Читать книгу Sweet Child of Mine - Jean Brashear - Страница 11

She sat in the passenger seat, stiff as a board, her fingers clutched tightly around the violets. She was so damn delicate, despite her fierce will.

“I really am a good pilot, I swear,” Michael said soothingly.

Her dress was simple and almost severe, her hair done up tightly in a sophisticated twist. But tiny tendrils escaped around her neck and ears, reminding him that beneath this too-still woman lived the fire-brand he thought he knew. She turned his way.

“I’m sure you are. I’ve just never flown so…close to the ground.” She glanced away. “Really, it’s very interesting.” But her voice quavered, just a bit.

“You’re afraid of heights.”

She started to shake her head, then glanced at him, a tiny glint in her eyes. “Unfortunately, yes. Somehow this seems so…real. I’ve flown before, but never on such a small plane.”

Michael wanted to laugh. His Bonanza was not considered small, especially compared to his first plane, a Piper Cub. But it was no 757, that was for sure. You felt the experience in this, instead of the distant feeling a jumbo jet conveyed. “You could close your eyes and go to sleep.”

“Oh, no. I don’t think that’s likely.” Her lips turned up slightly. “Actually, I want to like it. I’m just not good at looking down.”

“So you’d just as soon I didn’t do logrolls, I guess.”

He saw her swallow hard, but her grin was brave. “Unless you just really need to do one, I think I’ll pass.”

Michael laughed. He’d never expected to like her this much. “I think I’ll survive.”

She drew in a deep breath, and he tried not to notice how the soft purple wool clung to her very lovely curves. “Thank you.”

Before too long, they were on approach to the small Tahoe airstrip. He explained the mechanics of what they were doing, and she took it all in, asking intelligent and probing questions. It wasn’t really a surprise; Suzanne was a very intelligent woman. Only a very smart mind could tangle so successfully with his own as often as she had done in the past.

They touched down, and he heard Suzanne’s heartfelt sigh of relief.

He laughed. “I told you I’d get you here safely.”

She grinned. “And I believed you. It’s just that—”

“I could teach you to fly, you know.” What was he offering? They wouldn’t be together that long.

“I don’t—” Her eyes sparked. “Really?”

That was also the Suzanne he thought he knew. Bold and adventurous. “You’d have to study. How are you at math?”

Her chin tilted. “I’m good. Well, pretty good.” She glanced over. “Okay, not great.”

He laughed. “You’ll have to look down sometimes. You ready for that?”

“I might surprise you.”

Oh, you do that already, Suzanne. “Once we get back and you get settled in, we’ll see if you can spare the time.”

She went suddenly quiet. He concentrated on taxiing to the terminal. Finally, she spoke. “Michael?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve never seen your house. Will I—” She paused. “Will I fit there?”

He thought back to her apartment, which, though small, burst with life, from the plants she had at every window to the quilt folded over her sofa. His house had been constructed with fine craftsmanship, but he’d never made it as much a home as she had done with a tiny place she couldn’t even call her own. “You know that quilt on your sofa?”