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.