“I don’t live on my phone.”
She still didn’t get that. “Who does that?”
Instead of answering, he rushed down the stairs. She listened to his feet take him across the pavement to the other side of the barn where that door was barred. He yanked at it, which of course, didn’t do anything. He kicked at it, then pounded. “Hey!” he shouted. They were on the other side of the pumpkin patch where the festival was happening. “Can anyone hear us down here?”
A loud crash sounded in the distance. The pumpkin catapult was still in fine form, apparently. The cheers drowned out any noise that she and Cole could make to call for help.
She followed more slowly. Her hand went to the oversized teddy bear, and she dragged it behind her. The light from outside still illuminated the goat cellar, but it was quickly fading. Harvest Ranch got dark early in November. Most of the booths had already been taken down.
No one would be checking for them.
This wasn’t looking good.
She joined Cole at the door and sat on the teddy bear, sinking down into its soft padding. She watched the lights from the window cast his strong features in glowing relief as he lowered onto the dusty ground next to her. “Sorry.” He sighed out. “All those new clothes you got for me are going to get real dirty down here.”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” she said. “I couldn’t pry Kylee away from you.”
“Yeah?” He chuckled. “Jealous?”
“Whatever…” Her distress was quickly taking over her reason, and she tried to make sense of it. “If you want to go for someone like Kylee, don’t expect me to help you. I’m never giving another Slade a makeover as long as I live.”
“I looked too good, huh?”
“Yeah.”
That shut him up, but she could still see his eyes in the dying light, and they were as bold on her as they were earlier. He was acting different. She licked her lips. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise—she felt different, too. She shivered in the cold.
Her attention wandered to his houndstooth jacket that she’d insisted he wear. “Well, at leastyou’llbe warm.”
He grumbled out a grim laugh. “Get over here.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
To Cole’s surprise, Eva came to him.
She smelled great with that rose perfume; she also felt great in that soft dress of hers. The skirt had flirted with her legs all day, teasing him in every way. He’d been waiting for an excuse to touch her, and now that she was pressed into his side, it was all he could do not to bring her even closer.
Destiny was a strange thing, a strong thing. He wasn’t big into coincidences or fate. All he knew was that she belonged with him and he’d do anything to keep her at his side for a very long time.
Eva moved around like a wriggling puppy, completely oblivious to his thoughts as she set up house around them. She smashed the teddy bear behind their backs and fluffed it with her elbow.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck down here.” Her bare knees pressed against his legs while she worked. “I just wish that I’d had some of those pumpkin scones. I can still smell them.”
He was sick of them. He’d had about twenty. Kylee got a kick out of watching him down them. And for some reason, her flirting got a reaction out of Eva that he’d never gotten before. Cole tested out his theory. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to try them. Kylee’s cooking is to die for.”
She stiffened, but refused to take the bait… which meant that she had… because she always took the bait. Her curiosity was legendary.
He turned to her, barely making out her dainty chin in the shadows. “Why don’t you like her? She doesn’t ruin your plans for Ashley and me, does she?”
“No.”
She was pouting. That was actually a good sign. Eva had been pushing him to go out and meet girls from the first time they’d met. Now that he thought about it, that might’ve been her way of distancing herself from him.
And now?
“Tell me about this Ashley,” he said. “Why is she so perfect for me?”