AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eva’s stomach tightened. Now the phones took on a new sinister meaning as they recorded her every moment. Even her plan to have Cole kiss her cheek seemed too shocking, probably because of the quickening of her heart at the thought of feeling his lips against her skin… which no one would see. For goodness’ sake! No one could possibly guess how close they’d grown these past few days.
She could play this casual.
Cole’s fingers wrapped around her wrist. Her eyes locked with his. “Run,” he said.
“Run?” She grinned in sudden relief. He was going to renege on their deal! Eva was so pumped from winning that she couldn’t imagine a more hilarious ending to their championship. She loved the thought of scrambling from the races like Maverick escaping a gaming hole so she wouldn’t have to pay up.
“Liv!” Cole enlisted the help of his ex-sister-in-law. “Don’t let those little devils escape you!” Cole scooped up the oversized teddy bear with one hand and the two of them tore away from the pumpkin patch.
She thought he’d take them to his pickup truck, but he had different ideas. They raced for the barn.
Immediately she knew where they could hide. He must’ve had the same idea because as soon as they dashed into the barn, he tugged her the direction of the trapdoor. Eva was already shedding her sweater to stick on the lock. No way were they getting stuck down there like the legendary night when Hudson and Mimi had.
Cole helped her peel her sweater off. He dragged open the trapdoor, his eyes veering to the opening at the barn door. So far, the kids hadn’t followed them in. He stuffed the pink teddy bear through. It barely fit down the stairs. She kicked at its soft body to squish it through while he laid her sweater between the lock and the trapdoor. He closed the screeching board over them, not a moment too soon.
The boys ran into the barn. She listened to their feet creak over the warped boards. “Cole!” Charlie shouted. “Eva!”
“You gotta kiss her!” Pip was getting into it.
“Boys!” That was Liv. “I’m sure they aren’t in here, and–and well, Eva is going to marry your daddy. She can’t kiss your uncle.”
That shut them up for a second, until Pip said, “No, not Daddy. Eva is marrying Cole! She loves him.”
Eva’s stomach took a nosedive. The children had seen something that she hadn’t meant for them to see. She groaned inwardly. She’d done this all wrong. Her natural warmth often got her into trouble, but this was different… and she didn’t want to face it.
She couldn’t faceanyof it.
Eva didn’t know what to do. Were these feelings even real? She was so confused.
“Come on.” Liv’s voice took on a stern note. “River’s waiting to take us home. You can tease your Aunt Eva and Uncle Cole later.”
“Cole!” Charlie shouted out. “You can’t run!”
Eva hid a laugh with her hand. “They’re like raptors,” she whispered, breathlessly. She turned to Cole, her cheek running against his rough one. She stiffened, as her heart tangled into a breathless heap at how near he was. She might’ve gotten herself into a worse jam. Why had she thought that getting into close quarters with Cole was preferable to a chaste kiss on the cheek?
The second that Charlie and Pip’s voices drifted away, she pushed up on the trapdoor.
It was stuck.
She whipped around, her hand going to Cole’s arm. She tried to keep the panic from her voice. “Get this open.”
He tried. She listened to the wood knock uselessly up and down. He actually swore.
She grimaced, feeling nervous laughter cramp her insides. Her sweater hadn’t been thick enough to keep the door from locking, had it? Well, that made sense. She’d been freezing. Now she wasreallygoing to turn into an icicle.
“It’s okay. It’s okay!” she said. There were other ways out… not the hay slide, of course, but… well? That would be their last resort anyway.
Cole’s hand went to hers in the darkness. “Call uh… West, then have him get ahold of Funches or Morningstar or Aunt Martha or something.”
“I didn’t bring my phone.”
“You didn’t…?”
“I wasn’t about to let that stalker get in the way of my fun,” she hissed. “What happened to yours?”
“Broken.”
“Still? You haven’t fixed it by now?”
