His jaw jacked up. “Is what about the kiss?”
“That you’re not comfortable with me. Because you were okay until I kissed you last night.”
“I am not uncomfortable with you. My mood has nothing to do with the kiss—which shouldn’t have happened.”
Her cheeks burned. “You kissed me back.”
His gaze held hers, and from the look in his eyes, she knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say. She braced herself.
“Paige, I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“Are you married?” She’d checked his ring finger both this year and last, but not all guys wore rings.
“No. Not married. Never have been. Never will be.”
“Wow. Tell me what you really think.” After David’s sudden change of heart, she understood Trent’s bitterness completely. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to trust a guy enough think about marriage again. “Is there an interesting story behind your vehemence? A broken engagement? A wounded heart? A lying, cheating, deadbeat ex?”
“None of the above.”
When his eyes twinkled that way she could stare into them all day. How silly was that? But that was her neglected hormones’ fault. It didn’t mean anything.
“Are you seeing someone?”
“No.”
“So if the kiss isn’t making you uncomfortable, then what’s the problem? Because we don’t have to ride roller coasters together. If you remember, dating was your idea.”
Of course, not going out would kill her plan to get him in the sack and try to right the wrong they’d committed last year—assuming he was…up to the task. Maybe she’d better shut up. She was jeopardizing her own intentions. Sometimes her sense of fair play got her into trouble.
One golden eyebrow hiked. “I remember this starting with your challenge.”
“Which you accepted and then broadened to include me.”
He nodded to concede her point. “Judging by the pictures of you and your family, you look very close. What made you move all the way across country?”
His unexpected query made her shift uneasily. She liked it better when she was the one asking the questions. “The job.”
“That’s it?”
“People relocate for work all the time. It’s the American way. Besides, we were talking about you.”
“You were talking about me, and while I’m sure that’s a fascinating subject—” his tongue-in-cheek delivery kept the comment from sounding conceited “—I’m more interested in you. Where did you work before the Lagoon?”
Okay, she could play this verbal chess game. “Before high school graduation I worked for my parents, and after college in a small hotel in Charleston, if you must know. The city was close to home, but far enough away to discourage family from dropping in unexpectedly too often.
“Then I had an amazing opportunity to work in a hotel three times the size and with more amenities than my old one. So…I cut the apron strings and moved.” Thank goodness Milton had been in a pinch and hired her right away.
“How did your boyfriend feel about your decision?”
She flinched. His narrowing eyes warned her he hadn’t missed it. “What makes you think I had one?”
“You’re smart and attractive. Why wouldn’t you?”
The compliment lit a glow inside her. “He was moving to Manhattan for his new job anyway, so it wasn’t an issue. Back to you. What’s keeping you so uptight tonight?”
He shook his head. “You don’t let up, do you?”
“Persistence is a virtue, or so my momma tells me.”
He scanned the restaurant, stalling, in her opinion, before meeting her gaze again. “I used to get the same kind of rush from flying that I get from riding roller coasters.”
“You don’t now?”
“I don’t fly anymore.”
“You run an airline company, and you said your plane was waiting at the airport. Of course you fly.”
“I mean don’t pilot aircraft anymore.”
“Why not?”
His lips compressed into a thin line. “Flying myself is a time-consuming luxury I can’t afford. I work en route.”
“You couldn’t fly as a hobby?”
“I don’t have time for hobbies.” He kept his gaze fixed on a spot beyond her shoulder when he said it, then he gestured for the waiter who rushed over to take their orders. “What would you like to eat, Paige?”
She shrugged. “Ribs. That’s what the restaurant is famous for. Might as well decide if they’ve earned their reputation. The small sampler platter, please.”
As soon as the server departed she tilted her head to study Trent’s stiff posture. “To paraphrase you, does that too-busy-to-fly story work on other people? ’Cause I’m not buying it. What’s the real reason you quit flying?”
His eyes widened slightly in surprise, then narrowed. Bracing his forearms on the table in front of him, he leaned forward into her space as if trying to intimidate her into silence. “Have you considered working for the FBI?”
She grinned. “Be paid to pry, you mean? My youngest sister Sammie might have suggested something similar one or two dozen times. And you’re dodging the question.”
Sitting back, he shook his head and wiped his mouth, but she thought he might be hiding a smile given that spark in his eyes making her tummy fizz like Alka Seltzer in a glass.
“So you’re not going to answer?”
“That was my answer.”
She shook her head. “How long since you flew yourself somewhere?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes. You said you hadn’t ridden roller coasters since college, and you gave up flying. You claim to love both. I’m trying to figure out the correlation between them. Did you quit cold turkey on flying and coasters at the same time?”
“You are like a mosquito—always buzzing around.”
“It’s my special gift. But asking questions is the way to get to the heart of a problem, so I ask rather than just speculate. Why give up your two favorite things?”
“Why stay away from your family when you’re obviously homesick?”
Ouch. Direct hit.
They stared at each other across the checkered table cloth while she debated her answer. If she wanted to solve the puzzle of Trent Hightower, get into his head and his bed, then she was going to have to give a little. She took a bracing breath.
“My family lives in a small town where gossip, fishing and boating—in that order—are the favorite forms of entertainment. Moving to Charleston wasn’t far enough away to remove me from the persons of interest category. When I got dumped by the man everyone thought I’d marry—” her cheeks burned with humiliation “—who also grew up there, I might add, I ran rather than face the whispers behind my back. That first night with you was sort of a…rebound thing. Your turn.”
Paige’s eyes never wavered from Trent’s during her confession, giving him a front row seat to her pain. Her willingness to show vulnerability rocked him. In his family the policy was never show weakness, but Paige did so and it didn’t make him think less of her. Instead, it made him respect her on a whole different level.
He fisted his hands against the urge to reach across the table for hers. But he’d learned from the women who’d passed through his life that offering sympathy usually evoked waterworks. He didn’t do tears.
She’d been dumped. Then Brent had picked her up like a cheap one-night stand while she was still reeling. Anger stiffened Trent’s muscles, making him want to punch the bastard who’d hurt her, then tackle Brent for taking advantage of her. Paige couldn’t be blamed. His brother could be quite the charmer when he set his mind to it. The trait made Brent a damned persuasive salesman.
Trent was used to solving his family’s problems. He didn’t share his own or tackle an outsider’s issues in any way other than a business sense. But how could he be any less candid than Paige had been?
He wouldn’t tell her that she gave him that same adrenaline punch as flying, or that her proximity made it difficult to concentrate on the ride, and that the first trip around the track was more about being aware of the feel of her, smell of her and heat of her against him than in marveling at the mechanical engineering that comprised the journey. The second was a battle to control his reaction to that awareness. It wasn’t until the third pass that he noticed the roller coaster’s unique qualities. An admission such as that would take them in a direction he had no intention of traveling.
He stared into her face. Her genuine interest in him, someone she barely knew, astounded him. Why would she care about solving his problems? In his world it was every man for himself. Something about Paige’s openness made him want to share the secret he’d told no one else. Not even Gage, his best friend knew the whole truth.
“Taking the yoke of an airplane, especially a small one, is like sitting in the front car of a coaster.”
“No wonder you love roller coasters. Maybe I should take up flying. Of course, I’d need to win a jackpot to finance the fees, but that’s another story.” Then confusion darkened her eyes. “But how does that explain you sacrificing your two loves?”
He hesitated. But what the hell? Neither his father’s gambling nor HAMC’s past financial struggles was a secret. Anyone who had access to a computer could do a Google search on William Hightower’s name and come up with the sordid details.
“My father has a gambling addiction. I quit flying the day he told me gambling was the only way he could fly with both feet on the ground. He claimed he’d land his plane and drive straight to a casino, because coming down from the natural high of flying made him want to crawl out of his skin. The casino gave him the same rush. His addiction almost cost us Hightower Aviation.”
“And that’s related to you…how?”
“I can’t risk repeating his mistakes.”
“You’re a gambler?”
“No. But I get high from flying. I feel the rush. And I crave more of it. I used to love to push a plane to its limits, to test its strengths and my abilities. I lived on the edge. Skydiving, boat racing, bungee jumping, hang gliding. You name it. If there was a thrill to be had, I did it.”
He could practically see the wheels of her brain turning and wished he hadn’t revealed as much as he had. “Did you have trouble walking away from the coaster tonight?”
“No.”
“What about last night?”
“No.”
“Did walking through the casino to get to the rides make you want to stay and try your hand at the tables?”
He didn’t need to have a borderline genius IQ to see the point she was trying to make. But she posed a valid argument. He had walked through the casinos with her to board the rides and hadn’t even noticed the games of chance going on around him. He’d been more focused on his destination and the woman beside him—especially the woman beside him. Her energy and excitement were addictive.