by Kim Fox
“What are your parents like?” he asked, swallowing nervously.
“They’re great,” she said, nodding. “They were really there for me when I-”
“Cole!” a high pitched voice rang out.
“Shit,” Cole muttered as he closed his eyes, wishing that this wasn’t happening.
“Are those your friends?” Jennifer asked, looking over his shoulder at the approaching blondes. She had a worried look on her face.
“No,” he answered quickly. “They just-”
“Hi, Cole,” one of them said as she slid her hands over his shoulders, lowering her lips to his ear. “You didn’t call.”
“Coley,” the other one said, stroking his arm with her hand. “Come have some shots with us.”
Cole’s stomach dropped. Jennifer was looking in the opposite direction, looking like she would rather be anywhere but at the table with him.
He sighed as she took a long sip of her beer. This is bad.
***
I knew it.
I knew this guy was a player but I ignored my instincts and now look at me.
You idiot.
Twins. Fucking twins.
I thought that only happened in pornos.
The two girls were hanging off him, pushing their overflowing cleavage into his face. How long would it take to walk home in heels?
“Ladies,” he said, taking their wrists and peeling their hands off of him. “I’m on a date. With my girlfriend.”
That got Jennifer’s attention. Girlfriend? When did we decide that?
Still, she liked the sound of it. Especially that he had said it to the twin skanks.
“She’s your girlfriend?” one of the girls asked, looking at Jennifer.
“Yes,” Cole said, trying to get away from them. “We’re dating.”
Jennifer narrowed her eyes on him. “We were headed in that direction,” she said coldly, “but now it’s not looking too good.”
His face dropped at her words. He looked brokenhearted.
“That’s too bad,” skank number one said, grinning at her. “If you need a rebound Cole, you know where to find us.”
She grabbed the hand of her skanky clone and they skipped off back to the bar to get some free drinks from some lonely men.
Cole cringed when they were alone together once again.
“They seem nice,” Jennifer said with a flat voice. “Old family friends? Former work colleagues? Small town acquaintances?”
“It wasn’t like that,” he said, taking a heavy breath.
“Really?” she asked, crossing her arms as she stared at him. “Because it looked like it was like that.”
He shook his head in frustration, closing his eyes to compose himself. “Okay, it was like that, but that’s not what I meant. It was before I met you. It was the old me.”
“When did it happen?”
He cringed again. “Monday.”
“Monday?!?” she said it a bit too loud and the tables surrounding them all turned in their direction. “Monday?” she repeated in a whisper this time. “Like three days ago? That Monday?”
“Yes,” he said, dropping his head. “That Monday.”
“The old you?” she said, shaking her head with a laugh even though nothing about this was funny. “You changed in three days?”
“Yes!” he said, leaning forward with desperation in his eyes. “I changed the second I saw you. How could I not? You’re absolutely perfect. I can’t stop thinking about you.” He pointed to the twins who were both throwing their hair back as they laughed at something a guy at the bar said. “They mean nothing to me. I regret it. I regret it all. If I could go back in time, I would go all the way back until I was five-years-old and convince myself to go find you so that I could spend my whole life with you.”
“You see,” she said, eying him suspiciously. “That is the problem with players like you.”
He grimaced at the word ‘player.’
“They’re smooth and they have all of the right words,” she said, crossing her arms as she tried to figure him out. “But they don’t mean any of them. See that little story about getting your five-year-old self to come and find me was really cute and sweet, but coming from a player it just sounds like bullshit-bullshit-bullshit to me. You can’t believe anything that a player says no matter how convincing he sounds or no matter how much you want to believe that it’s true. It just never is.”
“It’s the truth,” he said in a low voice. “I swear it.”
Jennifer sighed. She wanted to believe it and he did look awfully convincing but she had been played before, like most girls had at least once in their lives, and she wasn’t going to fall for it again.
“We’ll see,” she said, taking another sip of her warm beer.
“You believe me?” he said, perking up.
“I said ‘we’ll see,’” she said, taking a deep breath.
He looked crushed. “What does that mean?”
She sighed as she picked up her purse off of the empty chair beside her. “It means that I’m ready to go home.”
nine
“How was the bar last night?” Ashton asked, staring at Cole with narrowed eyes.
Horrible.
“It was good,” Cole lied. Well, it was. Until the twins showed up and cockblocked the shit out of him.
Jennifer was upset. She was convinced that he was a player. A week ago she would have been right, but now things had changed. He wasn’t just in it for the sex anymore. He wanted her. All of her.
He wanted a relationship for the first time in his life.
“Who did you go with?” Joan asked, glaring at him as she ate her runny eggs that Rhett had cooked for them.
“Leave the guy alone,” Rhett said, sitting down with his coffee. “You guys sound like overbearing parents.”
“I saw the twins at the bar,” Cole said. It wasn’t the whole truth but it wasn’t a lie.
“Is there something that you want to tell us?” Ashton asked, cutting his bacon so hard that Cole was worried he was going to crack the plate in half.
“Nope,” he said, grabbing his coffee as he jumped out of the picnic table. “Just to have a good day!”
He hurried off before there could be any more follow-up questions. Three ravens flew out of his way as he walked quickly to the inn.
“What am I doing?” he muttered when he was safely inside, away from all of his crew’s judging eyes. He screwed up everything. Ashton and Joan were upset with him, but worst of all, Jennifer was losing interest in him. She had been so cold the whole drive home last night, barely talking and only answering his questions with one-word answers. She wouldn’t even let him walk her to her front door, let alone inviting him inside. She just threw him a quick ‘thanks’ and sprinted to the door, disappearing inside her apartment building before he could get out of the truck.
I have to fix it.
He needed to show her how he felt. He needed something big. A grand gesture to show her that he cared.
He thought about it for a while and then sat down with a heavy sigh. “I got nothing.”
***
“See?” Jennifer said to herself as she checked her reflection in the rearview mirror of her car. “That’s why you don’t date your boss.”
She sighed as she started the car and put it into drive. It was going to be awkward all day having to work with Cole. She needed some time away from him to think. To see if he really cared or if he was just going to lose interest and move on to his next female conquest the second that he got bored with her.
Her phone buzzed on the passenger’s seat, interrupting her thoughts. It was a number that she didn’t recognize.
“Hello,” she said, answering it.
“Is this Jennifer Brady?” the voice asked. The man on the other line had a thick French accent.
“Yes.”
“Oh hi!” the voice said, perking up. “This is Guy Laplante. The head chef at-”
“La Belle Vie,” she
answered for him. It was the five-star French restaurant that she dreamed of working in. The best restaurant in all of Montana. Guy Laplante was a famous French chef and she would get to learn so much from working beside him.
“Yes,” he said. “I am calling to offer you the job as my sous-chef. I was very impressed with the recipes that you sent in and think that you’d be a perfect fit for the job.”
Jennifer gulped, her hand trembling with nerves. “I’m so honored to be chosen,” she said with a shaky voice. “I’ve heard so much about your talents.”
“So you’ll come work with me?” he asked.
Jennifer sighed. For some reason, Cole popped into her mind and she couldn’t shake him out. Was she really going to let him come in the way of her dream job? Was she more attached to him than she realized?
But just the thought of having to tell him that she was quitting, then leaving and never seeing him again was hitting her harder than she thought that it would.
A million thoughts were racing through her head and they all seemed to be telling her the same thing: You already have your dream job. Stay with Cole.
“I’m so flattered,” she said, biting her bottom lip nervously. “Can I call you back later with my answer?”
“Sure,” he said after a few seconds of awkward silence. “This is my cell phone, so you can call me anytime. I really hope you say yes.”
I don’t.
“Okay,” she said, shaking her head. “Thank you, Mr. Laplante. I’ll be in touch.”
She threw her phone onto the seat beside her and dropped her head back, screaming at the roof of her car. What the hell is wrong with me?
How did she let a player get to her head like this?
But Cole had done it. He had gotten around her defenses and sunk his sexy hooks into her.
She thought about the pros and cons of each job as she drove to the Wilde Ranch. With Cole’s inn she would get to make whatever she was inspired to cook and be able to experiment with new dishes. It was a cute restaurant on a spectacular ranch and she would be able to make her own name for herself. Maybe she would even be bigger than Mr. Laplante, himself.
And then there was Cole. She was kidding herself if she didn’t admit that he was the biggest reason to stay.
“I don’t know,” she muttered as she pulled onto the ranch. “I just don’t-that’s a lot of fucking birds!”
Jennifer stared out the windshield in shock. There were black birds all over the ranch; on the trees, on the roofs of the mobile homes, on the grass, the inn, and even on the shoulder of the new guy with the black goatee.
She was almost scared to get out. It looked like the last scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds.
“Wow,” she said, holding her breath as she got out of the car and tip-toed over to the picnic table, expecting the birds to attack her at any moment.
“Hey, Jennifer!” Rory said, waving her over. “Did you eat breakfast?”
She glanced around the table quickly, looking for Cole but he wasn’t there.
“No, thanks,” she said, turning back to Rory who was wearing a cowboy hat as usual but also had new cowboy boots on as well. “I’ll just make some toast inside.”
“We have eggs!” Rory said, waving her over. “They’re runny and cold but they’re free.”
“They’re not that runny,” the new guy said with a frown. He had dark eyes that matched his black hair, goatee, and the bird that was perched on his shoulder.
He stood up and the bird flew away, sounding pissed off as it cawed. “I’m Rhett,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand. “We haven’t met. I’m Joan’s mate.” He glanced at Gunner quickly after he said the word mate.
Gunner just got up and walked away, looking upset.
“I’m Jennifer,” she said, shaking his hand. “Why are there so many birds here?”
Joan grinned. “They’re in love with my man. They follow him everywhere.”
“Really?” Jennifer answered, tilting her head.
“Yup,” Joan said, hooking her arm around Rhett’s and planting a kiss on his cheek. “I’m starting to get jealous.”
“You’re the only chick in my life,” he said, smiling as he gazed into her eyes.
“How was the bar last night?” Ashton asked.
“It was good,” she lied. At least it had been until Cole’s former dick warmers showed up.
“I knew it!” Ashton muttered under his breath.
“Knew what?” she asked, taking a nervous breath.
He just ignored her as he stepped out of the picnic table and walked away, muttering to himself.
Jennifer wished them all a good day and then hurried inside to get to work. “That was awkward,” she said to herself as she stepped inside the inn, wondering where Cole was. She had an image of him still sleeping in his trailer with the two blondes from last night curled up around him.
That got her teeth grinding and her adrenaline pumping.
“Oh,” she said when she walked into the kitchen. Cole was in there looking all dressed up with nice pants and a button-down blue shirt. His hair was combed to the side with gel and he smelled great.
“This is for you,” he said, pulling out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back.
“Flowers?” she said, dropping her shoulders. Did he really think that flowers were going to fix everything?
“I don’t know what else to do,” he said, dropping his shoulders. He tossed the bouquet onto the counter and sighed. “What can I do to show you how much I care about you? I’m sorry about the twins but that was a million years ago.”
“It was a few days,” she corrected.
He threw his hands up in frustration. “Well, it feels like a million years!”
The corners of her lips curled up into a faint smile. He looked like he was genuinely hurting and although she didn’t want to see him suffer, she was loving it. It was showing her that his feelings were indeed real.
He walked over and dropped to his knees in front of her, making her giggle. She had never had a man beg her before and she was kind of liking it.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Jennifer,” he said with pleading eyes. “I was a player. A big player. I had sex with a lot of girls. Like so many-”
“You can skip this part,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Right,” he said with a shake of his head. “But I’m not like that anymore. I only want to be with you. I don’t have eyes for anyone else.”
She sighed as she looked down at him, her resolve weakening. “Really?” she asked, starting to believe.
He jumped up to his feet. “Yes,” he said, taking her hands in his. “Really.”
“I don’t know,” she said, smiling mischievously. “Show me with a kiss.”
His lips were on hers in a heartbeat, his tongue nudging her lips open. “Mmmm,” she moaned as their bodies melded together in a passionate kiss. Their hands exploded over each other’s bodies as all of the pent up lust and frustration exploded between them.
She yanked off his shirt, sending buttons scattering across the tiled floor.
“I believe you,” she moaned as he kissed her neck. I shouldn’t but I do.
“Do I still get to show you?” he asked, sliding a hand up her shirt.
“Yes,” she said, nodding breathlessly.
“Good.” He swept the counter with his hand, throwing everything onto the floor. Her pussy pulsed as she anticipated what was coming next; him lifting her up onto the counter and making her toes curl.
But none of that happened.
He just stared at her with wide eyes and a tight mouth.
“Are you okay?” she asked, watching him nervously. Did he come in his pants or something?
Cole gulped as he dropped his eyes to his feet. She shivered as she followed his eyes down to the floor.
“Oh, my God!” she screamed, recoiling in horror. There was a long sharp butcher’s knife sticking out of his foot with blood pouring out.
Jennif
er opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could.
ten
“Help! Help!” Jennifer screamed so loud that Cole had to cover his ears. The pain of her scream was almost as bad as the pain in his foot.
He had tried to be romantic by sweeping everything off of the counter in a grand gesture but he didn’t see the butcher’s knife that fell off onto his foot.
“Stop, stop,” he said, gently gripping her arms. “I’m okay. Just please stop screaming.”
“But there’s a fucking knife in your foot!” she screamed, staring down in horror. She pulled out her cell phone from her purse but Cole snatched it out of her hands before she could dial the police.
“It’s okay,” he said, kneeling down. “Just close your eyes.”
She didn’t close her eyes but he was going to do it anyway. The faster he got this over with the better. And she was bound to find out that he was a shifter sooner rather than later anyway.
With a grunt, he yanked out the knife and tossed it into the sink.
“We need an ambulance,” she said, turning green.
“No,” he said, grimacing in pain as he slipped off his shoe. It was covered in thick red blood. “Just watch,” he said, pulling off his wet sticky sock.
She gasped in disbelief as the gash on his foot healed together in front of her eyes.
“You know all of those rumors about Colwood, Montana being full of shifters?” he said.
She nodded in silence.
“They’re true.” He swallowed hard before spitting out the next part. “I’m a bear shifter.”
“What?” she said, shaking her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to scare you off,” he said, standing back up. “This isn’t the type of thing that you just blurt out when you meet someone for the first time.”
“Oh no,” Cole muttered when footsteps came rushing down the hall. Joan and Ashton burst into the kitchen with worried looks on their faces.
“We heard screaming,” Joan said.