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“Hey!” Cole greeted her with an infectious grin.
“Hey.” More soberly, she walked up to the two men. “How’s it going?”
“Could be better.” Glaring at the motorcycle in frustration, the other man dropped a tool he was using into a toolbox below.
“Could be worse,” Cole countered.
“Not by much. The motor’s blown. I’ve put so much money into this bike already, I could have bought a brand-new one.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Taking the bags she had picked up out, Cole nodded his head in the other man’s direction. “Moon, meet Megan. Megan, this a friend of mine, Moon,” Cole introduced.
“Hi, Moon.” Not recognizing him, she stopped singing “Jingle Bells,” relaxing at the friendly smile Moon gave her.
“Nice to meet you.” Moon threw a leg over his motorcycle to sit as he took one of the bags from Cole. “So, you the one who’s brave enough to deal with fartface?”
Megan crinkled her nose at the term. “I take it I wasn’t the only one nuked by his fart bombs?”
“Put it this way …” Moon’s grim demeanor showed the graphic language which was about to be used.
“I don’t want to hold Megan up,” Cole interrupted. “I’m sure she has other deliveries to make.” Shoving his bag into Moon’s hands, Cole started propelling her away from him. “Let me walk you to your car.”
A warm glow filled her at the way Cole took charge, leading her away before Moon could start ranting about Marty.
“I guess your new business is booming?” Cole asked humorously.
“I’m staying busy,” she agreed with a shy glance as he opened the car door for her.
As she got in, Cole positioned himself so his body would block her from closing the door. “Too busy to take a day off?”
“Cole …” Staring at his face, she almost broke. She jerked her gaze away to look at the house above and told him, “I can’t. You’re going to be leaving after Christmas—”
“Christmas is two and half weeks away.”
“Let me finish. I’ve never been good at making friends—they end up hating me.” She could tell he wanted to interrupt her again yet was respectfully listening.
Men never listened to her. They would either completely ignore what she was saying, overtalk her, or the worst—they would gaslight her.
“I think you would make a wonderful friend, so wonderful, in fact, that when our friendship ended, I’m afraid it might affect me finally getting my life back on track. Mentally, I can’t afford any more mistakes.” As she glanced back at him, the warm glow turned into the comforting warmth of a fireplace, just enough to feel the heat without getting burned.
“I’m not the same man I was before having my brain scrambled, nor the child-man I was after. What you’re looking at is a born-again man who just wants to explore a connection I felt when we rescued that cat together. In other words, to make my meaning clearer, I was trying to ask you out on a date. Unless you didn’t feel the same connection?”
“I did,” she admitted, blushing. “I just can’t take a chance.”
“All right. I don’t want to push you into going out with me. There are almost three weeks left before I leave; you might change your mind. Unless the reason you don’t want to go out with me is because you think I’m too old for you?”
“I married a man older than you.”
“Then I guess I don’t need to be worried about that being a problem.”
“Cole, you’re perfect in every way.” Megan felt her cheeks burning hotter. “The problem is me.”
“My sister would pass out if she heard you say I was perfect.”
“Tell me one thing you’re bad at.”
“Talking you into going out with me.”
Was he really giving her puppy eyes?
The sound of her cell phone alerting an order had been placed made her tear her gaze away.
“I have to go.”
“See you soon.” Cole moved to the side of the door. “Watch your hand.”
He closed the door when she moved her hand away. The simple gentlemanly gesture caused all the warmth she had been building inside give her an emotional high, as if she were riding in a hot air balloon and it was going so high she could look down on this marvelous scenery she had never been able to see before.
It’s going to burst, a whisper warned from the back of her mind.
Not this time, Megan shushed the negative thought before it could gain ground.
She started swaying in her seat. “Jingle bells …”
Eleven
He has to be kidding, right?
Blowing a wayward hair away from the corner of her mouth, Megan plunked her cell phone onto the counter.
“Who in the hell pissed in your coffee?”
“Quit watching me,” Megan snapped. She placed the orders Marty had just completed into her delivery bag, then filled a thermos with hot coffee. Satisfied everything was ready to go, she was resolved to come to a mutual agreement about the camera-watching. “Why do you enjoy being so obnoxious?”
