Kiss Me (Fool's Gold 17)

Chase stood next to Maya. They looked good together, Phoebe thought. Both tall, both attractive. His dark good looks contrasted with her fair skin and blond hair. Chase said something Phoebe couldn’t hear, and Maya laughed. She touched his arm in a gesture that was both affectionate and comfortable. As if they’d always been family.

An uncomfortable twinge caught Phoebe by surprise. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her friend to have family, it was just that Phoebe couldn’t help wanting the same thing for herself. She turned to see if Zane had noticed the exchange and was stunned by the starkness of his unguarded expression. For a single beat of time, she saw into his very soul. The loneliness there, the need to fit in and be a part of something more than himself blindsided her. He understood, she told herself in amazement. He wanted it, too. She thought about what he’d endured with his family and wasn’t surprised.

But then he blinked, and the emotions disappeared as if they had never been.

Had she imagined it all? Had she projected her own wants and desires onto him because she found him sexually intoxicating, and she wanted them to have something significant in common?

“It’s way too early to be thinking such deep thoughts,” she murmured to herself.

The sound of hoofbeats caught her attention. She turned and saw two mules pulling a large covered wagon. Phoebe wanted to rub her eyes to make sure she hadn’t imagined the sight, but there they were. Like something out of the History channel. A real, honest-to-goodness covered wagon and mules.

The old man driving the contraption fit the part perfectly. He wore a faded red shirt and ratty jeans. An old battered cowboy hat had been pulled low over his grizzled features. One of his cheeks stuck out way more than the other. Phoebe’s feelings of romance about the Old West quickly turned into a horrified gag when he turned and spit tobacco on the ground.

“Here comes another cowboy,” Gladys said.

“I don’t want him. He’s old,” Eddie replied. “You can have that one.”

“I don’t want him!”

Hiding a smile, Phoebe quickly turned her attention to the mules, who were so darned cute with their perky ears. She noticed two more being pulled behind the wagon. This pair was laden with several duffels and cloth sacks tied together. With their big eyes and sweet faces, they looked charming.

“All they need are straw hats with little bows or a crown of flowers,” she said.

Unfortunately Zane walked by just then, and the look he shot her told her that he had not only heard her, but he thought she was an idiot. She wanted to hurry after him and explain that thinking the mules would look cute in hats wasn’t the same thing as actually wanting them in hats, but she didn’t. In his mind, thinking it was probably as bad as buying the hats.

“This is Cookie,” Zane said to the group. “As you may have guessed from his name, he’s in charge of feeding us all while we’re gone. You had a sample of his cooking last night.”

Thad patted his belly. “Then I think we’re all going to weigh at lot more at the end of this week than at the beginning. Hope the horses don’t mind.”

“Oh, we’ll ride them pounds off you,” Cookie said with a grin. Then his good humor faded. “Well, don’t just stand there staring,” he yelled. “Hand over your gear. We haven’t got all day. Snap to.”

Maya bent down and picked up her duffel. Phoebe followed her.

“Hey, Hot Stuff,” Cookie said to Eddie as Chase hoisted her bag into the wagon. “You look good enough to eat.”

“You better not try,” Eddie replied.

Maya grinned. “Have you missed me, Cookie?”

He winked at her. “Like you’d give an old coot like me the time of day.”

Maya put her hand on her hip and gave an exaggerated bump and grind. “Cookie, for your biscuits I’d do just about anything.”

The old man cackled. Phoebe handed him her duffel. Cookie looked her over, then winked. She gave him a smile and tried not to think about the plug of tobacco stuck in his cheek.

Andrea was next. She handed up her bag but didn’t move on. Instead she narrowed her gaze. “You are careful when you cook, aren’t you? I would hate to think you’d contaminate our food with your filthy habit.”

Cookie’s mouth got all pinched and thin. “You doing the cooking, or am I?”

“I suppose you are.”

He nodded. “Just so we’re both clear on that.”

Andrea turned away. She muttered something to Martin, who patted her arm. Chase carried Gladys’s duffel to the wagon.

Cookie looked Gladys over. “Nice. Just give a holler if you ever get lonely. I can be real good company.”

Andrea sniffed. “How disgusting. Is he going to come on to all the women? Can’t he be controlled?”

Chase passed by Phoebe and leaned close. “You’ll notice Cookie didn’t say a word to the vegetable princess there.”

Phoebe had to turn away to hide her grin.

When all the gear was loaded, Zane had them line up. He walked in front of them, staring at each of them in turn, then calling out a name. When he paused in front of Phoebe, she felt the heat of his gaze all the way to the insides of her bones. Although he only stared at her for a second, it was enough to get her heart up into the serious-cardio-workout range. When he moved to Maya, her body returned to normal. She felt like one of those special flowering plants that only blooms in full sunlight. When Zane wasn’t around, she withered.