Page 10 of Gentle Persuasion

He nodded and started to stuff his hands in his pockets when he realized he didn’t have pockets in which to stuff. Damned shorts. Now what am I going to do with my hands? He very badly wanted to put them on Debbie.

She leaned over and retrieved her sandals.

Cole couldn’t decide whether to walk or run, but either way he had to move. She was coming toward him with a look on her face that he’d seen before. The devils were sparkling in her eyes and tilting the corners of that mouth.

“Look at the wrinkles in my jumpsuit!” And then she grinned and scratched the tip of her fingernail lightly across his bare belly. “You took off my shoes. Why didn’t you finish the job?”

“I thought about it,” he said quietly.

It wasn’t the answer she’d expected him to give. It was one of the few times in her life that Debbie was at a loss for words. A faint blush spread. She looked everywhere and at everything but Cole. But her sense of self-preservation told her she must have the last word.

“Oh! Well, next time, give it more thought.”

Cole swallowed.

Debbie hooked her finger on the long zipper at the front of the jumpsuit. She grinned as she walked past him. He followed the sight of her little rear swaying gently as she headed toward her room. He saw her arm move down, heard the rasp of the zipper as it came undone, and walked into his room and slammed the door.

Debbie jumped as the echo reverberated in the hallway and she smiled wider.

***

“What do you think you’re doing?” Cole asked as he walked into the kitchen.

Debbie was pulling a package of frozen chicken breasts from the freezer. “I think I’m going to fix dinner?”

“No, you’re not,” he said. “Remember what I told you about taking it easy?”

“But—”

“No buts. We’ll either eat out or order in. Your choice.”

The smile that lit up her face made him forget what the hell he’d been going to say next.

“Really?”

He managed a nod. What in the world had he said to put that look on her face? When he got his answer, he wanted to laugh at the simplicity of it all.

“I would love to order in. Rural Oklahoma offers a world of benefits, but one of them is definitely not takeout food. You either go out to eat or cook it yourself. What can I order?”

Cole grinned. “Just about anything you want,” he said.

She nearly clapped her hands. “Let me ask Morgan and Buddy what they’d like to—”

“You choose, honey,” he said gently, unaware of what he’d called her. “They’ll eat anything.”

Her eyes lit up, and she made a half circle of the kitchen floor and then stuffed the frozen chicken back in the freezer.

“Could we have Chinese, with all those cute little boxes of different stuff and lots of eggs rolls and even fortune cookies?”

He laughed long and loud. “Hell, yes, you can have Chinese, cute boxes and all. Fortune cookies added.”

“Did someone mention cookies?”

Buddy walked into the kitchen. Cole rolled his eyes.

“Your timing, as always, is impeccable, brother.”

“Thank you,” Buddy said, uncertain what Cole was referring to, but convinced that, for once, Cole was right.

---