Page 43 of Extreme Romancing in Idaho

I jumped at Remi’s urgent command and spilled my Diet Coke all over Daniel.

“Whoa.” Daniel jumped up, causing his stool to tip and slam into the concrete.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Here.” I grabbed the closest thing, my black, fringe purse, and rubbed at the brown stain growing on his blue shirt. “I can fix it. The stain stick that Mama makes gets anything out. Take off your shirt, leave it with me, and it’ll be good as new tomorrow.”

“Angie. You might want to stop rubbing the man and asking him to take his shirt off.”

Daniel took my hands in his, and I finally stilled. “Are you calling me a SkyGod?”

“No. I mean …”

He licked his lips. “Next thing you’ll say is I’m a 100-jump wonder.”

Everything coming out of his mouth may as well be the same language Mae spoke. I’d been trying to learn horse my whole life. True, I may not understand the exact intonations of her soft neighs, but I connected with her thoughts. Anytime I went on a ride, I couldn’t carry my troubles along with me. As soon as I climbed in the saddle, I left every stressor behind. Nothing existed except me, Mae, and the ground flying beneath her feet.

Someday, I hoped to have this type of connection with another human. Preferably with the man, I chose to marry. So, although I didn’t understand him now, I had no doubt I would be able to in the future.

While Daniel held my hands, I peeked over at Remi, waiting for his translation.

“Those are insults. Like he has a big ego, but a small d—”

“What do you think of this place?” I cut Remi off and pulled any question I could think of out of thin air. Immature nincompoop.

Why’d I leave my notecard of talking points on my dresser? They’d be helpful right about now.

“I’m not the best at throwing axes. I’m good. I beat most people, but I could improve.”

“No, I meant how do you … like this area, I guess?”

“It’s not bad. Although, I’ve done the bridge, and it wasn’t that epic …”

Ignoring Remi’s disgruntled noise, I continued to listen to Daniel as he picked up his stool and talked about all the places he’d BASE jumped. I interjected one word here and there in the conversation, which carried on for another thirty minutes.

“… my favorite is jumping from skyscrapers into the city lights below. Maybe we can do a tandem jump sometime.”

His heated gaze zapped me like Superman’s laser vision, microwaving my heart and leaving a pile of warm mush where muscle once existed. Sure, heights still made my toes curl, but being with a stable guy like Dan would be worth confronting my biggest fear.

“That means leaping of a building together.”

“I know.” The words flew out my mouth before I could stop them.

“You know what?”

“I know I like you.”

Daniel leaned in close to my ear—the ear with the AirPod in it—and I jerked away. He quirked his eyebrows. “Listen, it’s getting late. I better get going.”

“That’s code for I don’t want a second date. Offer to walk him to his car.”

“I’ll walk you to your car.” I stood and tugged my skirt into place.

“Good. Now make eye contact with him and bite your lower lip.”

Daniel took a couple of steps in my direction. Tilting my head ever so slightly, I locked eyes with his and tucked my lip under my top teeth. Sure enough, his gaze trailed to my mouth.

He swallowed and fiddled with his glasses. “That’d be nice.”

“Well done. Now, find any excuse to touch him on your way to his car.”

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