As frustrating as Levi’s own family could be, he knew they’d never pretend he didn’t exist or treat him like he wasn’t welcome. “I hope that’s true.”
“It is. She deserved more from us, and I’m hoping it’s not too late.”
“If you two are finished gossiping, dinner’s on the table.”
The two men turned and found Jane standing there, arms crossed.
Lloyd looked like a kid caught with his hand in the candy jar. “We were just—”
“I know.” Jane met his gaze. “I found frozen chicken bowls in your freezer. They’re a little freezer burned, but there’s veggies in them, so let’s eat.”
The old man got a little misty-eyed. “You made dinner.”
“Well, ‘made’ is a bit strong. More like pushed a few buttons. Last one to the table has to clean up.”
Her grandpa rushed to follow her into the kitchen. Never having minded the mindless task of dishes—it let his brain settle—Levi followed more slowly, watching Jane. Something about her was different tonight. She was still the kickass, smart-as-hell woman he was starting to get to know on a level he hadn’t expected. But there was something new. She seemed . . . just a little more open.
And right then and there, he vowed to see that look on her face as often as possible. He wanted to be with her as often as possible. And where the hell that had come from and how it had sneaked up on him, he had no idea. He didn’t want to be just another person in a long line of people who’d hurt her, but truth was truth.
She was leaving at the end of the season. And he . . . well, that’d been his original plan, but his goal was shifting, changing. But even when—yes, when, not if—he changed his home base back to Tahoe, he knew she wouldn’t do the same. She already had a contract for her next job.
They had an expiration date, him and Jane.
And playing pretend wasn’t going to change that or keep them from getting hurt. Nothing was. Unless he somehow changed her mind about him being a keeper.
Chapter 19
An hour later, Jane watched Levi out of her peripheral vision as he drove her home. He’d tried giving her battery a jump, but no go. He’d told her he’d get it charged in the morning. She’d told him not to worry about it, she had roadside service and would get a ride out there before work to get it handled.
And she would. She didn’t need to waste any more of his rare free time helping her. Besides, if he kept being so nice to her, she’d forget. Right now it was pretend, and pretend was awesome because pretend wasn’t real. Pretend was better than real any day of the week.
Levi was in a driving zone, watching the road, his hand on the gear stick, shifting into lower gears as needed. There were no streetlights out here, because the original town planners wanted the Tahoe night sky to shine bright.
And that it did.
It was no longer snowing, which always meant the temperature dropped even more. The roads had iced up, making her more than a little relieved to not be the one driving. The sky was a black velvet blanket upon which countless millions of stars glittered like diamonds. Having been all over the world, she could honestly say she’d never seen a sky so gorgeous as the one above Lake Tahoe.
Tonight . . . tonight had been a lot for her, though it’d gone better than she could have imagined. She honestly hadn’t been sure she could actually knock on her grandpa’s door and face him. But then Levi had shown up and soothed a place deep inside her where she kept her vulnerability and fear hidden from the rest of the world. With one easy smile, he’d made her feel like she could do anything.
And she’d faced her past.
“Thanks for tonight,” she said quietly.
Without taking his eyes off the road, he reached for her hand, bringing it up to his mouth to brush a kiss to her palm. “After that night on the gondola and all we went through, I’d probably do anything for you, Jane.”
As far as confessions went, that seemed like a doozy, at least according to the way her heart kicked it into gear. And he didn’t seem to have any regrets about saying it either. She took in his profile by the ambient light of the dashboard. He had a few days’ scruff on him that she loved. It went with his wavy hair that never quite behaved, and she loved that too. He was unapologetically himself, not to mention strong and steady, and . . . hot as hell.
“See something you like?” he teased and nipped at the palm he still had hold of.
Her insides quivered. Some outside parts quivered too. “Yes.”
Clearly surprised at her response, he met her gaze briefly, then turned back to the road. “Good, because I can hardly take my eyes off you.”
The words were more of a promise than an admission, and something deep inside her shifted and clicked into place. For years she’d let herself be tossed around in the wind like a wild tumbleweed. And yet suddenly she felt anchored for the first time in . . . maybe forever. “Levi?”
He glanced over again.
“I’m not ready to go home,” she said softly.
This got her another, slightly longer look. “Where should we go?”
We. She closed her eyes a beat. That’s what she got from Levi. Unconditional support. Total acceptance. “Anywhere quiet.”
“Trust me?” he asked.
He’d asked her that very same thing not too long ago, and she’d said no. But at some point over the past few weeks, her answer had changed. “I do.”
He turned on the next road and suddenly they were going up a hill. And up.
And up.
Fifteen minutes later, they’d left all signs of Sunrise Cove behind and were on what was surely normally a dirt road but was currently covered with snow. Levi’s four-wheel drive easily handled the road, and though she could see nothing past the midnight-black night and the dark outline of trees, he clearly knew exactly where he was going.
Finally he took a hairpin curve and stopped the truck.
She took in the view and gasped.
Above, a half-moon hung in the sky, streaked with fingerlike clouds, all of it surrounded by shimmering, twinkling stars, more than she’d ever seen in her life. With no city lights to mask anything, they had a clear view for as far as the eye could see. Far below lay the dark outline of Lake Tahoe, which she’d never seen from this angle, hundreds of feet up. “It’s like we’re on top of the world,” she whispered.
“We are. We’re up on the Tahoe Rim Trail. At 9,500 feet.”
“Wow.” She stared out at the night, enthralled and awed. “I don’t even have words.”
“Same.”
She turned to find him with a forearm braced on the wheel, his other hand on her headrest, watching her. Thoughts hidden. She sensed a careful restraint, a rare hesitation.
She felt neither of those things. Around him, she’d never been able to control her emotions. Now was no exception, but he’d never seemed to have that problem, always steady, calm, in full control.
What would it take to make him lose that control? And why did she want to see it so badly . . . right now?
As if he could read her mind, he let out a rough laugh, the sound scraping at all her good parts. He’d come through for her tonight, giving her what she’d asked for, no questions. No pressure. No sense of impatience.