Page 51 of Cole

“I’ll probably go to the morning one,” Annie said when Rori asked her.

“That’s great,” Rori responded with a smile. “That’s the one Charli and I will be co-leading with Ruth.”

Annie figured she might be one of the only ones to attend the daytime study who didn’t have kids. Unless there were older women who preferred going out during the day over nighttime.

Of course, Dawn would be there too.

“Have you talked to Cole lately?” Rori asked.

Annie froze, aware that Dawn was listening to their conversation. She really didn’t want her dad to know how much contact she actually had with Cole. And Dawn would be honest with him or Jude if they asked her what she knew about Annie’s interactions with Cole.

“Does yelling at the television count?” Annie asked.

Rori’s brows rose. “Yelling at the television?”

“Yep. If that counts, then I talked to him last night.”

Lexi started to laugh. “Wilder does the same thing.”

“Even though Cole is the professional, somehow Benji and I think we know what he should do sometimes.”

“Shoot the ball!” Lexi whispered-shouted as she cupped her hands around her mouth. “Shoot. The. Ball!”

“Exactly,” Annie said. “Sometimes he listens. Sometimes he doesn’t.”

“Sounds like all my brothers,” Charli said with a laugh. “And my husband.”

That started the women at the table sharing about humorous communication efforts with the men in their lives. Annie breathed a sigh of relief as the conversation moved on from her and Cole.

Hopefully Dawn hadn’t realized what Annie had done with her misdirection. At least she hadn’t had to lie.

Once people began to leave, Annie stayed a bit longer to help clean up, then she and Dawn took their newly acquired Bible study books and made their way back to the car.

“So you’re sticking close to home tomorrow?” Dawn asked as they headed out of town.

“Yep.”

“I have an appointment in the morning, so if that changes, you’ll have to take Andrew or Lucy with you.”

Annie grimaced at the name. As much as she and Dawn got along, she and Lucy did not.

The woman was much more rigid in how she approached Annie’s security. While Annie could appreciate that Lucy was just trying to do her job, she made things miserable for Annie.

She’d told Jude that she only wanted Lucy when absolutely necessary. If he’d insisted on her taking Lucy instead of Dawn, Annie let him know that she’d make things more difficult all around.

Since Jude had taken her threat seriously and given her Dawn full time, Annie tried not to make things about her own security too difficult.

Well, previously, she hadn’t.

Now that she was finding being so closely guarded by anyone a challenge, she was afraid that she wasn’t going to be quite as easygoing about things.

“I won’t be going anywhere,” Annie assured her.

“Also, you know you don’t have to hide that you’re talking to Cole.”

Oh, she wasn’t going to fall for that. Not a chance. “I know. But seriously, why would someone like Cole ever want to spend any amount of time chatting with someone like me? Haven’t you seen the type of women professional athletes prefer?”

Her question was only partly an effort to divert Dawn again. She was still really perplexed that Cole had persisted in keeping in contact with her. And that he genuinely seemed to care about her. Unless she’d misread his concern during their conversation when she hadn’t been feeling well.

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