He walked into the garden and crouched down. “Aside from you making Katie suspicious, I think it’s going according to plan.”

Sydney turned to watch Kyle stride up the staircase. “You know, you three blow me away.”

“What do you mean?” Cole dug into the black dirt.

“Katie’s protecting you from me. Kyle’s protecting his wife from stress. And you’re compromising your principles to help them both.”

“Something wrong in that?”

“Something nice in that. I’m just trying to save my job.” She liked what that said about Cole. She wasn’t completely sure she liked what that said about her.

Cole rose to his feet, dusting one hand off on the thigh of his jeans as he made his way out of the garden. “Your job is in jeopardy?”

She nodded. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I’m on probation. There’s this guy…”

Then she stopped herself and shook her head. She wasn’t letting thoughts of Bradley mar the day. “Truth is, I haven’t been delivering the way the museum needs. If the Thunderbolt hadn’t worked out, I’d have been out of a job.”

“Hold these.” He filled her hands with long, crisp carrots. “So, do I get extra points for helping you and with Katie?”

“Absolutely.” She tried to think of something nice she could do for Cole. “You want to come to New York and see the display?”

He shrugged, heading into another section of the garden. “Maybe. If we’re still faking it.”

Sydney watched Cole unearth a handful of potatoes and tried to imagine him in her Sixth Avenue apartment. He was too big for New York, too raw, too wild. He belonged on horseback in the rain, or half naked in his cabin kitchen.

She shivered at that particular memory. This urge to kiss him was turning into an obsession. And the obsession was moving way past kissing.

Cole was untamable and exciting and exotic. He was sexy as all get-out, and challenged her on every level. Aside from the Thunderbolt, aside from the charade, she wanted him in every way a woman could possibly want a man.


“You’ll never get anyone to marry you without a decent house,” said Grandma, plunking a well-thumbed catalog down on the low table in front of him.

Cole snapped to attention, pulling his arm from the back of the porch swing where he’d been toying with Sydney’s hair. “Huh?”

“I’ve been after you for months to pick out plans. And with Sydney here, well, it seems like the perfect opportunity to get a female opinion.”

“As opposed to yours and Katie’s?” Cole wasn’t picking out house plans. He had other things to spend his money on, and he had a perfectly good cabin down by the creek.

“Great idea,” said Katie, pulling her patio chair closer. Her eyes shone with anticipation as she flipped open the book.

“Cape Cod or Colonial?” asked Kyle, placing his hands on his wife’s shoulders.

Cole glared at his brother. “I do not need a new house.”

“You’re joking, right?” said Katie.

She shifted her attention to Sydney. “Tell him no self-respecting woman would live in that cabin.”

Sydney tensed, and Cole automatically reached out to squeeze her hand. “You’re putting Sydney on the spot, Katie.”

Grandma sidled up next to Sydney. “I’m sure she doesn’t mind. We just want to take advantage of your cosmopolitan taste, dear.”

Sydney kept her mouth shut tight, and Cole shot Kyle a meaningful glare. Unfortunately his brother’s only response was a mocking grin.

“I need a new hay barn,” said Cole. “An addition on the tack shed, and an upgrade to the combines. We all agreed in the spring.”

“No. You agreed in the spring,” said Katie primly. “The rest of us thought you needed a new house.”

Cole reached out and shut the book. He’d agreed to a marriage of convenience. He’d agreed to pretend it was real. But he wasn’t building any damn house just to keep Katie from being stressed.

“The cabin’s fine,” he said, moderating his voice. “Even if I was to get married-” he turned to Sydney “-that cabin would be okay in the short term. Right?”

She swallowed. “Uh-”

Katie jerked the catalog out from under Cole’s hand. “Now you’re the one putting Sydney on the spot. If the cabin’s so fine, we’ll move into it. You take the house.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Why is it ridiculous when I say it?”

“There are two of you. And you’re a woman.”

“Now you’re sounding sexist.”

Cole turned to his brother. “You’d actually let your wife live in the cabin.”

“Nope,” said Kyle. “But it sounds like you’re willing to let yours.”

Cole opened his mouth, but he couldn’t immediately come up with the right argument. Damn Kyle. This was not his opportunity to push the new house agenda.

“And what about the children?” asked Katie. “There’s absolutely no room in the cabin for children.”

All eyes swung to Sydney. “Maybe an addition?” she offered.

Katie laughed. “Yeah, right. Cape Cod or Colonial?”

Grandma patted her hand. “Don’t be shy, Sydney. We value your input.”

Sydney hesitated, but she was being stared down by the entire family. “I’ve, uh, always liked a nice Cape Cod.”

“Page thirty-nine,” said Grandma.


“Well, you were a big help,” Cole said to Sydney as they walked down the ranch road in the moonlight. After her initial protest, she’d plunged into the planning session with gusto.

“I tried to keep quiet.”

“And that didn’t seem to work out for you?”

“I’m supposed to be falling for you, so I tried to make myself sound like actual wife material. I answered all your Grandma’s questions. We swapped recipes-”

“You know recipes?”

Sydney shot him a look. “I made them up. Point is, if I’d balked at planning my future house, it would have looked suspicious.”

“Now they’re going to want me to build the damn thing.”

“So what? The cabin is falling apart.”

“What am I going to do with a two-story, octagonal great room?”

“I didn’t vote for the octagonal great room. That was Katie.”

“Well you voted for the dormer windows.”

“They’re pretty.”

“And a turret?”

“Adds detail.”

“And what am I going to do with a hot tub?”

Sydney was silent for a moment. “Uh, bathe?”

“Very funny. I don’t need jets and bubblers rumbling under my butt to get clean.”

“Ever tried one?”

“No.”

She grinned and bumped her shoulder against his arm. “Don’t know what you’re missing, cowboy.”

“Why? Have you?”

“It just so happens I own a hot tub.”

A visual bloomed in Cole’s brain-of Sydney, glistening skin and swirling water.

“Cole?”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah?”

“You ever stop to think there might be some deep-seated, psychological reason you shortchange yourself?”

“No.” He didn’t shortchange himself, and he didn’t have deep-seated reasons for anything. He herded cows. He raised horses. He kept the ranch running. What you saw was what you got.

“You’re living in a cabin where you wouldn’t let any other member of your family live.”

That wasn’t true. He turned from the ranch road down his short driveway and the roar of the creek grew louder. “I’d let Kyle live there.”

“And you’ve never been married.”

“Lucky for you.” If he was married she wouldn’t be getting this opportunity with the Thunderbolt.

“See, I have a hard time believing women aren’t interested in you. If you’d wanted-”

“Plenty of women are interested in me.” He felt ego-bound to point that out. Well, maybe not plenty. But some. Enough. He wasn’t exactly a monk out here.

“Then why haven’t you settled down?”

“It’s not by choice.”

“Bet it is.”

“Not my choice.”

“The women said no?”

He refused to answer, wondering how he and Sydney always ended up having such personal conversations. He was a private man. He liked it that way.

“Come on, Cole,” Sydney prompted.

“Why aren’t you married?” He tried to turn the tables.

Her answer surprised him. “Nobody ever proposed.”

“Did you even want them to?” he asked.

“You mean, have I ever been in love?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t know?” That surprised Cole.

She shook her head. “What about you?”

“I guess not.”

She grinned and bumped him again. “But you’re not sure?”

He cocked his head, considering her. “You know, it’s hard, isn’t it? To know for sure.”

“Is that why you never asked anyone.”

“Nah. Never got that far. Truth is, they all left me once they got to know me.”

She tipped her head back and gave him a hint of that sexy laugh. “No way. You left them.”

He had to squelch an urge to wrap his arm around her. She was just the right height, just the right size, just the right shape for his arms.

Instead he shook his head. “I’m a bit of a selfish jerk deep down inside.”

“No. You’re the opposite. Just like I said. You’re the one sacrificing to take care of everyone around you.”

They came to the porch and he preceded her up the three steps. “Do you happen to have a degree in psychology?”

“I have a degree in art history.”

“Good.” He pushed open the door and stood to one side. “You can decorate the turret and leave my brain alone.”

She grinned as she walked past him. “Your brain is beginning to fascinate me.”

“I don’t want a new house, because I don’t need a new house. This is a working ranch, not a Dallas subdivision. Next thing they’ll be putting in a pool.”

“I’ve hit on something here, haven’t I?”

“You haven’t hit on anything.” His voice came out unexpectedly sharp as he flipped the kitchen lamp.

Her eyes went wide. “I’m sorry.”

Cole swore under his breath. He shook his head and moved toward her. “No. I’m the one who’s sorry.” He was falling back on defense mechanisms now.