Ace got dressed quickly, but didn’t want to leave the examining room. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Molly.
Ace: Might be a few minutes late. <bashful emoji>
Molly: Okay. I’m at Rocket Fuel with Hemi and your other astronaut friends.
Hemi? Damn. He’d forgotten he’d told his friend to meet him there later. He wanted Molly to get to know the astronauts who would be using the training facility on the Bar T. He’d been feeling like he had everything under control earlier. Well, sort of. He’d felt like he was some sort of superman and not...broken.
Dr. Tomlin hadn’t said it, but he could tell she’d been disappointed with his results.
Ace: Don’t believe everything he says. He likes to exaggerate.
Molly: I noticed. You okay?
Ace: Not sure yet. Talk to you soon.
Molly: <kissing emoji>
He rubbed his chest. She’d sent him a kiss. He knew that sleeping with her was making them closer, strengthening the bond between them. But her texting him a kiss made things feel more real somehow. Or maybe it was just an emoji, he reminded himself. He sent her one back and then pocketed his phone. Health first. That was easier to deal with than his emotions.
* * *
SOMEHOW HER TABLE had become a gathering point for astronauts while she waited for Jason. Mostly because of Hemi, who seemed to know everyone. More and more people crowded in and around the booth. Hemi ordered wings, insisting that they were so good she had to try them. And she heard more stories about Jason’s missions.
Molly was surprised at the number of women in the group and learned that there was an equal number of both sexes on the team.
“Can I sit here?”
Molly glanced up to see a woman with thick blonde hair who could easily have been a model. She was of average height and her bone structure was good, and Molly knew from studying art that she had the golden triangle of proportions.
“Sure. It’s mainly astronauts coming and going, though.”
The woman laughed. “I am an astronaut. Isabelle Wolsten, but everyone calls me Izzy.”
“I guess I don’t really get away from the ranch much,” Molly said. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were one of the astronauts. I think most of my ideas about the NASA program are from reruns of I Dream of Jeannie and, of course, news coverage about the space shuttles.”
“NASA has had a low profile in the press for the last few years while they changed direction. Trainees are only accepted every four or five years and the training process takes a year and a half before the selections are made. My class was half men and half women. But we were the first,” Izzy said. “What do you do?”
“Cowgirl,” Molly said. “I grew up on a ranch about sixty miles from here with Ace.”
“You know Ace?” Izzy asked.
“Yeah.”
“What was he like as a kid?” Izzy asked, taking a sip of her iced tea. “He’s so intense. I can’t imagine him as a child.”
“I only knew him from the time he was fourteen. He was intense and brooding then. Kept to himself, especially in the beginning.”
Izzy raised both eyebrows at her. “Was he cute?”
Molly felt herself blushing again. “Sort of.”
Izzy laughed. “I had my suspicions.”
“About what?” Jason asked, joining their group.
“You being a cutie way back when,” Izzy said, sliding out so that Jason could sit next to Molly. Izzy sat back down, forcing Jason so close to Molly that she felt the tension in his body.
He reached for a wing, his arm grazing her side. “I don’t know about that. I didn’t spend much time looking in mirrors—I was too busy staring up at the night sky, dreaming of seeing the stars and planets up close.”
“Weren’t we all,” Hemi said.
Molly rested her shoulder against the wall and listened to all of them talk about how they’d come to NASA. She thought about what Izzy had said, that half of her group had been women, and how much things had changed.
They left about thirty minutes after Jason arrived. He was quiet as they drove toward downtown rather than to his quarters on base.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“A hotel. Is that okay? I’ve had enough of NASA for today. And I thought it might be nice to do something we don’t get to do often. Go someplace and be pampered. Sleep in a king-size bed with you and forget the world exists.”
That appealed to her. More than he could know. He hadn’t spent all day as she had—realizing they were truly from two different worlds. Even building a training facility on the Bar T Ranch wasn’t going to provide them with a ton of common ground. It would be good to avoid all the reminders of their differences, at least for a little while. But she knew there must be something else driving Jason to this decision.
“Okay. That sounds nice,” she said, putting her hand on his thigh.
He covered her hand with his, lacing their fingers together until they pulled up in front of one of the big-name hotels in the downtown area. He gave his keys to the valet and checked them into a large luxury suite.
It was a three-room suite, the kind she’d read about in travel magazines and had seen on television shows, but had never been in one herself.
Jason started kissing her as soon as the door to the suite closed behind them. He had her clothes off and her on the bed in record time. He brought her to climax again and again, but held himself back until finally—when she felt as if she wouldn’t be able to come again—he entered her, thrusting hard, driving her higher.
She came with him and then collapsed against him. He lifted her up and carried her into the shower, holding her in his arms as the warm water poured over them. Mentally and physically exhausted, she rested her head against his chest.
He held her to him and she realized he hadn’t spoken since they’d entered the room.
“What did the doctor say?” she asked when they were both dried off and in bed.
But he didn’t answer her. and when she lifted her head and stared down at his face, his eyes were closed.
But she knew he wasn’t sleeping.
It must have been bad news for him. Was that why he was clinging to her so closely?
WHEN THEY GOT back to the Bar T the next evening, they learned they’d won the bid for the Cronus training facility.
Lynn flew into Houston two days later and joined them at the ranch soon after. Construction needed to start immediately, and Molly was hopeful this would snap Jason out of the funk he’d been in since they’d returned. It seemed like he’d shut himself off from her. He hadn’t said what the doctor’s prognosis was, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it hadn’t been good.
Lynn was fun and very used to being in charge. She arrived on the ranch with her assistant and spent three days at the location where the facility would be built. Jason was with her every moment, and when they came back for dinner on the first night, Molly was pleased to learn they, NASA and Axiom, wanted to name it the Mick Tanner Cronus Training Facility. She was really touched they’d named it after her dad.
So why wasn’t she sleeping now? She was walking that long dark hallway again,