. But there’s one more thing you should know.”
Shit. What kind of ridiculous pain could he add to this already difficult decision?
“What is it?”
“Two percent of all the sales of this new line that they want you to endorse goes to an organization that teaches leadership skills to girls in elementary and middle school.”
“Are you
trying
to stab me in the heart?”
He chuckled at that and pulled her close in a tight squeeze. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t easy. I realized recently that if I have that much faith in my ability to secure a sponsor, I’ll find someone else. Probably not another six million dollar deal, but there are those other ones on the table. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t want you to sign this one. But I also want you to feel comfortable with it. You’re the one who’s going to have to live with the decision after I’m gone.”
After I’m gone.
The words made her heart squeeze with pain. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been hoping that he might not go, after all.
“Thank you.” She forced herself to stay calm and snuggled against his chest. “That means a lot to me. To be honest, part of me is kind of tired of the men in my life dying or running my family legacy into the ground without telling me”—a vision of Earl, running across the track all those week ago, flashed in her mind—“or, you know, being insane.”
He huffed, the hard breath stirring her hair. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“I guess what I’m saying is thanks for being someone I can depend on, even though it’s only temporary, you … giving me the choice means a lot to me.”
He rubbed her back. “You deserve at least that choice. Maybe I’m biased, but the program that Natural Light has going is pretty cool. I mean, they fund a lot of great programs for girls and women. Hugh sent me over their pamphlet and—well, I don’t know.” He sighed. “What I’m saying is that just because you don’t like one part of something doesn’t mean that the rest of it isn’t worth anything.”
Was he talking about Natural Light? Or himself?
“I’ll think about it. I promise.”
The breeze picked up a bit and the boat jerked to one side, startling her. Ranger jumped up, fiddling with a few things and then finally furling the big sail so that the boat sat heavy and relatively still in the water.
She was still feeling a bit confused, but he hopped up on the bow and held his hand to her. “Come on, sugar. I’m sorry for ruining the day with that. How about we start over? Are you hungry?”
She grinned and stood, taking his hand and letting him haul her up next to him. They sat side by side on the bow and shared the lunch that Ranger had brought, talking more about sailing, airplanes, Ranger’s visits here as a child—anything but the decisions that awaited her back in Charlotte. That awaited both of them.