Worth the Risk(72)

He leaves me for a moment to enjoy the utterly astonishing view while he collects a few things from the helicopter. And within no time at all, we are relaxing with a blanket beneath us, a bottle of wine breathing next to us, and a comfortable silence between us.

“Napa, huh? You fly away from our own Sunnyville wine country to the one that rivals ours?” I tease as his fingertips draw feather-light lines up and down the length of my spine.

“Well, I’m not a fan of the people who own the majority of our vineyards. Since the Hoskins are that majority, they kind of took its beauty away when everything happened with Claire.”

He falls silent, and I instantly regret my question and the grief it brings him. The unimaginable heartbreak he must have endured raising a baby and losing the woman he loved. Learning that it’s, in fact, money that makes the world go ’round and not love.

“It must have been hard in those early days. Figuring out fatherhood. Dealing with it all.”

“You have no idea. It felt like I was cemented to the bottom of a well that was filling with water. Work saved me, while at the same time, it also terrified me. Every second I was away from Luke, I worried that he thought he’d been abandoned by his other parent, too.”

“He knows you love him and would never leave him.”

“He does, but knowing that never stopped me from worrying.”

“Speaking of worrying, do you ever fear that Claire will realize what a huge mistake she made and change her mind? That she’ll come back and want to see Luke?”

“I fear that every single goddamn day . . . but even if she did, she signed away her rights—forever, without recourse, so she can ask all she wants but there’s not a chance in hell I’d let her see him.”

“So that’s why you’re so quiet about it.”

“I’m quiet about it because it almost broke me in every way imaginable, and I had to make a conscious effort to let it go and move on. If not, it would have slowly killed me.”

“You’re a better person than I am. I would have told everybody in town so they knew her true colors.”

“I wanted to . . . but what good would that do me other than hurt Luke when he’s older? You know this town. You know how people like to talk. He’d find out somehow. Besides, I agreed to sign an NDA—protect their precious reputation—which allowed me to make a clean break and have a new start without any of their strings attached.”

“You know, I still can’t wrap my head around how you’ve managed to work your ass off to provide for Luke—make a life for the two of you—and still seem so positive about everything. It has to be hard, living in the town in which they own at least some part of everything you look at.”

“We’re doing just fine.” I can see pride war across his face. “I could have left town, but that would have meant leaving my family. Having them be a part of Luke’s life is more important than my wounded ego.”

I keep my eyes focused on the valley below but reach over and link my fingers with his in a show of silent support.

“Hey, Sid?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“I appreciate you caring and wanting to know about how this all affected me, but this is our date night. What do you say we stop talking about Claire and what happened? I have Luke. He’s a good kid. We’ll be fine. Besides, men aren’t too keen on talking about their shortcomings.”

“Grayson, you did nothing wrong—”

My words are cut off when he leans over and kisses me. “Stop talking.”

“Only if you’ll keep kissing me.”

“Now that? That I can do.” He extends the kiss a little longer, a little deeper, a lot more satisfying. “Life is good right now. I’m getting my wings back shortly. Luke had a great report card. And I’m up here on a moonlit mountain with a beautiful woman. There are definitely no complaints here,” he murmurs before pressing his lips to mine again.

When he stops, I rest my head on his shoulder, and we fall silent as we stare at the view and wonder what in the hell this is between us.

Or at least, I do.

“We were sidetracked.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” he says through a chuckle. “I can sidetrack you some more if you’d like.”

“Definitely, but first, tell me how you know about this place. And how do you know they’re cool with you landing here?”

He takes our linked hands and presses a kiss to the top of mine as if it were a normal thing. Something about the action steals my breath and makes me take pause. So much so that I miss the first part of what he’s saying.

“The guy is a family friend and this is his family’s land. They use it for corporate functions, weddings, and stuff like that. They own a helicopter company that takes tourists around, and they also shuttle corporate executives between here and San Francisco or Los Angeles.”

“It feels like we’re on top of the world up here.”

“It does. I’m surprised you weren’t scared about me taking you up.”

“I hid it well,” I say with a laugh. “But you seem very competent.”

“Just competent? Not incredible or mind blowing?” He chuckles.

“We are talking about flying, right?” I ask and squirm out of the way when he reaches out to tickle me. Unfortunately, in my scramble to get away from him, I knock over the bottle of wine, which he saves before too much spills. “My hero. Grayson Malone is my hero!” I shout to the hundreds of lights twinkling in the valley below.