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“You do, but I still don’t see that being an issue for you.”

“No.” It was strange, Tanner knew exactly what Kolby meant – that he wouldn’t let circumstances stop him from sleepingwith Everly. But in his gut, he knew that he’d rather keep this a platonic visit than risk doing anything that might upset Ashton.

Chapter Nineteen

“Do you think he’ll let me see inside the plane?” Ashton asked.

“I don’t know; there might not be time. It might just drop him off and then leave again.”

Everly couldn’t blame her son for being excited at the prospect of seeing inside a private jet. She wasn’t sure what she made of it herself. She hadn’t had the chance to process much of anything since she’d spoken to Tanner this morning – when he’d asked if she’d be able to meet him at the hangar at Jacobs Estate.

As she followed Hannah’s SUV to a part of the estate that she hadn’t seen before, she still wasn’t sure that she understood how this had worked out.

Tanner had told her that he was coming in his brother’s jet. At first, she thought that meant he’d be landing in San Francisco and driving up here. But that wasn’t the case. It turned out that he’d served in the Navy with a guy who grew up in Napa. That guy was Xander Jacobs – Hannah’s brother – and when Tanner had called Xander to ask him where the best place for the jet to land would be, Xander had told him that they could use the runway here on the estate.

She was still struggling with what a small world it was. She read something once about everyone only being six degrees of separation from everyone else, but it turned out that she and Tanner were connected even more closely than that.

Hannah parked in front of a long, low white building, and Everly pulled in beside her.

When they got out of the car, Hannah grinned at her. “I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“Are you sure? What if…” She didn’t even know what she was asking.

Hannah pointed to the sky. “Don’t worry, you won’t have long to wait. That’ll be him. I’m leaving so that you can say hello to each other without worrying about me hanging around. Of course, I want to meet him. If you guys want to pop in over the weekend, just give us a shout. Grady’s working lunchtime tomorrow, but other than that, he’s off. At the same time, don’t feel like you need to. We can meet him next time.”

“Okay, thanks.” Everly looked up at the plane that was now descending rapidly toward the runway.

Hannah reached out and touched her arm. “Relax. Have fun. You deserve it.” She smiled at Ashton. “Have a good weekend.”

Everly didn’t know whether to be thrilled or worried when she saw how excited her son was.

“It’s going to be the best weekend ever!” he told Hannah.

She rested her hand on his shoulder as Hannah drove away.

“Look, Mom! It’s landing. How cool is that?”

“Very cool.” It was, she could even admit it to herself. If someone had told her when she was sitting at the bar at Chico that the sexy bartender would be flying into Napa on a private jet to see her, she would have told them that they were crazy. Now, she felt like she might be the crazy one. But crazy or not, she was going to roll with it.

She’d had a chat with Ashton about not expecting too much. She’d been honest with him that while she and Tanner were both interested in getting to know each other better, neither of them knew how things would go. She didn’t want Ashton getting his hopes up – or getting attached. Of course, her own hopes were higher than they should be at this point, but she was an adult, she knew how to deal with disappointment. She needed to be very careful about how she handled this for Ashton’s sake.

“Look, Mom! The door’s opening. Is that him?”

Everly watched a man, who had to be in his fifties, open the door and let the steps down. He was a big guy, tall and muscular. He was attractive, but no, he was no Tanner.

“No. I think he must be the pilot.” Her heart leapt into her chest when the pilot stood back, and Tanner appeared. If her son weren’t standing there with her, she might have to fan herself with her hand – Tanner was just that hot. He was wearing jeans and a black denim shirt. And of course, he was wearing a cowboy hat – a black one.

“Oh my god, Mom! Is that him? Say that’s him! He’ssofreaking cool!”

She couldn’t keep the smile off her face even as she admonished him, “Ashton, language.”

“Okay, I know, sorry. But please say that’s him?”

“That’s him.”

As her son punched the air in a victorious gesture that was more than unusual for him, Everly made a mental note to keep an eye on him, to make sure that he didn’t get caught up in some kind of hero worship. She had no frame of reference for this; shehadn’t introduced him to a guy she was seeing before – because she didn’t see any.

When Tanner reached the bottom of the steps and gave them that cute little wave of his, it was easy to give herself a pass. What woman wouldn’t make an exception for him?