Cole's Christmas Wish. Tracy Madison

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СКАЧАТЬ is. He... I know he wasn’t on his best behavior at first,” she said, suddenly finding it very important to build up Andrew. For her sake or for Cole’s, she didn’t know. Even so. “But he really is a great guy.”

      “I’m sure he is,” Cole agreed.

      “Just...give him a chance before deciding you don’t like him. That’s all I ask.”

      “I can do that. He took me off guard with that Kyle crap, but it’s obvious he cares a lot about you. The fact he does, and makes no bones about it, goes a long way for me.”

      “So...are you saying you approve?”

      “You don’t need my approval, Rach,” Cole said quietly. “You know that, right?”

      Rachel shook her head, still trying to clear cobwebs. “Yeah. Of course I do.”

      Cole beamed a smile. “Just like I don’t need yours.”

      “Right. No approval necessary.” She sucked in a breath, taking the air in so deep it almost hurt. “But I’d like to meet your...girlfriend. I mean, if she’s going to be a part of your life...”

      “I’d like that, too. Unfortunately, Cupcake—that’s what I call her—is a little shy. Might take some time, convincing her to agree to an introduction.” Pausing, Cole closed his eyes as if thinking something through. “Maybe if it were just you at that first meeting, that would be okay. Less...intimidating than introducing her to you and Andrew at the same time.”

      “Sure,” she said without thought. Cupcake? He called her Cupcake? Cole didn’t do terms of endearment. Or he never had before. “Andrew can stay at the house.”

      “He won’t mind?” The concerned pretense from earlier returned. “Gee, I don’t know about that. I’d hate to cause problems while you’re trying to...repair your relationship.”

      “We’re fine, we’re not—” Screw it. Let him think what he wanted. Besides, he wasn’t wholly off base, even if Andrew hadn’t yet arrived at that realization. “That isn’t an issue.”

      “I’d also hate to upset him by taking up too much of your time,” Cole said in complete and utter sincerity. “From what I gathered, Andrew appears to have a jealous nature.”

      “Now that Andrew is aware you’re in love with another woman,” Rachel said, nearly choking on the admittance, on the reality of the situation, “I expect the jealousy to fade.”

      Cole hesitated, as if mulling over the idea. Finally, he nodded. “Well, then, I’ll set something up. Just try to keep your schedule open. Convincing my Cupcake to step out of her shell won’t be all that easy. And while she isn’t impatient, exactly, once she makes her mind up about something, she can be rather determined.”

      “What is she? Shy or bossy?” Rachel said the words that popped into her head, even though she probably shouldn’t have. “Because by your definition, she’s both, and honestly, I haven’t met very many people who fall into both categories.”

      “Let’s call her...complicated. That’s a good word to describe this particular woman.”

      “Complicated?” She snapped her mouth shut and silently counted to ten. Cole jumping through hoops to please some shy, determined, complicated woman didn’t sound encouraging. It was annoying. And the image, the very thought of it, rubbed Rachel in all the wrong ways. “I already don’t like this woman,” she muttered.

      “What’s that? I couldn’t quite hear you.”

      Gripping her coffee cup so hard that her knuckles ached, Rachel forced her mouth to move into a smile. “I said that I can’t wait to meet this woman.”

      “I knew you’d be excited for me.” Cole reached over to tug a lock of Rachel’s hair, just as she’d seen him do a thousand times to his sister, Haley. “Thank you for being such a wonderful friend.”

      “Forever friends,” she said, using their childhood phrase. As the words left her lips, the last bit of hope—hope she hadn’t known still existed until that second—fizzled out.

      Suddenly, she sort of wished she’d chosen Hawaii.

      * * *

      An hour later, Cole watched Andrew and Rachel leave the coffee shop, unsure of what, exactly, had propelled him to create a pretend girlfriend. The touching had irritated him, though he didn’t have the right to be irritated. Andrew’s posturing had, surprisingly, been more amusing than infuriating. Well, except for the comment about Cole’s career.

      Even so, he hadn’t reacted to the push—Rachel had done that for him—and Andrew’s apology had seemed sincere. At that point, the tension emanating from Andrew had lessened, and Cole saw a glimmer of the real man Rachel had brought with her to Steamboat Springs. And damn if he didn’t begin to like him...just a little.

      Cole certainly had no intention of making up a woman—a special woman, no less—when Andrew had then asked about his relationship status. But Rachel stepped in, answered in the negative, and that—yep, that was what had done it—had compelled Cole to lie. She’d been so sure, so damn positive in her response, that Cole had wanted to shake her up and prove that she didn’t know every microscopic detail about him or his life.

      The maneuver had worked, too. If Cole was a betting man, he’d have wagered cold, hard cash that she’d turned green with envy over his declaration.

      If she was in love with another man, why would she care if Cole was seeing someone? She wouldn’t. Or, he corrected, she shouldn’t. By the way her skin had paled a good two shades and her stunned expression, not to mention the wobbly state of her voice, Cole had to believe she did, indeed, care. He couldn’t deny his satisfaction over that.

      But he’d lied, and that bothered him. So now he had to decide what to do about the fabrication. Confess the truth or keep the pretense in play? Hell. Lying didn’t sit well with him, but Rachel’s reaction, especially her whispered statement, “I already don’t like this woman,” egged him on, teasing him with the possibilities of what both could mean.

      Cole stood, waved goodbye to Lola and headed out into the December night, thinking through those possibilities. What he’d said wasn’t a complete untruth: there was a special woman in his life. A woman he loved, a woman he saw himself quite capable of spending the rest of his days with, having children with, growing old with and every last thing that entailed.

      Rachel, of course.

      A plan, crystal clear in its clarity, formed in Cole’s mind. He could use his real feelings for Rachel, along with what she believed to be true, and enlist her help in wooing “the woman of his dreams.” If Rachel was jealous, if she did hold more than friendship for him in her heart, wouldn’t that be enough to propel her to act? Maybe.

      Or it could backfire. Send her scurrying even deeper into Andrew’s arms, into a future with him, and—like she’d done before—away from Cole. But hell, what did he have to lose?

      If he did nothing, he’d gain nothing.

      The snow still fell as he walked toward the sports store, where his truck was parked on the street out front, and a magical—dare he say, Christmassy—feeling wove in and wiped out his inner Grinch. СКАЧАТЬ