One Bride Too Many: One Bride Too Many / One Groom To Go. Jennifer Drew

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      “You do a first date right. Didn’t she like it?”

      “I guess she did. That’s not the problem.”

      “What is?”

      She stopped the VCR. She owned the tape and could watch it anytime. Truth to tell, he looked so glum the date had to have been interesting…to her.

      “We went back to her apartment afterward.”

      “Horrors,” she said dryly, not at all sure she wanted the intimate details.

      “For coffee and lemon bars.”

      “Exactly what I thought,” she lied.

      He was dressed in tan pants and a black knit shirt that highlighted rippling muscles and dark, broody eyes. If Jillian had blown the date with Cole, her head had to be stuffed with sawdust.

      “She slipped into something more comfortable—a fuzzy white robe shorter than my undershirts and fur-ball slippers that went plop, plop, plop.”

      “A girl has to relax sometime. So you had coffee and dessert. She can’t make drinkable coffee? Her lemon bars were sour and soggy?”

      “No, they both were perfect.”

      “Of course, perfect. Why are you here, Cole? Do you have something to complain about?”

      “You’ve never been to her place, right?”

      “Right, she’s only an acquaintance. I hardly know her at all.”

      “She has wall-to-wall…” He took a deep breath. “Stuffed animals.”

      “Stuffed as in taxidermy?”

      “No, the kind kids play with—plush bears and giraffes all over the furniture, dogs and kittens in wicker chairs, a duck, a whale, even a fuzzy turtle. There wasn’t any place to sit without an avalanche of toy animals plummeting down on my head.”

      “You’re exaggerating.”

      “No.” He shook his head solemnly. His hair tumbled in spikes over his forehead, and she wanted to comb them back with her fingers. Maybe that was the point of the styling.

      “When we got to her door, she warned me to be quiet so we wouldn’t wake the babies.”

      “I didn’t know she was a single mother.”

      “She isn’t. She’s a loony who talks baby talk to inanimate objects. Baby talk!”

      Tess laughed…and laughed some more. Even when her ribs started to ache, she couldn’t stop laughing at the expression on his face.

      “I knew nobody could be as perfect as she seems,” she said by way of explanation when his glum expression finally dulled her mirth.

      “I didn’t come here for sympathy,” he said caustically. “I’m calling in your marker. You still owe me some introductions.”

      “Some! I understood one before we played, and you met Jillian in my store. She counts.”

      “I didn’t get any help from you.”

      “I vouched for you.”

      “Whatever that means. You still owe me.”

      “If you’re serious about this…”

      “Dead serious.”

      “Then you have to give me some idea of the kind of person you’d like to meet. And why!”

      “I’m not into lists.”

      “Or explanations?”

      “Object—matrimony. Isn’t that enough? I’d just like to meet some nice women.”

      “Nice meaning pure, untouched, unsullied, sweet, virtuous, kind, generous…”

      “You talk too much!”

      He moved so fast she didn’t have time to protest…or time to enjoy the quick kiss he planted on her parted lips.

      “Just serve me up a smorgasbord of eligible women. I’ll do the rest.”

      Sure, she should sell him to her friends so he could break their hearts Bailey style.

      5

      HE COMPILED the list. Actually, he cheated a little by picking Zack’s brain. They agreed on the basics—a sense of humor, pleasant personality and appealing looks. Truth to tell, they both favored lush breasts and a backside that didn’t sag or spread, but what man didn’t? Cole could have included lips like Tess Morgan’s on his wish list, but he prudently decided to omit physical attributes.

      He shouldn’t have kissed her. Friends didn’t smooch, especially not when the male friend wanted the female friend to find dates for him, a chore not to her liking. That was strange. Women he knew were usually so eager to play matchmaker, he’d assumed it was genetic.

      He hadn’t planned to drive all the way to the Rockstone Mall on Monday when he had a full crew to supervise at the site, but he needed to make a trip to a home and garden superstore. He decided to run into the mall first, ask Tess to lunch, pick out what his crew needed, then eat and give her the list she insisted was necessary. What could be more efficient? He wouldn’t be making a special trip through heavy workweek-morning traffic just to see Tess.

      This time he surveyed the situation before he barged into the Baby Mart. A blue-haired grandmotherly type was paying for some clothes at the counter, much better choices than the silly cow stuff. He should’ve been warned off Jillian when she took his caustic comment seriously and actually bought those dumb-looking quilts. Come to think of it, Tess owed him for helping her get rid of them.

      The clerk looked about seventeen, round-faced with blunt-cut dark hair. No doubt Tess survived by using less expensive part-time help when she could. It was the only way a small business could make it today. He had the financial head in the partnership with Zack, and he was in awe of Tess’s success. Just keeping the door open in a retail store was a major accomplishment, and the Baby Mart seemed to be thriving.

      “Can I help you, sir?”

      The employee was prettier than the sum of her parts, too young for him, but…

      “Cole, I didn’t expect to see you today. He’s not a customer, Dawn.” Tess shooed the young girl away.

      “Have to make another trip to Builder’s Supply.” Not that he hadn’t bypassed a dozen sources closer to their construction site. “I thought maybe we could grab lunch. I have the list.”

      “Okay, I guess.”

      He’d expect the same degree of enthusiasm if he asked her to bait a hook with a live worm.

      “Let’s go.” He stepped СКАЧАТЬ