He still held the sign across his chest like a goon and dropped it to his side. “Do you need help with your bags?”
Yandi stood stooped over the handle of her suitcase, resting. It was then that Dane noticed the woman behind them.
The first thought that flashed through his mind was that she looked really irritated. The skin between two finely arched brows was pinched. She almost looked like she sported a pretty intense migraine with the way she kept pressing on her temple with two fingers. But peeved expressions aside, she was gorgeous. Her eyes were the color of the pond back home when it froze over and the sky above glinted off its cold surface. Like blue-gray ice. They almost overwhelmed her face and certainly her nose, which was small and pinched. She scanned her surroundings—the check-in desk, the replica biplane suspended from the ceiling, the family of four with a screaming toddler hurrying past them on their way to the parking lot. And then her gaze rested on him.
His heart nearly stopped. If it weren’t for the commotion of the busy airport around him, he might have fallen into the deep well of those eyes. They simultaneously made him grow cold with gooseflesh and heated his face until he felt his hair had surely caught fire. Something about her reminded him of the lavender fields back home too.
She blinked as if she’d just noticed him.
“Hi there.” His voice came out hoarse, uneven. Dane cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m Dane.” He doubted she’d heard him the first time.
“Hilary Larkin.” She smiled crookedly, but it disappeared as fast as it materialized when her bag slipped and she jerked to catch it. She groaned impatiently, hitching it onto her shoulder again.
“Can I carry that for you?”
“No, thanks,” she said curtly, looking away.
Dane mentally shook himself. If she was upset about waiting, he didn’t blame her. Being late wasn’t a good first impression.
“We should be getting back,” he said to the group. "There’s a full day planned with only a half day left.”
“Fine by me,” Yandi said. “I’ve been itching for this conference all winter.”
“My sister-in-law didn’t make it after all.”
He looked back at Hilary. Her voice was so soft he was surprised he caught the words. It registered then that therewereonly three of them. He’d been so taken aback by her that he hadn’t noticed that rather important detail. If he got through this week without Darcy chewing him out for not being on top of his game, it’d be miraculous.
“What happened?” he asked as the four of them exited the terminal. She walked behind him so he slowed to wait for her to catch up.
“Something came up back home.” She shrugged. The breeze ruffled her chestnut hair, sending a strand across her lips. She brushed it away, but it floated across her face again.
Dane waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t add anything.So she’s not into oversharing. Fine. Neither was he. Besides, he didn’t trust his voice not to crack again. It was a two-hour trip back to Hendricks. There was plenty of time to regain his composure. He cringed inwardly at the thought. Why was his composure an issue anyway?
He loaded suitcases into the back of the SUV, and they were on the road in no time. Dane found a station playing easy rock and turned the volume down. Meg and Yandi were in the backseat, talking over one another in their excitement. Next to him, Hilary sat quietly.
The suburban landscape soon gave way to a wide-open stretch of highway with Lake Superior on their right, glistening in the late-morning sun. He’d like living near the Big Lake if his life had taken another direction. He felt a sense of wildness looking at it now, like he was without constraints. Free. But his life back on the farm in Clove was pretty idyllic. He was his own boss now that his parents were almost fully retired, and the business had grown a thousandfold from when Mom started growing lavender in the garden to sell at the farmer’s market twenty years ago.
Dane glanced in the rearview mirror. Meg and Yandi had their heads together, looking down.
“So what brings everyone to the conference anyway?”
Yandi jumped on his question right away, giving the full business plan for their sheep and alpaca farm in animated detail. They were like a comedy team duo. Dane found himself laughing while casting glances at Hilary in the passenger seat. She continued to look out the window, but from her profile he could see a small grin.
“What about you?” he asked Hilary when there was a break in the conversation. She’d been listening but hadn’t spoken since they got in the car at the airport.
Hilary looked at him, surprised. “I—ah, we grow wheat. Near Redville. That’s in Idaho.”
We. He’d noticed the wedding ring.
“So you’re looking to capitalize on that or head in another direction?”
Her hands, already in her lap, clasped together. She rubbed her thumb with the other.
“My sister-in-law dreams of operating a B & B. She and her husband bought some adjacent land with an old house and an orchard too.” Hilary shrugged. “I guess we’re planning on opening the B & B.” She shrugged again.
“Oh, an apple orchard…” said Yandi. “What we couldn’t do with one of those.”
Meg snorted. “When was the last time you baked, Momma?”
