It happened in Texas with its fine, silty soil not accustomed to this kind of rain. It was like trying to walk through quicksand when it suddenly got wet.
“Hey, what happened to your horse?” she asked.
“Long gone. He doesn’t like lightning, either, wouldn’t leave me for anything but that. Wasn’t much around here to tether him to that could actually hold him, if he decided to run, just some scrawny bushes. He would have uprooted the thing by turning his head.”
“Oh, okay… So, for us…What about in the morning? Surely the lightning will have stopped, and we can make it to the Jeep then, can’t we?” she said.
“Maybe, although it’s still not easy getting any real traction for a while after this kind of storm passes through. Not off-road. You are off-road there, aren’t you?”
“By a couple of miles,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry. If we can’t get to your car, there’s an old hunting cabin a mile or so from here and high ground between us and it. We’ll go at first light, as long as the lightning’s through, and hold up there. The ranch hands will be out, checking to make sure everything’s okay. Someone from the ranch will find us before long.”
“And this spot where we are? It won’t flood?”
“Not overnight. If it’s still raining like this tomorrow during the day, tomorrow night it might. But don’t worry. I’ve lived on this ranch for the better part of twenty years, know every inch of the place. I know how to keep you safe here, Red, and I’ll do it, too.”
“Red?”
He grinned. “It is red, isn’t it? I can’t be sure in this light, but I thought when I watched you walk down to the mine entrance—”
“Yes, my hair is red,” she admitted.
“Thought so.” He didn’t say she had the fiery temperament to go along with it. “So, is this a problem? Spending the night here? Because there really isn’t anything else to do—”
“I know. I believe you,” she claimed. “So, I guess we should probably…get comfortable. Since we’ll be here for the night. Right?”
He nodded. “Are you afraid of me, Red?”
“No.” She vehemently denied it.
“Because there’s no reason for you to be. I’m not gonna hurt you. Or do anything to you. We’re just in this together now, and really, it’s a little bit of nothing. One slightly uncomfortable night. That’s all. Might as well make the best of it.”
He was right. Paige knew he was. No way she could argue the point.
It was just…well, the lightning, for one thing. She hated lightning.
And spending the night with him.
She’d been daydreaming about that very thing when she watched him with his horse by the stream earlier, and she’d felt perfectly safe doing that. Fantasizing about being the kind of woman to just let herself go for a night with a perfect stranger.
She’d never been the kind of woman to let herself do that. A girl growing up with money in a very public way…Well, her father had warned her and her sister early on that there would be boys who wanted her for her money, and she, of course, hadn’t listened. It was one lesson she’d learned the hard way, and it had hurt. She’d always been a bit cautious around men since then, a bit distrustful of their motives when they claimed to want her, and she just couldn’t be sure they didn’t really want a rich woman.
Still, it was a little disconcerting, the way she’d been thinking of him, and to now find herself about to get one night alone with him.
Almost like the world had heard her longing for a man—this man—and delivered him to her.
Paige didn’t think the world worked that way.
At least, it never had for her.
She shook her head to clear it of such foolish thoughts, and then started emptying her pockets, taking inventory as she went.
“Let’s see what we’ve got. Extra flashlight, extra batteries for the flashlights, a couple of power bars, some high-energy granola mix, a small bottle of water, a small notebook and a camera. And I hiked in with a backpack, stashed it under the bushes by the…” Her voice trailed off as she saw that he was already headed in that direction. “You were watching me earlier?”
“Yes, I was,” he admitted, going right to the spot where she’d left her backpack, finding it with no hesitation at all and bringing it back to her.
She wanted to protest, but how could she? She’d done the same thing, spied on him.
She took the pack from him and started pulling things out. A bigger bottle of water, some more granola, some matches, a survival blanket, which he took and looked over appreciatively.
“That will come in handy tonight.”
Then she pulled out her satellite phone.
He shot her a pointed look.
“I’m not stupid. I didn’t go in without telling someone what I was doing. If my brother doesn’t hear from me by 6:00 a.m., he’ll be here soon after that to get me out.” She hesitated with the phone, then looked out into the storm. “Do you think—”
“No way,” he said. “Not in this.”
She tried anyway. “I have to,” she told her cowboy. “My brother will go nuts before this storm is over.”
Of course, he was right.
No signal.
She put the phone away and hoped she could reach her brother by morning, because he would be frantic otherwise and if the flooding kept him from getting here to her…Well, it would not be pretty.
Her brother thought he could move mountains. And he would to get to her if he thought she was in trouble, and then their whole plan to find the diamond would come out. If the Foleys knew what Paige was up to, she’d have to fight to set foot on this land again.
Yeah, she had to reach Blake by first light, if not sooner.
Paige made herself keep going with her unpacking, until she came to a thick, warm sweater and a fitted pair of sweatpants. She unbuttoned her coveralls and slid out of them, pulling on a second layer of clothes over her jeans and tank top, in favor of the coveralls, which were grimy and dusty from the old mine.
She and Travis shared some granola and water, watched the storm for a bit and then he suggested they might as well bed down for the night. It was early, but the sooner they slept, the sooner they’d wake up and could try to get out of here.
Paige looked over their options. “That spot’s the most sheltered, the farthest out of the rain.”
He nodded.
She took her coveralls and spread them out on the cold ground right against the back wall of the overhang and motioned for him to make himself comfortable.
As she suspected, he planned to sit up and watch the storm, settling himself with his back to one wall, facing out toward the gloomy night.
“You’re sure this area isn’t going to flood that quickly?” she asked.
“Reasonably sure, but I’m not taking any chances,” he said. “I’m going to watch and make sure.”
She sat down beside him, thinking to watch the storm herself.
“There’s no reason for both of us to stay up all night,” he said. “Or for both of us to be uncomfortable. Come on, Red. I won’t bite.”
He held out an arm to her and she settled against his side, finding a welcome heat and a body that was hard-muscled, but not