The Curvy Astronomer and the Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) Read Free Page B

I’d be able to get the gas stove in the trailer to light. Cold mac n’ cheese from the can and shivering under some blankets, lost and alone, versus cuddling up in a warm cabin with the hottest guy I’d ever seen…
    “Okay,” I said at last. “Thank you.”
    He grinned, and it sent a ripple of warmth through me.
     
    ***
     
    Moments later, we stood outside our parked cars. I clumped around to the tow hook at the back of my station wagon, wincing as the freezing snow soaked through my sneakers.
    Troy looked at me in surprise as I began to unhitch it. “You’re bringing the trailer?” he asked. “We can sleep in the cabin. Just bring your telescope.”
    “It’s not to sleep in,” I said. “The trailer is the telescope.”
    He looked at the trailer in disbelief. “The whole thing?! How big is the telescope?”
    “How big are you?”
    “Six-three.”
    “Bigger than you.”
    He stepped around to the trailer and ran his hand over the metal. “I thought this was for sleeping in. Wait--where were you going to sleep, if I’d let you go by yourself?”
    I looked guiltily at the station wagon.
    He chuckled and shook his head. “Good thing I came along.” He helped me unhitch, then waited while I pulled the station wagon off the road. A moment later, he had the trailer hitched to his pickup.
    I jumped in beside him, clutching my pathetically small backpack and the cans of food. He glanced at them and gave me a questioning look.
    “I travel light,” I said. “I’m a free spirit.”
    He pressed his lips together. “Uh-huh.”
    “Let’s go,” I told him, and I did an elaborate sweep of my hand, pointing forward along the road. Only he picked just that moment to reach for the gear stick and our hands collided. A surge of raw heat raced along my arm, every tiny hair standing up. We looked at each other and our gazes seemed to get entangled. Neither of us could look away.
    “Let’s go,” I said again—more of a squeak, this time—and put my hands very firmly in my lap. I looked fixedly out of the windshield…but when I dared to glance at him, he was smiling.
    We set off.
     
    ***
     
    It should have been familiar, driving along with him--I’d spent countless hours on the road. But it wasn’t.
    Firstly, his huge, shiny pickup was nothing like my station wagon. His suspension actually worked, his heater was set just-so and I could hear the stereo over the engine without turning it up to eleven. It looked expensive. I hadn’t realized cowboys had that much money.
    “What is it you do, exactly?” I asked.
    “There’s a guy called Russ Tyler,” said Troy. “Owns a big stud farm on the edge of town.”
    I thought back to the diner. “I think I met him.”
    “Well, I work with his horses.” Troy turned to smile at me. “Taming them.”
    “Horses need taming?” I’d always thought of horses as being docile things.
    “Some of these ones do. Russ has a thing for bringing in wild mustangs. Some of them haven’t seen a person in a while. They’re not very...trusting.”
    That sounded like a very sensible mindset, to me. “And you do the whispering thing with them?”
    He threw back his head and laughed, the sound filling the cab. “Something like that. I feed them. Wash them. Get to know them. Show them people are okay.” He looked sideways at me. “And you? You take photos of the stars?”
    I nodded. “Some guy in China is willing to pay a good price for a really nice photo of the horsehead nebula. I take requests, basically. I move around the country and then, when someone needs something, I find a good, dark spot and set up.”
    Troy frowned. “I don’t know much about this stuff, but...do you have to be here? In Wyoming? I mean, do you need a certain angle or something…?”
    I felt my chest tighten. “Well, no. Pretty much anywhere in this hemisphere would do, as long as it’s dark.”
    He glanced at me. “Then why not just find one good place and stay there?”
    I felt my face go