Читать книгу The Barons Of Texas: Tess - Fayrene Preston, Fayrene Preston - Страница 10

“Uvalde? This restaurant that you love so much is in Uvalde, Texas?”

The plane glided to a stop. Then and only then did Nick look at her. “Trust me. You’re going to love dinner.”

She mentally shrugged. He’d engaged her in pleasant small talk for most of the trip, and she’d actually enjoyed the flight. He had a quick mind that she appreciated, and not once had he mentioned anything about the Águila or her drilling.

But as soon as they’d touched down, her original uneasiness had returned. Stupid, really. He certainly hadn’t dragged her here, kicking and screaming. She’d wanted to come. Still…

As she came down the stairs of the plane, he offered her a steadying hand. An unnecessary gesture, but definitely a nice one, and after she reached the ground, he continued to hold her hand. “I’m really hoping you’ll like what I’ve planned.”

His suddenly serious expression took her aback. “I’m sure I will.”

“Good.” He stared at her as if he were searching for something in her, or maybe even in himself, but in the end he shook his head.

“Nick? Is there something wrong?”

“Not a thing.” He lightly tugged her hand. “Come on. The car is just around the corner.”

The car he guided her to was a spotlessly clean, beautifully preserved 1975 Cadillac.

“Is this car a rental?” she asked.

“No. It belongs to my family.”

“Your family?”

“My grandparents.”

“Oh. So they live in Uvalde?”

“That’s right.”

Everything was beginning to make sense. “I wondered how a restaurant in Uvalde could have become such a special place to you. You were raised here, right?”

For some reason her remark drew a smile from him, and her heart gave a hard thud. She returned his smile. “Let me guess. This place serves great Tex-Mex, right?”

“On occasion, but not tonight. Hope you’re not too disappointed.”

She shook her head. “I can get my fill of Tex-Mex in Corpus.”

“Good.” His smile warmed her inside and out, and she realized that whatever wariness she’d been feeling had disappeared. For the first time since she’d looked across the terrace and seen him, she was totally at ease with him.

He turned onto a highway, then gunned the car so that it zoomed ahead. Given Nick’s special affinity with the sun, she wasn’t surprised to see that they were still heading west. But given the time of evening, the sun had disappeared, leaving behind only trails of muted reds and oranges on the horizon as a reminder of its existence.

“You said you’re a professor at the university?”

“That’s right.”

“So then you have a home in Austin?”

“Yes. Do you know Austin?”

“I went to school there. It was a requirement for me and my two sisters.”

“Requirement?”

She smiled dryly. “Oh, yeah. It had to be the University of Texas or it would be nothing.”

“Sounds as if your father had very definite ideas.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” Dictatorial was another.

“One thing about it—no one can make a mistake by going there. What was your degree in?”

“Petroleum engineering.” Such a shame, she thought. She’d never had a professor who looked even remotely like Nick. She could only imagine the clamor of the young, attractive women lining up, trying to get into his classes. In fact, if he’d been a professor there when she’d attended, she would have been clamoring right along with the others. She smiled to herself at the thought. “Austin’s a really great city.”

“It’s also a wonderful place to live and relatively easygoing.”

“Not like Dallas, huh?”

His head swung around. “You don’t like living in Dallas?”

Even she had heard the wistfulness in her voice, so she wasn’t surprised that he had. “Oh, I love it. There’s always something happening there, and it’s a great base for international dealings.” It was the truth. Only the word easyging had caused her wistfulness, though she wasn’t sure why. Her life was made up of discipline, drive and ambition. She’d never known any other way.

“In this day and time of faxes and modems, I imagine you could work anywhere and still maintain international ties without any problems.”

“I’m not sure that’s entirely true. For the type of business I do, it’s almost imperative to have an international airport close by, and Dallas does.”

He turned off the highway onto a two-lane country road. “DFW is a short flight away from Austin.”

“Uh-huh.” His Chamber of Commerce-like promotion of Austin was interesting, but it didn’t affect her one way or another. Her home was in Dallas because her uncle and her father had decided the offices of Baron International should be there. And as soon as she’d graduated from college at the age of twenty, she’d dived headfirst into the deep end of the high-tech, high-stress world of the oil business. She loved it. She thrived on it. She was good at it. She’d never minded the long hours or the pressure of risking huge amounts of money on what, in the end, came down to her instincts.