No Limits Read Online Free PDF Page A

he wasn’t back for good and she deserved more than a summer fling.
    He had always loved the stars and the sky but, more than that, the freedom they had represented. He knew life had been different for Molly. She’d had her dad and when her mom had passed she’d had Rina. She’d grown up in a house filled with love and support. He hadn’t. He’d wanted to escape and run as far away from Texas as he could get.
    Ironic that he’d ended up finding his home in Houston. He’d thought he’d have to leave that city far behind to find peace, but he’d been wrong. It wasn’t the first thing he’d been wrong about and he doubted very much it would be the last.
    â€œWhat am I looking at?” she asked. Her voice was soft like the gentle breeze stirring around them and her hair smelled of summer strawberries. He remembered the way it had looked falling in disheveled waves around her shoulders and was tempted to remove the elastic holding it in place now.
    â€œVenus,” he said. “Venus takes only a fraction of one Earth year—225 days—to orbit the sun once, so we see it frequently in the night sky. Sometimes Jupiter and Mars line up with it—it’s rare, but you can see all three in a triangle in the sky.”
    â€œNow?”
    â€œNo. Usually closer to sunrise,” he said.
    â€œWhat’s it like to see the sunrise from orbit?”
    He wasn’t sure he could put it into words. He wasn’t one of those poetic guys who turned their adventures on the space station into books. Despite his time with NASA, he was still more of a cowboy, he guessed, even if he didn’t want to be tied to the Earth.
    â€œIt’s awesome,” he said at last.
    She chuckled.
    â€œAwesome?”
    â€œYeah, got a problem with that?”
    â€œNot at all,” she said. “Good to know that you haven’t changed all that much.”
    For a moment he didn’t follow and then he remembered when he’d first come to the ranch. All he’d said to everything was awesome in a sarcastic tone.
    â€œForgot about that. I don’t use the word much anymore. Must be something about the Bar T that brings it out in me.”
    â€œMust be,” she said, stepping aside. “I guess we should think about heading back.”
    â€œIf you do, you’ll miss the best part.”
    â€œWhat’s the best part?” she asked, turning in his arms. She had her head tipped back and their eyes met in the inky darkness. It was hard to read the expression in hers and that made him feel a bit freer. She wouldn’t be able to read the expression in his eyes, either. He didn’t want her to see how much she affected him.
    He traced one finger down the line of her neck. “You are so delicate-looking in the moonlight. Like the Carina Nebula.”
    â€œI’ve never heard of it,” she said. Her words were soft, and he had the feeling she was waiting for something.
    Him?
    â€œIt’s not as well-known as many of the other nebulas. It’s found in the southern sky.”
    â€œSouth like southern hemisphere?”
    â€œYeah. Remember how I wasn’t sure where Montana was for the longest time?” he asked. He’d been so green when he’d lived here. When he was surviving on the streets, the only things that had mattered were food and staying away from the authorities. He’d never done well in school until he’d come to the Bar T and hadn’t had those worries anymore.
    â€œI do. But you always knew the night sky,” she said. “Was it because of... I don’t know much about your family. Dad always respected the privacy of the guys who came here. Said if you wanted me to know your story, you’d tell me.”
    â€œNothing to tell. I knew the sky because I read a book when I was younger, before things got rough, about sailors who navigated using the stars. It just sort of