For His Brother's Wife

Cole should have known Aaron would notice. It was just a tiny mark, but the man had the eyes of a hawk.

“Remind me again why we’re friends and business partners,” Cole said, scowling at his best friend.

Aaron laughed. “Damned if I know.”

“If you’re agreeable, we can keep the Dallas office open,” Cole said, getting back to their discussion. “We could promote Jim Edwards to office manager. He’s our best foreman and has been with us from the beginning. He knows the business inside and out and won’t have any problem overseeing the projects and bringing in new business. You and I could take turns going up there once a month to check on things, and there’s always internet meetings and telecommuting.”

“That sounds good to me,” Aaron agreed. “We’ve got enough builds lined up down here, we can put quite a few people to work right away, as well as keep everyone working up there.”

“It sounds like we have a plan,” Cole said, sticking his hand out to seal the deal.

Aaron shook his hand and stood up. “Now, let’s go meet Luc for lunch and toast moving the business to Royal with a beer.”

As he and his partner left the meeting room, Cole smiled. He had one more thing left to do and one more stamp of approval to make his plans complete. He needed to talk to Paige and find out if she was open to having him hang around indefinitely.

Eight

The following Monday morning as she made breakfast, Paige felt happier than she had in years. She and Cole had spent a wonderful weekend together. On Saturday afternoon, he had insisted they take a drive around the ranch for him to show her some of his favorite places to play when he’d been a young boy. She had enjoyed seeing his favorite fishing spot along the creek and hearing his story about falling in when he was ten years old and thinking he would drown until he figured out he could stand up and the water only came up to his waist. They had also seen some of the big live oaks and cottonwoods that the tornado had uprooted as it made its way across the land.

Then when they had returned to the house, he had grilled steaks and vegetables for dinner before they cuddled on the sofa in the family room to watch the baseball game. It was a glimpse of the way their life could have been and the way she hoped life would be for them in the future.

He had mentioned that he had something he needed to discuss with her, but they never seemed to get around to it. She smiled when she thought about the reasons why they hadn’t talked. It seemed that they couldn’t be in the same room for more than five minutes without having their arms around each other.

She briefly wondered if he wanted to talk about the future. They hadn’t discussed what would happen when he and his construction crew finished the barn and the repairs to the outbuildings, but she was hoping they could work out something. His life was in Dallas and hers was on the Double R, but surely they could find a way to spend time together. Maybe he could come down to Royal one weekend and she could travel up to Dallas the next.

“Uh-oh,” Cole said, entering the kitchen and walking over to where she stood at the counter cracking eggs to scramble for breakfast.

Looking over her shoulder at him, she smiled. “You didn’t want eggs?”

“No, the eggs are fine,” he said, grinning. Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her back against him. “I’ve seen that look before. What are you worrying about this time?”

“What I’m going to make for dinner tonight,” she fibbed.

He had a work crew arriving soon and she didn’t want to get into a discussion about what the future might hold for them. That subject should be broached when they had plenty of time to talk about what they both wanted and where they felt their feelings for each other were leading them.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’d be happy having you,” he whispered close to her ear.

A shiver of anticipation coursed through her. Since their talk the first morning they had awoken in each other’s arms, they’d spent every night making love, holding each other while they slept and rising in the morning to greet the day together. And Paige had loved every minute of it.

“You’re insatiable, Cole Richardson,” she said, hoping he never changed.

“I can’t help it,” he said, turning her in his arms for a kiss that caused her knees to wobble. “You’re amazing and I can’t get enough of you.”