But we're not human!Colton's chimera wailed.
I don't think she knows that,Colton said, still cautiously. Aloud, he said, "Why not? You seem pretty great, to me."
Pretty great?his chimera asked disbelievingly.You think our mate is just 'pretty great'?
She's obviously incredible,Colton said.But it might be coming on a little strong to just say that right out loud.
How else could you say it?the chimera demanded, and Colton fought back a laugh as Jo smiled, shrugged, and adjusted the mouthpiece of her mic.
"Thanks. I just got in the habit of hanging out by myself when I was in high school, I guess, and now I've kind of forgotten how to people. Being in the air a lot means I don't have to, and the rest of the time I'm usually working on the ranch."
"Oh, yeah? What kind of ranch?" For a moment Colton flashed on the idea of being able to go out into the fields and shift into a chimera whenever he wanted. He had to fight off a sigh. The chimera in his head didn't fight it at all, and sighed gustily.
That would be wonderful,it murmured.Cities are boring.
"Bison," Jo said, and although Colton agreed with his chimera, his attention was drawn by her answer.
"Bison! That's why you put bison in that list! I was going to say, one of those things is not like the others, but then I got distracted by humans being difficult."
She flashed him a quick smile, big and bright and raw. "Difficult humansaredistracting."
"You'redistracting, but in a fantastic way." Colton hadn't meant for that to slip out. It just did, like his entire soul justhadto make sure she knew it.
Her eyebrows flew up and she redirected her attention to the windshield. It took her a moment to say, "Thanks," in a discomfited tone that made Colton wince.
"Sorry if that was weird. I just—well, look at you, out here piloting and bison ranching. That's pretty distracting and fantastic!"
His chimera eyed him.Why not just tell her you love her?
You can't just tell people that when you've just met them!
Fortunately for Colton, Jo didn't notice him wheezing over the chimera's animal simplicity. Instead, she spoke again, still in that slightly baffled tone. "No, it's—well, itwasa little weird, but in a nice way. Sometimes I forget that people don't see me the way I do."
Whatever other ideas the chimera had were put aside as Colton wrinkled his eyebrows at her. "Something about how you said that suggests you don't see yourself as a statuesque force of nature with an incredible laugh and amazing eyes."
Those amazing eyes jerked his way, emerald green disbelieving and—thank goodness—amused. If she'd thought that had been an awful thing to say, the rest of the flight would have been very awkward.
"No," she said after a moment. "But I like that version of me. You can keep going, if you want." Her wide smile flashed again and she shook her head, dismissing the request. "Or not. Itwillget weird if you do keep going. But thank you. Although I do kind of want to know how you got to 'force of nature' in our interactions so far."
"Aside from the fact that you're flying us out of a storm?" Colton gestured behind them, like he was conjuring up images of the airport. "It was just how you came infromthe storm, downthere. You had this incredible physical presence, like you could walk into anything and take charge of the situation."
"That was probably the gigantic snow coat and boots, which make me look like Baymax," Jo said wryly.
Colton laughed. "I don't think it was, but heaven forbid I should argue with the woman flying the plane."
She flashed him another smile. "Smartandgood-looking."
A thrill like he hadn't felt since his teen years zinged through Colton and he grinned foolishly. "Good-looking, huh?"
Jo snorted into her headset's mic, which was unexpectedly loud. "Please. First thing I said to you was whether you had to get back for a photo shoot or a movie, so don't pretend you don't know you're attractive."
More importantly,shefound him attractive, but Colton managed not to say that. Instead, still with that silly grin, he turned his attention out the window again as he searched for something that didn't sound self-centered or vain to say in response. "Well, thank you," was what he eventually came up with, and Jo chuckled.
"You're welcome. And now we've definitely made it weird, haven't we?"
"In a good way," Colton said hopefully. "Just a couple of strangers?—"
Fated mates!!!
