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“Promise?”
She laughed. “I promise,bigbrother.”
Cole watchedAmber on the phone. Whoever she was talking to, it wasn’t his sister. He knew that because she’d just texted him to let him know she’d be there early the next morning and not only was she looking forward to seeing them both, but also going to the Snow Ball. He hadn’t even thought about the ball. Of course, he also had barely given any thought to Josie coming home.
Hell, the only thing he’d been able to think of was Amber. It hadn’t even been forty-eight hours since she’d sat on him on the couch, yet the woman had somehow managed to consume every single one of his waking thoughts since. And his sleeping ones, too. Those ones were really good.
But not nearly as good as they’d been in reality. She was something else, that was for sure. Logically, Cole knew that whatever was going on between them could never be more than a fling—how could it be? They were going in different directions, doing different things with their lives. Even if it did make him think of trying new things. Newrelationshipthings.
That was a thought he never expected to have. Ever. But Amber was changing the way he thought about a lot of things. Or maybe it was just that he was changing and she’d come along at the right time. Or maybe…it was a little bit of both?
“How’s it going in here?”
Cole hadn’t noticed Amber come inside, he’d been so lost in his thoughts about her. It took him a moment, but he swallowed hard and cleared his throat.
“They’ll go a lot faster with you here.”
She laughed and picked up a hammer. “Then let’s get moving. We have some frolicking to get to.”
There was no way she could know how her words affected him, butdamn.
He took her hammer away and smoothly replaced it with a crowbar. “You can start over there. Try not to break the boards when you take them off. We’ll reuse whatever we can. Assuming Josie wants to reuse them, that is.”
They started working and Cole did his best to keep himself focused on the job. After all, she was right: the faster they finished, the faster they could get to the fun part of the day. Never mind the fact that the organized Frosty Frolic event wasn’t until midnight. He was pretty sure he could create his own event right there at the house without much prompting at all.
“Tell me about Australia.” Amber pried one end of a baseboard off, resulting in the satisfying give of the old nails.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why Australia?”
Cole laughed. He got that question a lot. Mostly from his parents when he first moved. “Honestly?” She nodded and turned to listen to the answer. “Because it was as far away as I could get at the time,” he said matter-of-factly. Of course, he’d given his parents a very different answer. Something about loving the movieCrocodile Dundeewhen he was a kid and always wanting to see the Outback. But to Amber, he gave the truth. “If I’d have stayed at home, I would have ended up like my dad, and I couldn’t think of anything worse than that.”
“Doesn’t your dad own a hardware store?”
“He does. He wanted me to get a degree in business and run it with him.”
Amber tugged on the piece of trim she was working on and it came off in her hand. “Why was that so bad?”
“It’s not, really.” Cole shrugged. He’d thought about it a lot, how unfair he’d been to his parents. “But you know when you’re young and you think you know everything.”
She laughed. “I guess.”
“Well, maybe you weren’t so cocky. But I was very dramatic and I was so sure that if I did what they wanted me to do that I’d miss out on something.”
She turned to look at him. “I’ve met your parents. They seem really nice and happy enough.”
“They are. And I suppose it wouldn’t have been so bad, if that’s all I wanted out of life. But I wanted more than just nice and happyenough, you know?”
“I do.” Amber’s face creased into a frown and she nodded. “Well, I guess I don’t really know. But it doesn’t seem so bad, I guess.”
He laughed, but there wasn’t much humor there. “It seemed absolutely horrible to me at the time.” He shook his head and continued. “It still does in a way. I think there’s just so much more out there. I didn’t want to settle forhappy enough.I want to be ecstatically happy.”
“I don’t think that’s real life.” She waved the crowbar slightly. “I mean, don’t you think ecstasy is an unrealistic expectation?”
He couldn’t help himself. He grinned wickedly and wiggled his eyebrows. “Not at all.”
She blushed and waved him away. “Okay, okay. But besides that. Seriously,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s unrealistic to expect every day to beextra?”
