Ted had tried to squash his excitement about the fossil and what it could mean for the future of the ranch in the days that followed Dr. Ashford’s visit. He’d tried and failed. Miserably. The more excavation work Laura did—with his help, when he could get away from the everyday work of the ranch—the more he was excited by the whole thing. But when a whole team of experts showed up with their equipment, setting up cameras and sensors and other doohickeys he could only imagine a use for, it became clear that what Laura had discovered, what his family had been sitting on for generations, was significant.

Just how significant remained to be seen. Which was true not only for the fossil, but for him and Laura too. Laura had been acting…differently ever since her mentor’s visit. He knew the two of them had spent a lot of time together talking about “deep stuff”—which is exactly how Laura had described it when he’d asked—but he had no idea what that constituted. He would have given anything to find out, but finding a time when Laura wasn’t either at work or digging away with the professional paleontologists had been impossible.

Which was how he found himself strolling down Main Street in the evening a little more than a week after Dr. Ashford’s visit. He didn’t really need to visit Bernie’s General Store, just like he didn’t really need to be in town during the evening rush hour, as all the PSF employees were making their way home to the apartments Howie had renovated for them. He walked slowly, not wanting to finish his errand too fast. That would defeat the point.

His pulse kicked up a notch and his mission’s true purpose was justified the second he spotted Laura walking over the station bridge on her way home.

He hopped up from the bench where he’d paused to sit in front of the General Store—just minding his own business, enjoying the hot summer night, and not loitering or deliberately waiting for Laura at all—and made a bee-line for her.

“Hey, Laura. Fancy meeting you here,” he greeted her with all the subtlety of a bug hitting a windshield. “And hi, uh, Natalie, isn’t it?” he waved to the coworker walking with Laura.

“Yeah,” Natalie said, a big, fat grin spreading across her face. “Well, I’ll see you, Laura, I’ve got to get home and, uh, put a potpie in the oven.”

Natalie zoomed off down the street so fast that Ted was surprised she didn’t leave burn marks. Laura gaped after her, cheeks pink, with a combination of bewilderment and panic. “I wonder what that was all about?” she squeaked as Ted fell into step with her.

Ted chuckled. “Apparently, it’s about potpie.”

She sent him a flat, sideways look. “Potpie my a-asparagus.” She cleared her throat and put on a smile. “What are you doing in town at this hour?”

Ted shrugged and slipped his hands into his pockets. The gesture led to him slowing his pace. Laura slowed down to amble along with him, which meant they’d have that much more time together before they reached her apartment.

“I had an errand to run at the General Store,” he delivered the excuse he’d practiced.

Laura looked at him. “Haven’t made it in yet, huh?”

“In where?”

“The General Store?”

“Oh. Yeah, I was in there earlier.”

She raised one brow. “So, where’s your bag?”

“What bag?” Heat crept up Ted’s neck. Lying was harder than he’d thought, especially when he was pretty sure the truth would spook her.

Laura let out an impatient breath. “Your bag. For your purchases. You know, the errand you’re supposedly running?”

“Oh. Well.” He should have known she’d question his mission and come up with a better story. Or else he should just come out and admit that he was there to see her.

He didn’t get a chance to come up with something before Laura came out with, “Sorry I haven’t been able to get out to the ranch as much this week, and that I’ve been spending more time with the pros than with you.”

“Yeah, I’ve missed having you around,” he said with more enthusiasm than he should have if he was playing it cool. “I mean, I’ve been busy getting part of the herd ready for sale this past week, but it was nice over the weekend, seeing you out there digging away.”

“I just wish I could take some time off work right now to focus on the dig,” she went on, either unphased by his slightly stalker-esque behavior or not noticing it. “Things at work have really picked up these last few days, since Dennis got back with our new team member, Angelica Jones. It’s always crazy integrating someone new, especially with the Haskell I rocket’s designs at such a crucial phase.”

“You should swing around for dinner some night,” he said, inching closer to her as they walked and setting his true plan in motion. “Then you and I could get some work done with the fossil together, since your paleontologist friends are usually gone by then. And you could tell me all about what you and Dr. Ashford talked about when you weren’t digging.”

“Yeah, that could be—” She stopped and turned to face him, eyes narrowing. “Wait a second. Is that some sort of sneaky way to try to get me to go out with you?”

Ted tilted his head down just enough to look sheepish. “Well, if you wouldn’t make it so hard on me, I wouldn’t have to resort to trickery.”

“Mmm hmm.” Laura crossed her arms and studied him, her backpack-like purse hitched over her shoulder, like he would pull something sneaky right then and there. “Yeah, Dr. Ashford warned me about tactics like that.”

Ted fought a wave of anger. “Wait, she warned you about me?”

Laura blushed, suddenly self-conscious. She glanced down. “No, not really. She just—” Laura peeked up at him. “She just doesn’t want me to get hurt.”

Ted’s anger flared hotter. He felt like weeks of work getting Laura to feel comfortable with him had just gone up in smoke. And here he’d thought Dr. Ashford was doing them a favor. “What did she say?”

“Nothing,” Laura insisted, halfway between defensiveness and joking. She rolled her shoulders, her gaze dropping away from his. “She just knows what I’ve been through and feels protective.”

He swallowed his instinct to argue, crossing his arms instead. A tiny voice of sense whispered that maybe what Dr. Ashford knew was part of the reason Laura had been so squirrely with him, and that maybe he should take that to heart.

“Well, I’m glad the two of you had a good time together,” he said. Laura’s expression eased up a hair. “Speaking of good times, you want some ice cream?” He gestured toward the station bridge with his thumb. Ice cream had worked as an almost date before, so why not try it again?

“Before dinner?” She wasn’t moved. If anything, her eyes narrowed.

Ted’s grin grew. “Okay, I guess I could be convinced to take you out to dinner before ice cream, but you’re really inconveniencing me here.”

Her brow rose just before she burst into laughter. “See? That’s what I’m talking about. You’re a real tricky Mickey, Ted Flint.”

“Aren’t you hungry?” He winked.

“No,” she protested, then planted her hands on her hips. She let out a long breath. “This is getting ridiculous. I can’t keep worrying that you’ll try to spring a date on me every time we run into each other.”

“Agreed,” Ted said with mock seriousness. “So clearly, the only way to stop worrying about having to fend off my unscrupulous attempts to change your opinion about whether you’re worthy of sitting across a table with me while we shove food in our faces—” He lowered his voice to a near whisper. “—is to bite the bullet and say yes.”

“I—” She didn’t go on. Her mouth hung open.

For a few, glorious seconds, Ted was certain she was finally going to give in. His pulse raced with far more expectation than he thought he’d feel in the moment.

Then her phone rang.

She scrambled to pull it out of her purse, and tapped to answer. “Hello?” She paused. “Dr. Ashford, what’s up?”

Ted’s anger flared, but just as quickly it shifted to pulse-pounding expectation. Laura’s eyes went wide. Her whole face lit up.

“Wait, wait, I’ve got Ted right here. Let me put you on speaker,” she said, then pulled the phone away and tapped it. “There.”

“I’m lucky to have caught you both,” Dr. Ashford’s voice came over the phone’s speaker. “I’ve been able to analyze the photographs and other data from the fossil site here at the lab. So far, everything confirms our assessment about the fossil capturing a moment of combat between two species. Everything points to this being a one-of-a-kind discovery.”

“That’s awesome,” Ted said, suddenly fully open to forgiving Dr. Ashford for whatever bad advice she’d given Laura. Main Street was noisier and more crowded than he wanted it to be, so he touched Laura’s arm and led her over to the side alley between her building and the next one. “What does that mean?” he asked as they walked.

“It could mean a variety of things,” Dr. Ashford went on. “Judging by the rough imaging we’ve done so far, it’s incredibly likely that your fossil is of a carnivore preying on an herbivore, as we discussed. If that’s the case and if further excavation proves that both skeletons are as intact as I suspect they are from the work we’ve done so far, you could end up with a bidding war between institutions interested in purchasing the fossil.”

“That’s incredible,” Laura gasped.

Ted glanced up at her. He knew nothing of the technicalities that Dr. Ashford was talking about, but he knew Laura. If Laura was excited, then there was something to be excited about.

Heck, Laura excited was what Ted aimed for in just about everything he was doing.

“I’ve contacted the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History, along with a few others, to see if they’d be interested in the fossil,” Dr. Ashford went on, “and they both sound interested. Even when I quoted them a few eight-digit figures of what I estimate the find could be worth.”

“No way,” Laura exclaimed. “Thank you, Dr. Ashford. This is all so amazing.”

“It’s only amazing if you continue the dig and discover that everything that we think could be there is actually there. We might be chasing after fool’s gold right now.”

“But we’ve already uncovered so much,” Ted said.

“Yeah,” Laura added. “You should see what we’ve done since you were here. I swear, this fossil is everything we’ve been saying it could be and more.”

“Then I’m sure the result will be all that you could hope for,” Dr. Ashford said. Ted barely had time to meet Laura’s eyes, the two of them bursting into broad grins, before Dr. Ashford continued with, “Well, I have to go teach a class. I just thought you’d like to hear the outcome of my initial inquiries.”

“Thank you, Dr. Ashford,” Laura said.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Ted followed.

They said a round of final goodbyes, then Laura ended the call. The two of them stood face-to-face in the alley, stunned and beaming.

“It’s really happening.” Laura spoke first. “That little bone of yours is actually something special.”

“Hey, watch what you’re calling little there,” he fired back with a laugh. In fact, the entire situation was so far beyond Ted’s expectations and Laura’s proximity so enticing, that his little bone was getting as excited as the rest of him.

“I’m so thrilled with all of this that I’m not even going to call you out for that comment,” she said with a laugh. She let out a breath and just smiled up at him. “Oh, Ted, I’m so happy for you.”

“Happy for me?”

He didn’t have time to press further. She launched herself at him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him with such abandon that Ted was lost in a second.

He hugged her back, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop there. As soon as she loosened her hold, he shifted, drawing her into a more passionate embrace, and brought his mouth down over hers in a kiss. It was as unexpected for him as it was for her, but the moment their lips touched, he committed fully. And when she didn’t instantly pull back and hit him—like he would have expected her to do—he went for broke.

He moved one hand up to cradle her face even as he coaxed her lips apart with his. She gave in almost instantly, and as she did, he brushed his tongue along her bottom lip. When she didn’t fight that either, he slid his tongue along hers, exploring her with his eyes closed as his heart swelled against his ribs. There was something soft and innocent about the way she reacted to him. She was completely passive in the kiss, but her passivity was a total turn-on. Like she didn’t know what she was doing but was hungry to learn.

That initial impression faded as she surged against him, making a sound deep in her throat that was both urgent and triumphant. Her arms were already around his back from their hug, but her hands slipped downward, until she squeezed his backside. The gesture was so unexpected, coming from her, that laughter bubbled up from his throat, forcing him to take a breath and end their kiss.

“There,” he said, his voice rough with arousal. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Please don’t make me come up with a joke about things being hard,” she almost groaned, her body still pressed against his.

That only doubled his laughter, which diffused the intensity of their embrace. The latent desire that replaced their flare of passion was just as enjoyable, though.

“Okay, so now you don’t have any excuses,” he said, brushing his fingers across her cheek.

“What? Excuses?” She blinked up at him, as dazed as he’d ever seen her.

“Now you have to go out with me. Dinner,” he said, a command, not a question. “Saturday night.”

“Wha—” She closed her mouth, swallowed, and pulled almost all the way out of his arms. “I…no! You can’t keep surprising me like this.”

Frustration smacked Ted as she took a huge step back, disentangling herself from him entirely. “Laura,” he started with a sigh, rubbing his forehead.

“I…we…this isn’t….” She stepped farther away from him with each fragmented protest, her cheeks red, her gaze unfocused. “Oh boy. There are things about me you don’t…. Uh…. Surprises, Ted, surprises! I can’t. I….”

“Dinner,” he said, trying hard not to be irritated. But dammit, he’d come so close only to have her get squirrely on him again.

“Um…but….” She backed up again, glancing down the alley to the door to her apartment. Something seemed to click, and her gaze focused. She bolted for the door, nearly tripping over her shoes halfway through her retreat.

Ted stood there, bristling with conflicting emotions as she fumbled in her pocket for her key. He should really move on—both in that moment and profoundly—but he caught himself watching her, fascinated by the desperate color on her cheeks and her clumsy actions.

At last, she fit the key into the lock and turned it. But as soon as she did, she stopped. Her whole body went still. She let out a breath, shoulders sagging, and turned to face him. Her eyes were wide and round, but there was a spark of something in them, something that in any other woman would have been dangerous. She dropped her purse from where it had been hanging off of one shoulder, left her door open, and marched back to him.

“Okay,” she said, eyes still huge. “You win. I can’t fight anymore. Surprise or no, that’s it. Saturday. Dinner. Date.”

Before he could respond, before the explosion of relief really hit him, she threw her arms around his neck, levering up on her toes to kiss him again. It was a short, clumsy kiss, but it was very possibly the best anyone had ever given him. And it was over before he could get into it or close his arms around her. She yanked back, pressed her fingertips to her lips, muttered something that he couldn’t make out, then turned and sprinted for her apartment.

But it didn’t matter. At last, Ted had a date with her.