Stephanie Fowers’s Reviews > Cole's Dilemma > Status Update

He picked her up over his shoulder.
“Cole!” Eva cried out. She kicked her bare feet. “You can’t just wrestle your sister-in-law.”
She wasn’t yet. And two could play at this game. “You can always call it quits and concede that I’m the victor.”
“Never!”
Not quite what he expected. The puppy barked joyfully around them, wanting to join in the fun. “I can put you in a pretzel,” he teased.
“I’d like to see you try it.”

If he was being forced to play house with Eva, he might as well clear the air between them. “... about that kiss.”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Y-yeah?”
“We won’t repeat that.”
“No, never.”
Bringing up their kiss only seemed to make the air between them worse. He scrambled to fix her distressed look. “Not that it was bad.”
“Definitely not,” she said with a decisive nod.
What had he done?

“Dopey? You named our calf Dopey?” Cole asked Eva.
Her delicate shoulders lifted. “It’s better than Sleipnir.”
“That’s it! You’re walking the rest of the way.” Even as Cole said it, his arms tightened over her. He’d cracked enough lame jokes to keep her at a distance the whole way back, but now that the barn was in sight, he realized how reluctant he was to give her up.
West had a lot to answer for.
Cole did, too.

“Thanksgiving?” Eva asked West. “Who hates Thanksgiving?”
“I do. I don’t like turkey and I don’t like all the weird casseroles and side dishes... and then doing the dishes after that!"
Eva smiled. "I'll help!"
"It'll take hours! And don’t get me started on the fights over politics and everyone’s past grievances. Turkey just brings that out in everybody, I think. Oh, and I hate football.”
Eva burst out laughing.

Yeehaw and yippee ki-yay! Is that how they say it here? Who cares!
This kiss was something to die for. West held back the strength of a storm with his strong and gentle touch.
This wasn’t like their kiss before. This was better!
She ran her fingers through his hair. “Oh, West…”
“West?” he asked. He wrenched back.
She scrambled off the bale of hay and realized just how tall he was.
This wasn’t West.
She sprang away.

She couldn’t keep her lips from tilting up this time. “You named an animal Sleipnir?” It sounded like a squished tomato.
“It’s from a Norse mythology,” he said with a roll of his blue Slade eyes. “He’s Odin’s steed… a Norse god.”
Made sense, since Cole looked like one. He was a total Hemsworth with his scruffy day’s growth on his chiseled jaw. She couldn’t believe he didn’t have a girlfriend. She’d fix that for him.

His hands let go of the luggage and he only had her. He let out a breath that echoed hers.
If West saw them now…?
Forget that. Cole had to make sure that she’d survived becoming the brunt of their fall. “You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, wordlessly. Her seafoam blue eyes moved up to his.
Why did he feel like he was losing his mind all of a sudden?

Eva had about fifteen minutes to convince West that she was the most irresistibly attractive and charming woman on this planet before her daddy caught up to her.

How hard could it possibly be?

Her chin snapped up to attention as he came down the aisle of his private jet. He’d taken off his suit jacket, wearing his expensive dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar.

He was so incredibly hypnotizing!