The scene in the family bathroom at the Cattleman Hotel stayed with Laura for the rest of the weekend, like an itch she couldn’t seem to soothe. Ted Flint had asked her out. Ted Flint had asked her out. It didn’t matter how many other conversations she’d had at the party—two and a half—before leaving in a haze of confusion, she hadn’t been able to get Ted’s handsome, smiling face out of her mind.

“‘Do you want to go out for dinner sometime’?” she repeated under her breath as she walked from the copier back to her desk on Monday morning. “Of course, I want to go out for dinner,” she answered herself.

But there was no way that was going to happen. There was no way that should happen. Not a woman like her, not a guy like Ted. And not to mention she’d handled the surprise of him asking totally wrong.

“Right?” she ended her thought aloud.

Across her team’s configuration of desks, Will Darling glanced up. His brow inched up in question, although his expression—as usual—remained neutral.

“Sorry, I was just talking to myself,” she told him with a smile.

“You don’t say.” Will relaxed into a smile and went back to work. The click of his keyboard as he typed went a long way toward soothing Laura.

Instead of going back to work herself, she continued to stare at Will. Will had been dating Melody Clutterbuck for a few months now. They’d even moved in together. Laura had become good friends with Melody, and her sister, Calliope too. Either one of the Clutterbuck sisters would have handled the surprise in the bathroom much better than she’d handled it. They would have come up with a far smoother way to decline and explain the social science behind why a decline was necessary. Then again, either of them were beautiful and feminine enough to date a guy like Ted, so they wouldn’t have found themselves in her predicament.

Will’s staccato typing stopped, and he glanced up. “Can I help you with something?”

Laura blinked and shook herself out of her thoughts. She’d been staring directly at Will, as if trying to burn a hole through his skull, through her entire inner debate. “No, I’m fine. I just went to my happy place for a second there.”

Will chuckled, his lips curving up in a rare smile. Well, not so rare since he’d started dating Melody. “Welcome back,” he said, then returned to work.

Laura tried to do the same. She was working on a computer model for the Haskell I rocket’s propulsion system, trying to balance out the type and volume of fuel that would make for the most cost-effective, and yet still powerful, payload flight. Numbers usually excited her with the challenge they presented, but at the moment, they all seemed to jumble together on her screen…like so much salsa splattered across her dress.

She really was a klutz. Although in the cold light of day, she was willing to admit that Ted moving away when he did and taking the plate with him might have contributed to the disaster. And he had been a sweetheart to show her where she could clean up and to help with the operation. Heck, if he didn’t think she was ridiculous after that, then maybe she should have accepted his dinner invitation.

She let out a disappointed sigh, her shoulders dropping. “Way to mess that up too,” she mumbled.

“Hey, Laura.”

Laura jerked straight and turned as Natalie Warner, her coworker from another team, strode up to her desk. It wasn’t unusual for members of other teams to come to their area with questions, so Laura thought nothing of it and answered, “Hey, Natalie. How was your weekend?”

“Okay.” Natalie’s smile grew. “Not as good as yours, apparently.”

Laura blinked, dread mingling with her usual hopeless confusion.

“I saw you talking to Ted Flint at Scott and Casey’s engagement party,” Natalie went on, smile growing.

Laura’s face instantly burned hot. “Oh, that? That was nothing.”

Farther down the line of desks, both Hero and Scott perked up.

“It didn’t look like nothing to me,” Natalie went on. “You two looked really into each other.”

Laura’s neck began to burn along with her face. “We were just talking about Haskell history and dinosaurs and things.”

“Dinosaurs are your happy place,” Will said without looking away from his computer monitor. He was smiling again, which made Laura incredibly nervous.

“And then I spilled salsa all over myself,” Laura went on, as if that alone were reason enough to squelch all rumors.

“I saw that,” Natalie laughed, leaning against the edge of Laura’s desk. “I saw the two of you leave the refreshment room together.”

Laura hadn’t noticed Natalie was one of the people in the room at the time of the disaster. Then again, it would have taken an earthquake to get her to notice more than Ted’s gorgeous, smiling face and stellar butt. If she had noticed Natalie, she might have played things differently. “He was very nice,” she said.

“I’ll say.” Natalie leaned a little closer. “So, are the two of you going to go out?”

Prickles of embarrassment zipped down Laura’s spine. The laughed with the same nervous energy she’d had when Ted asked her. “That would be a no.”

Natalie—and the rest of the guys, who were now obviously listening in—flinched and made noises of surprise. “Why not?” Natalie asked. “The two of you looked so cute together.”

“Ah.” Laura sent her a self-deprecating smile. “I see where you’ve gone wrong. I’m not going out with Ted because I don’t really see myself as the dating sort.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hero asked with a half laugh. “Does that mean you’re the arranged marriage sort?”

She laughed. There was no point denying that work was on hold while her social life was discussed, so Laura stood in order to address everyone. “I’ve just never considered myself the kind of girl that guys want to date. I’m inherently undatable.”

She blinked in surprise as her simple statement was met by a round of protests and snorts of disagreement. It hadn’t seemed all that revolutionary to her, it just…was.

“That’s not true,” Scott said.

“Oh, believe me, it is,” Laura contradicted him. “There are two kinds of women in the world—there are the kind of women that guys like Ted Flint go out with, and then there are women like me.”

“What, smart? Funny? Interesting?” Will said with a thick note of sarcasm. “Yeah, no guys want to go out with women like that.”

Laura wasn’t sure if he was complimenting her or teasing her. Probably both. Either way, she laughed and shook her head. “That’s not what I meant.”

“No woman is inherently undatable,” Scott added, still seated but able to see everyone. “It goes against the laws of nature.”

“Well, I supposed a female serial killer would be undatable,” Hero agued. “I can’t think of too many of those, though. And Laura isn’t a serial killer.”

“Not yet anyway,” Laura said. “If this conversation keeps going, I might have to consider it.”

She thought she was being funny, but Hero kept on her case. “Seriously, why would you say that you’re undatable? As far as I can see, any guy would be lucky to call you his girlfriend.”

Laura wasn’t sure whether she should roll her eyes or sink into the floor in embarrassment. “I dunno, because I’m weird?” She shrugged. “I like dinosaurs and rockets. I was in the Army. I wouldn’t know how to put on make-up if you sat me in front of every one of those online tutorials and held my hand.”

“Not all guys want girls like that,” Will said, still looking at his monitor.

“Right. Says the man who just moved in with one of the most beautiful women in town,” Laura fired back at him.

Will’s smile grew before he schooled his expression back to neutrality. “I’d love Melody even if she had a mole the size of Texas on her face and a peg-leg.”

“Because she’d still be feminine and exotic,” Laura argued.

“All men are different,” Hero said. “We all want something different. So you shouldn’t write yourself off just because you don’t think you fit the stereotype of what guys on tv are looking for.”

“Exactly,” Natalie agreed with him.

“Besides,” Scott added. “Casey mentioned to me that Ted told her about talking to you after the party. If a guy really isn’t interested, he wouldn’t tell his sister that he talked to you.”

Painful flutters swooped into Laura’s gut. Ted had talked about her to Casey?

But no, that was irrelevant. He’d already asked her out, so she knew he was interested. The issue was that he shouldn’t be. Not in her. She wasn’t his type.

“Well, I think you should go out with him,” Natalie said, pushing away from the desk. “Whether you think you’re datable or not. You can’t possibly know if you’re a guy’s type until you’ve been out with him a few times.”

“What she said,” Will—who had gone back to work—seconded.

“Are you sure the problem isn’t some kind of worry about being disappointed on your part?” Scott asked in true big-brother, team leader fashion.

And just when Laura’s blush was beginning to calm down. It was back in full force within seconds. Because deep inside, she knew Scott had hit the nail on the head. “I’ve just never been very successful at the whole dating thing before,” she admitted. “I’ve been so focused elsewhere.” Which was her way of saying she’d managed to live twenty-nine years on the earth and never had a boyfriend. If she was a heroine in some Regency romance novel, she would be firmly on the shelf with no prospects and no expectations.

Actually, the no expectations part would have made life decidedly easier. Damn the twenty-first century and its insistence that people over the age of twenty-three were still eligible for the dating game.

“‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’,” Natalie quoted, then patted her on the shoulder before heading off to her part of the office.

“She’s right, you know,” Hero added once she was gone. “Past failures aren’t an indication of future outcomes. Just ask my wife.” He smiled the adorable smile that he wore every time he mentioned his wife, Denise.

“What would she say?” Laura asked, more eager to know than she wanted to be.

“Denise had it rough through school. She had one bad boyfriend who got her pregnant and stuck her with a daughter she had to raise on her own—well, with her mom’s help—and Destiny is awesome, by the way.” He paused as if regathering his train of thought, then went on to say, “She had a terrible time with men after that.”

“What happened to change all that?”

Hero laughed. “Well, me.”

Laura would have rolled her eyes at him, but she knew he wasn’t bragging or being flippant.

“I met her when her car broke down on the side of the road,” Hero finished up. “Imagine what we both would have missed out on if she’d pushed me away.”

Laura made an uncertain face. Hero and Denise’s story was beautiful, but it was one in a million. There was no way anything in Laura’s life would ever compete with that kind of story.

“Look, guys, I can’t talk about this anymore,” she said, sinking back into her seat. “We shouldn’t really be talking about this kind of thing at work anyhow. Let’s just focus on rocket propulsion. If anything else is supposed to happen, it’ll happen.”

The guys hummed and sighed, but focused on their computers again.

“Just remember,” Will said in a confidential tone, eyes on his monitor. “Haskell tends to foster impossible relationships. If you were in the history gallery at the hotel, you would have seen that. So don’t write yourself off just yet.”

“I—”

Laura let out a sigh. She couldn’t promise that she would keep an open mind. Part of her wanted to, but she’d spent her entire adult life becoming who she was, and that woman didn’t date. At least, she hadn’t so far.

* * *

The swift smack of a baseball hitting his glove and the vague sting from the power of Ben’s throw barely pulled Ted’s attention out of his thoughts. His return throw was a little wide, and Ben had to lunge to catch it, but that was the point of baseball practice. Or so Ted told himself. If he was being honest, his focus was miles away. One point six miles away, to be exact. Somewhere in the Paradise Space Flight building. Or maybe not. Work hours were over, after all. Laura might be out enjoying the summer evening.

That thought knocked him a hair off his game, and when Ben hurled the ball back at him, Ted reached out a second too late and missed it.

“Sorry,” Ben called to him.

“No problem. My bad.” Ted waved, then jogged to fetch the ball. It wasn’t Ben’s fault. Not one bit. If he had to blame anyone, he would blame the rocket-designing, dinosaur-loving, blue-eyed object of his obsession.

No, obsession was too strong of a word. Sure, Laura had turned his head, but he wasn’t that far gone yet. It wasn’t like he’d never met a pretty girl before. He considered himself good with women. He felt at ease around them. And he’d never had a problem getting a date.

Until now.

He caught up with the ball and bent, scooping to pick it up and throw it across the practice field to Ben, then jogged back to the spot where he’d been standing. The entire Piedmont Panthers team was there for practice, so there wasn’t much space to spare on the field as everyone practiced catches and dives, batting and pitching. They had an important game against the Southside Salamanders that weekend. Which was why he needed to focus.

“Hey Ted, you wanna break in our new pitcher?” Carlos Bertran, the Panthers’ captain and catcher, called to him from home plate.

Scott stood on the mound, grinning at Ted like a kid who was thrilled to have been picked first for their side. Ted glanced to Ben who nodded and turned to throw his ball toward one of the other players.

“Yeah, sure,” Ted called to Carlos.

He jogged toward home plate, meeting Scott’s grin with one of his own. Back when they’d first started dating, Casey had suggested to Scott that Paradise Space Flight start their own team. They had yet to do that, so for the time being, since Scott was building on a patch of land that had been part of the Flint ranch—which had, in turn, originally been a part of Virginia Piedmont’s share of Paradise Ranch—he was eligible to play for the Panthers. Ted was happy to have him, not only for the team, but as a soon-to-be brother-in-law.

He selected a bat from the row lined up against the fence behind home plate, then took his spot. “Let’s see what you’ve got,” he challenged Scott with a wink.

“You’re on.”

Scott wound up and threw a surprisingly good pitch. It wasn’t anything that Ted couldn’t hit, and with a crack, the ball went sailing into center field. One of the guys caught it and tossed it back to Scott.

“Good, good,” Carlos coached from behind Ted. “See if you can get yourself centered more. You have a tendency to pop right just before you release the ball.”

Scott nodded, focused, and threw another pitch. Ted hit that one too, but as fast as he’d settled, his mind began to drift.

There was no denying how balanced and grounded Scott was these days. Casey had everything to do with that. Ted had been on the outskirts as his sister and Scott got together, but he’d seen the change the relationship brought to both of them. Seen it and admired it.

He’d never felt like he was missing something from his life, but watching Casey and Scott get together made him wonder if there were things he didn’t know he was missing. The two of them seemed so happy together. It went way beyond the fun and satisfaction of just dating someone. Theirs was a solid, committed, and, if he knew his sister, life-long relationship.

He wanted that.

Scott sent the ball sailing toward him, and Ted swung and missed.

“Good,” Carlos called and threw the ball back to Scott. “Like that and more.”

Ted tapped his bat on home plate and settled into his stance. He wanted what Scott and Casey had. Something more than just dating and having fun. Go figure. True, he wasn’t getting any younger. He’d hit thirty and passed it. Thirty-five was in the mail. It was about time he thought of taking the next natural step in life, like Casey was taking. His dad needed grandchildren, and someone needed to inherit the ranch, now that the mortgage was paid off.

Scott threw the ball, and this time Ted hit it. It was a messy hit that tore across the grass. Scott hopped down from the mound to stop it, proving that he would make a good short-stop as well as a pitcher. Ted hardly saw the play, though. Marriage. Family. He’d never stopped to think about those things. Never. When had he gotten so mature?

The moment he’d heard Laura Kincade talking about her adventures. The moment he saw her enthusiastic smile, the way her eyes lit up, as she talked about the things she loved. For the first time in his life, Ted had seen a brightness, gotten a feeling, about a woman before noticing she was pretty. And yeah, Laura was pretty, but not in a movie star sort of way. She was pretty in a…in a….

Scott threw another pitch before Ted could come up with an adjective. He swung with all his might and missed.

“Ooh, that was close.”

His heart dropped to the pit of his gut as Laura herself called out an encouragement. Ted blinked, eyes opening wide, and twisted to find Laura standing with her hands in the pockets of her shorts, just behind the fence. Her long, brown hair was in a ponytail, and she wore a t-shirt with a cartoon T-Rex on it. His heart bounced up from his stomach and ricocheted around his chest.

“What are you doing here?” With a smile, he walked away from home plate as Carlos threw the ball back to Scott.

Laura shrugged. “It’s a nice night, so I thought I’d go for a walk. Then I saw you guys practicing and figured I’d come have a look.”

“It’s just practice. We play games on the weekends.” The image of Laura cheering him on from the stands gave him a sudden burst of confidence. “Wanna come to our game against the Salamanders this weekend?” he asked.

“The Salamanders?” Laura laughed. It seemed to light her up from the inside out.

That brought a huge smile to Ted’s face. After the way she turned down his offer of a date and ran from him at the party, he would have expected her to be skittish around him now. The fact that she wasn’t, that she was standing there having a conversation with him, filled him with hope. Maybe really had reacted the way she had the other day out of surprise, like she’d said, and not because there was something wrong with him. Maybe if he eased into it, she wouldn’t turn him down a second time.

She did, however, blush. “Lucky for you, Melody, Calliope, and I had already decided to watch the game. So yeah, we’ll be there.”

“Yes.” He put extra excitement into the word, half as a joke, and half because he was genuinely thrilled she would be there. “Maybe we could grab some dinner after the game?” he added, wiggling his eyebrows.

Her blush deepened and her laugh turned nervous as she answered, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Ted leaned against the fence, as suave as he could be.

“I’ve already got plans with Melody and Calliope. Sandy and Rita Templesmith too.”

Ted wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that she wasn’t seeing someone else and that her answer didn’t count as a rejection or disappointed. “I’m going to wear you down eventually, you know,” he said with a teasing wink.

“I’m flattered, and it’s cute that you think so, but I’m a notoriously tough nut to crack.” Her laugh was even more nervous, her cheeks pinker.

“Hey, Romeo,” Carlos called from home plate. “Are you gonna practice or what?”

Ted turned, ready to apologize for walking away without warning, but the shit-eating grin on Carlos’s face prompted him to flip his friend off instead. He realized a second too late that he’d made the gesture with a lady standing right there. “Uh, sorry.” He sent Laura an embarrassed smile.

“No problem,” she giggled. She then raised her voice and told Carlos, “Yeah, I’ll practice.”

Ted’s brow rose. “He wasn’t talking to you.”

“No?” Laura walked to the edge of the fence and came around with a bounce in her step. “You sure?”

“Carlos, you weren’t talking to Laura, right?” Ted asked.

“I’ll pitch to her,” Scott called from the mound. The grin on his face made Ted want to flip him the bird too. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Kincade.”

“You don’t really have to do this if you don’t want to.” Ted followed Laura to home plate and handed her his bat. “Scott’s been pitching pretty hard this evening.”

“Good.” Laura took the bat from him, her smile reaching her eyes to brilliant effect. “It’s always more fun when you’re playing with someone who’s good at what they’re doing.”

A jolt of lust hit Ted hard. There was no way she was aware of how her words could be taken, but the images of “playing” that they brought to Ted’s mind made him want to show her that he knew what he was doing where it really counted.

Those thoughts doubled when she settled into batting stance, displaying the surprisingly tempting curve of her backside as she did. “Okay,” she called to Scott, “Show me what you’ve got.”