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“Thank you. Wish I had time to take her out more often. She really is a joy to drive.”
“She?”
“Cars, boats, planes…they’re all ashe.” He gave her a blue-eyedlook that made the backs of her knees tingle.“Most beautiful things are ashe.”
“What year is she?”
“2008. This was the first car I bought with my own money that wasn’t a junker. I found her used, with only eleven thousand miles, and the guy had babied her, so she was showroom.”
“I haven’t seen one in this body style that sounded like this.”
“She’s an S63 AMG,” he said with evident pride.“Sedan looks, with a beast for an engine. Five hundred eighteen horses, 6.2-liter V-8. Runs zero to sixty in 4.5 seconds.”
Ah. Now, that made more sense. Adam was driving a stealth sports car.
“The engine sounds fierce.”
“Took some dude in Germany five hours to assemble. By hand. Every engine has a badge, hand-signed by the specific builder assigned to that particular one.”
She’d never seen him this enthusiastic before, except, perhaps, at the reveal, but there, he’d been on full display in public.
He fingered the paddle shifter. Eve gazed at his hands, content to be in this car and spend time with him.
“You haven’t been tempted to trade this in for a newer model?”
“There’s nothing better I can get in trade. This has an aspirated engine. The newer AMGs have a turbo, and it just isn’t the same.”
“How so?”
“Sounds different. It’s all about the growl. The full experience includes the sound. I like to listen to the engine.”
Indeed, he hadn’t touched the sound system. Maybe, too, because he was a pilot accustomed to keeping his ear attuned, listening for unusual noises.
“This is a keeper, then.”
He took his eyes off the traffic light and turned to face her.“I choose carefully, I persevere until I get exactly what I want, and then I keep it.” His piercing gaze told her so much more than what he’d said. It threw her off so much that she didn’t realize they were headed for the airport until she spotted signs.
She looked at him in puzzlement.“Adam?”
“Mm-hmm?” His eyes stayed on the road.
“You did say you were taking me to lunch?”
“I am.”
“Then why are we almost at the airport?”
His million-watt smile, up close, was devastating.“We’re going to grab a hundred-dollar burger.”
What kind of burger could cost a hundred dollars?
She’d seen some crazy ones on the Food Network containing edible gold leaf. Vegas had a couple of places with burgers costing over five thousand dollars. For that price, Eve thought they should come on a solid-gold plate you could take home.
Where were they going?
Adam turned onto a narrow road. Windowless buildings made of white siding were lined up on both sides. Airplane hangars, she realized. At the very end, one loomed large, a giant LarsAir logo on the front.
This remote part of the airport was unfamiliar to Eve. What was familiar was the blue and white Gulfstream they had flown to the Caymans, slowly advancing toward them, pulled along smoothly by a yellow tug. Adam eased up on the gas.