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“And Charlie,” I add.
He nods. “And Charlie.”
“You know, I deleted all my apps yesterday. But now that you’ve made things between us clear as crystal, I should get back in the saddle. I am downloading Cupid’s Arrow right now.” I pull out my phone and wave it around. “My sister says I need to find someone and settle down.”
That’s a lie. Birdie has never said anything of the sort. In fact, I think my sister might be permanently sowing her wild oats, as they say. As much as she can as a single mom, anyway.
Cole pulls up outside the grocery store. I blink, having completely forgotten our mission.
“So, we’re good?” Cole asks.
“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t we be?”
His eyes narrow to slits, piercing me through. For several seconds I wait, my breath catching.
Then I think, this isn’t normal. What would I normally do?
Easy. I’d be happy that I made a grumpy man smile, and I’d stop wanting anything more than that.
16
Cole
“No. Absolutely not.”
I gesture at the landscape surrounding the decommissioned school. Savannah stands in front of the building, hugging her long, gray coat closer to her body.
“You haven’t even looked at the school yet. You asked for something with a sizeable footprint.” She waves her hands at the school. “This is perfect!”
I cross my arms and glare at her.
“The community center had the advantage of being placed right on the shoreline. This place is in the middle of nowhere. I can’t even make out the outline of South Shore from this distance.”
I shade my eyes and look at the wetlands around me. On my far right, some sparse woods spring up. To my left is a bumpy gravel road. And directly ahead of me are miles of wetlands that end with beach somewhere in the distance.
“You’re not imagining the possibilities.” Savannah shivers. “God, it’s so freaking cold!”
“Get in the car.” I jerk my thumb toward my Mercedes. “We can argue in there as well as anywhere. At least it has heated seats.”
“Oh, ha ha. You’re so witty.”
But Savannah still hurries toward my car. We get in and I turn the heat up all the way. I also engage the heated seats, as promised. She stuffs her hands into her pockets and gives me the stink eye.
“Why do we have to look at lots that already have buildings on them again?” she asks.
I sit back with a loud sigh.
“Because that way we know that an environmental study has already been done. We’re in the middle of the wetlands. A lot of protected pieces of land are dedicated to species around here.”
She wrinkles her nose. “What about the new training camp? It’s a huge stretch of untouched wetlands. You’d have to get a study done on that land anyway.”
I smirk at her, catching and holding her gaze. She blinks, breathing hard, then flushes and looks away.
God help me, but I like that I can force a that kind of reaction from her. It reminds me that I am still very much a man.
“Actually, a site study was done on that land a few years back. Some billionaire from Macon was thinking of building a football stadium there, for reasons unknown. He didn’t, obviously. But as long as the survey stakes are still in place, we’re good to go.”
“I guess figuring out where the hotel should go is the last thorn in your side.” She appears pensive.
