“It’s just...” He turned to look at her. “Unexpected.”
She couldn’t have said it any better herself. What was happening between them was unexpected. But maybe that was part of the attraction. She was an unsophisticated country girl. He was a guy who had pulled himself up by his talent and his genius and made himself one of the most important men in the business world. But they clicked.
They rode through the silent night for about twenty minutes with her prodding him with questions, getting him to talk about his work.
“Jason thinks I should stop the US calls when the team comes in off the slopes. And forget about Asia until we get home. He says the team wasn’t just energetic because they’d had fun on the ski slopes. He thinks they respond positively to having me around.” He stole a peek at her. “Normally, I’m in my office four floors above them and they work on their own. Today, I spent time in the meeting room, asking questions, giving suggestions.” He shrugged. “It was fun. Like the old days.”
“Maybe you should spend more time with them.”
“I haven’t touched that part of the company in years.”
“That’s interesting since they’ve been stuck for years.”
He shook his head. “If you’re hinting that they need me, don’t. I’ve hired the best in the business. They don’t need me.”
“And yet...here they are...stuck.”
He sniffed a laugh and she let the subject die, knowing she’d gotten her point across.
As the night got colder, their blanket drifted higher, to their chins. She reveled in the way he talked, the sound of his voice, the quiet trust. The sleigh turned around, headed back, and she knew she had only another twenty minutes.
When he asked how her day had been, she returned the favor of being honest with him the way he’d been with her. “When the princess is away I’m bored. I have nothing to do but check her email a few times a day to make sure nothing that comes in is a crisis.” She peeked at him. “And as small as we are, we get a crisis about once every ten years.”
He laughed. “Too bad you can’t code.”
“Really?” She knew he hadn’t intended to take them down this road, but this was the heart of why she always wanted to be around him and why he’d brought a sleigh to her house in the dead of night. And maybe it was time they talked about it.
“You think it’s a bad thing that we’re different?”
He faced her, held her gaze for a few seconds.
When she couldn’t take the honest scrutiny anymore, she whispered, “Admit it. Part of the attraction is that we’re nothing alike.”
He looked around her frozen countryside. “We might have been raised differently and have two different ways in which we want to change the world.” He met her gaze again. “But we both want to change the world.”
“So? That just means we’re enough alike that we understand each other, but different enough that we’re interesting.”
He shook his head. The sleigh silently swooshed to a stop in front of her parents’ farmhouse.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
He appeared genuinely perplexed. She supposed if someone tossed a monkey wrench into her life she’d be confused too. But even with the totally baffled expression on his face, he was handsome, strong. She couldn’t resist leaning forward and touching her lips to his. She stayed there a second, giving him time to respond and he did. Under their blanket, his hands came up to her shoulders to pull her close so he could deepen the kiss.
And she realized this was what she’d been waiting for her whole life. The magic prince she didn’t believe existed wasn’t a guy on a white horse; he was someone who understood her. Someone she understood. An equal.
She broke the kiss and slid out from under the cover, bolting out of the sleigh before he had a chance to get out into the cold when he didn’t have to.
They were falling in love. Real love.
She turned and waved. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Then she pivoted around and ran into her house. Her blood racing. Her knees a little weak. But her heart happy as well as terrified.
They clicked. That’s why everything felt so different when they were together.