"I know what itmeans, I just don't think I've ever heard anybody actuallysayit before! Anyway, have you seen the weather out there? That's a whole-ass blizzard, Mr. Drew."
"Colton, please. And I know, but the woman at the desk said you could get off the ground…"
"She's right, I can, but I wasn't going to. I mean, I had been going to, but then I wasn't." On the other hand, twenty thousand dollars would go a long, long way toward…well, not just the back mortgage, but going forward, too, and maybe, just maybe, helping to save the little ranch she and her brother had grown up on.
She could see Colton gathering himself to make a persuasive argument, and raised her hand to stop him. "Are you serious about the money?"
"Entirely. If you want to give me your bank information I'll authorize a transfer right now."
Jo took a deep, deep breath, held it, and finally let it out in a sigh. "You're going to need snowpants."
"…is it likely to snow inside your plane?"
She ducked her head, smiling briefly at her feet. "No, but it is going to be cold, and Cessna 172s are tiny planes without much meaningful insulation. I can't have you freezing to death before you authorize the second half of that transfer."Or ever,Jo thought, but since that would make her sound like a lunatic, she didn't say it aloud.
Although she supposed that in fact, no pilot, or anybody else, wanted somebody to freeze to death on their watch. So she added, "Or ever," after all, and Colton smiled at her.
Really smiled ather, not just smiled because he was hoping she'd agreed to fly him out of the mountains. His eyes crinkled again, and the warmth of that expression set a fire inside her that she thought might never go out. He was so absurdly attractive, sharp-dressed and well-coifed, so him smiling like that ather, a rough-and-tumble pilot from the Montana hills, was nuts. She wanted it to never end.
He was still smiling as he agreed, "Or ever. No freezing. Do you have snowpants that will fit me?"
Jo's gaze travelled down to his legs and lingered there. He had terrific thighs, even if they were half-hidden by his knee-length coat. His calves, which were obviously not hidden by the knee-length coat, filled out the denim of his jeans nicely there, too. It took a while for her to remember what she was doing, besides admiring his legs. Then she shook herself and tried to take in the whole of his legs, judging them for length. "I think so. I carry a lot of that kind of gear in the plane, in case of emergency. That coat, ah. God, it's beautiful," she said a bit involuntarily.
Colton brushed his knuckles over the coat and smiled again, almost shyly this time. "It is, isn't it? This was a treat for myself when I won my first big case. I never thought of myself as a clothes-horse guy, but it turns out I love a good coat."
"I have an embarrassing weakness for long coats," Jo said, trying to sound like it was the coat she had an inexplicable weakness for, and not the man inside it. "I own about five of them and never wear them anywhere."
"We'll have to find an excuse for you to," Colton murmured, and Jo's entire body, soul, and brain melted into a soft bowl of bubbling heat. She smiled up at him, afraid she might actually besimpering. This was the worst crush she'd had since she could remember, and she was only going to be in this guy's presence for a couple of hours.
For a delicious moment she imagined making the absolute best of those hours, and then remembered that the Cessna's seats weren't that comfortable even if itwasn'ttwenty-three degrees and snowing out there. And also, as an afterthought, she remembered she also did have toflythe plane…
"Snowpants," she said much too loudly, and spun around to get some from the plane. To her surprise, Colton followed, turning the collar of his coat up.
"Can I help? Gosh, it's not really big at all, is it?" he said as he reached the plane a few seconds after she did.
Jo, very unwisely, mumbled, "That's what she said," and she couldhearColton's grin from behind her.
"Not to me, she didn't."
Jo was pretty sure her ears flamed hot enough to melt snowflakesnearthem. Instead of answering, she grabbed a big bag of winter gear from the behind the seats and tossed it to Colton, who caught it easily, and, still grinning, went back inside to root through it. By the time she got back in herself, Jo had recovered enough to manage, "I was going to say, you might want to get another coat, too. That one might be warm enough, or it might not."
"I run pretty warm, so I'll probably be okay for a couple of hours." Colton did get another coat, though, and tried it onbefore digging an overall-style pair of snowpants out of the bag. "Those look like they'll fit. No dignity to them at all, but they'd fit."
"Dignity is deeply overrated when you're waist-deep in snow. Not that I expect anything to go wrong, but much better to be safe than sorry. I gotta ask, though: you're sure this court case is really that important?"
Colton hesitated, one leg in the snowpants. "Some of these kids have been working toward this since they were eleven or twelve. And the corporation they're suing is moving fast now because they think there's a real chance they'll lose, now that it's come up this far through the system. So…it is, yes. It is to me, at least. But I understand if it's not, for you."
"It's your money." And she needed it, but Jo wasn't going to saythatto a stranger, no matter how attractive he was. She glanced out the window at the blowing snow, and at the stretch of runway the snowplow guy had managed to keep clear. It was comfortably enough for a Cessna, and there wasn't muchwind, just a lot of snow. Although the sky was brightening, too, snow slacking off a little. It might not be too bad. And of course, appeal of the money aside, she really wouldn't fly if she didn't think she could do so safely. "All right. Let me lay in the flight plan and look at the weather predictions, because if it looks too bad I'm not flying. But you're going to have to keep me updated on your court case, too."
Colton flashed a smile and finished pulling the snowpants on. "Deal. Don't forget to give me your bank info."
"Yeah, here…" Jo wrote it down for him, handed over the piece of paper, and went to lay in the flight plan, which came back approved in a matter of minutes. "Great Falls says there's a warm front coming in from the east that's pushing the storm back up the mountains, so there'll probably be a bouncy section, but once we break through that it should be smooth flying." Sheglanced out the door, where the snow had slacked off enough that the whole world had changed color, from deep dark grey and white to considerable brightness as storm clouds passed over. "Honestly, it looks like it's clearing up. You might even want to wait until the jets are flying again."
"Too late." Colton waved his phone at her. "I've already paid you. Might as well make an adventure of it. Besides." His smile flashed again. "I wouldn't want to miss a single minute with you."
Jo's heart flipped upside-down in her chest, and with a dippy, goofy smile, she took Colton Drew for a flight.
CHAPTER THREE
