For His Brother's Wife

“Hey, you two,” Aaron greeted them as he entered the clubhouse. “Cole, it’s good to see you up and on your feet again instead of lying in a hospital bed with a goofy grin on your face.”

“Now you know how you looked that time you fell off that ladder and had to take pain medication for your twisted ankle,” he shot back good-naturedly. “Or how about the time I had to take you to the ER because you—”

“Never mind,” Aaron said, laughing. “I get it. We’ve both got enough on each other to ensure the other’s silence from here on out.”

Cole grinned. “Just so we’re clear on that.”

“I hope you get a lot accomplished,” Paige said, smiling at Aaron. Then she turned to Cole, and the smile she gave him sent his temperature soaring. “I’ll see you after my meeting.”

He barely resisted the urge to take her in his arms. “We’ll be in the club’s sports bar.”

As he watched her walk away, Aaron elbowed him in the ribs. “And you said I had it bad when I had my shorts in a bunch over Stella.”

“Shut up, Nichols,” Cole said, grinning.

Aaron laughed and started down the hall toward the meeting rooms. “I’ve reserved a private meeting room for us.”

Cole nodded. “Good. I’ve got a new idea to run past you and I’d like to keep it on the down low for the time being.”

As they entered and sat down at a small conference table, a door at the other end of the room opened and a waiter quietly carried over a tray with a carafe of coffee, cups and a platter of pastries. “If you need anything else, please let me know,” the man said before turning to leave the room.

“Okay, what do you want to talk over first?” Aaron asked, pouring them both a cup of coffee.

“I know we agreed that we’d open an R&N satellite office here in Royal, but what do you think of moving the main part of the business down here and having the satellite office in Dallas?” Cole asked.

His coffee cup halfway to his mouth, Aaron stopped to stare at Cole. “Oh, man, you’re in as deep as I am, aren’t you?”

Cole didn’t try to pretend he didn’t know what his friend meant. “Paige is the girl I told you about having a crush on when we were in high school.”

“But she married your brother,” Aaron said, finally taking a sip of his coffee.

“It’s a long story and maybe one day I’ll tell you all about it,” Cole said, unwilling to go into the details of his twin’s character flaws.

He had never told anyone what had transpired between Craig and him ten years ago. Aaron knew there had been bad blood between them, but he didn’t know why they’d had a falling out. For the time being, Cole wanted to keep it that way. He knew Aaron would understand. Aaron had had to conquer a few demons of his own before he’d been able to share the details of his first wife’s and child’s deaths in a car accident several years ago.

“You’re thinking you might want to move back to Royal now that Paige is single again?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Cole said, nodding. “Royal is my hometown and I’ve been away a long time. I’ve missed it.”

“You mean you’ve missed a pretty auburn-haired rancher,” Aaron said, grinning.

Instead of answering, Cole just smiled and sipped his coffee.

“So what does the lady have to say about it?” Aaron asked, sitting back in his chair.

“I haven’t mentioned it to her yet,” Cole admitted. “I wanted to talk to you first since it’s a business decision we both need to agree on.”

“I appreciate that,” Aaron said, nodding. “But I’m good with moving the main office down here. This is where my life is now.”

“That’s probably because you’re married to the mayor and expecting a baby in a couple of months,” Cole said, laughing.

Aaron gave him a sheepish grin. “Well, yeah. That has a lot to do with it.”

They fell silent for a moment before Cole finally admitted, “It would help if I knew how Paige felt about me being around all of the time.” He set his empty coffee cup on the tray. “I’m pretty sure she wants that, but we haven’t talked about it.”

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Aaron pointed to Cole’s neck. “Yeah, if that little love bite you’re sporting on the side of your neck is any indication, you haven’t been doing a lot of talking at all.”