by Liz Isaacson
“It’s….” Cole didn’t mind being friendly with his guys. But he wasn’t friends with them. He didn’t have them over for weekend barbecues, and he didn’t discuss his personal life with them. Period. The end.
So he didn’t want to tell them that no one in Brush Creek had caught his eye. Of course, he spent a lot of time behind brick walls at the station, and the only people coming in and out of there worked in the building or were being booked into jail. Neither of those presented viable options for finding a date. And maybe he liked his bachelor status. Had anyone ever thought of that? Maybe he acted a bit beastly to preserve his sanity, keep his heart in one piece, and enjoy the calmness of this town where he’d landed.
“Look,” Jordan said. “Just try with the next woman who comes over.”
“What makes you think another woman will come over?” Cole cast Jordan a sideways glance.
He nodded to Cole’s right. “Because she’s comin’ right now.”
Cole swung his attention in the direction of Jordan’s gaze to find a beautiful brunette walking across the grass. She had obviously been dressed up nice, and she had those ridiculous eyelashes all the girls were wearing now. But somehow…somehow the cop in him saw past the façade to the woman underneath.
None of it belonged to her. The clothes, the makeup, the tiny purse she clutched like it was her very key to surviving. As she stopped in a halo of orange light, Cole realized even the hair was fake. No one naturally had hair that color.
But he liked it, and a slow smile worked its way through his body until it touched his mouth. The woman was younger than him too, but most available females were. As he pushed closer and closer to forty, that couldn’t be helped.
“Can I help you?” Mason asked, a snicker not far behind the question. For some reason, Cole wanted to punch the lieutenant so this beautiful woman wouldn’t feel self-conscious.
Her gaze settled on Mason and she leaned in closer to say something to him. He grinned and said, “Oh, I see one of those teenagers we were looking for earlier. Jordan, let’s go talk to them.”
They both practically ran out of there like someone had set fire to their heels, leaving Cole alone with the only woman who’d sparked his interested in the past decade.
“Hey.” She ran the tip of her tongue between her lips, a classic sign of nerves. That, plus the way she choked her purse, was a dead giveaway. “So listen, I sort of made a deal with my friends, and all I need you to do is agree to go out with me.” She held up her hands and shook them like she meant him no harm. “We don’t actually have to go out. I mean, I know you don’t date, and well, the deal was they could pick, and they picked you, and I really don’t want—”
She stopped talking when he raised his hand, an indication for her to do so. “You know I don’t date?”
“No, sir.” She pressed her eyes closed and shook her heard. “Or, yes, sir. Yes, I know you don’t date.” She drew in a deep breath. “Sir.”
Oh, how he hated the word sir when it came out of her mouth. In many other situations, he loved the respect he commanded. But not this time. Not with her.
“What’s your name?”
“Berlin Fuller.”
He nodded and scanned the area behind her, finding the peanut gallery stationed over by the lemonade stand. “Are those your friends?” He waved to them, putting a great, big smile on his face.
Berlin half-turned back to them and then faced him with the most miserable look on her face, her gaze on the ground. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you about the deal.”
“Deal? What deal?”
Her eyes—the brightest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen, and probably the only real thing about this Berlin Fuller—latched onto his. Everything at the summer fair fell away. Cole had never been distracted like this before, on duty or off. But Berlin glowed like a heavenly being, and a craving to know more about her pulled through him in a way he didn’t understand. Had never felt before.
Not only was he going to ask her out, Cole actually wanted to see her again. Ten times? he wondered.
He wasn’t sure on the last part, but if there was one thing seventeen years in police work had taught him, it was to be patient. Take one step at a time. Learn one fact, and then learn the next.
So he didn’t need to know if he could endure ten dates with Berlin. He’d start with one and see how things went. And if he didn’t have to buy his department a steak dinner, well, that was just an added side benefit.
So Sunday afternoon? Cole stared at the text, imagining what Berlin would look like without all the makeup. Sundays were always more casual for Cole, and he hoped Berlin would leave the heeled boots and mini skirts at home if he took her out in the afternoon.
He sent the text, glad he’d come away from the fair with a woman’s phone number this year. The previous two years, he’d left with a massive headache and a general disdain for teenagers.
He’d walked around with Berlin for twenty or thirty minutes before she gave him her number and said to text her his first available time. He’d told her he was busy, and she’d said she worked nine to five at a company in town.
Sarge lifted his big head when Cole’s phone buzzed, and Cole scrubbed the German shepherd’s head while he picked up his device. “It’s Berlin.” He smiled and read the message.
Sunday afternoon is great. Two o’clock?
Two’s great.
Will we be eating?
I can always eat, he typed. You?
I’ll eat a late breakfast and call that lunch.
Cole confirmed, wondering what in the world he was doing. Was this how dating worked now? Meeting, talking for a few minutes, exchanging numbers, and then texting.
Apparently so, as she continued messaging him for the next hour, continuing their conversation from the park with questions like How many siblings do you have? and Where are you from?
Basic get-to-know-you stuff. All the stuff Cole normally despised, another reason he hadn’t really tried to find a girlfriend or a wife. It was so much work getting to know someone, and honestly, Cole had his plate full when it came to things that took work.
But as a picture of a cute gray and white dog came through his text stream, he decided this phone dating wasn’t so hard.
My Lhasa Apso, Brownie. Do you have pets?
Cole grinned at the fact that Berlin was a fellow dog-lover. She’d said he didn’t even have to go out with her, but as he sent pictures of Honor and then Sarge, and she sent over a brown and white Lhasa Apso named Cocoa, Cole found he couldn’t wait until Sunday at two o’clock.
Until she asked if where they’d be going for “lunch” had any vegetarian options.
He rolled his eyes and groaned. He didn’t want Berlin to be a vegetarian when he loved every kind of meat this great planet had to offer.
He skipped the question and asked if she wanted to just grab something from the bakery instead.
The bakery’s closed on Sundays, came her reply. And I can’t meet until after church anyway.
Cole put his phone down at that point, realizing how late it was and how the conversation had taken a turn he didn’t like. So he and Berlin liked dogs. He found her beautiful. Didn’t mean they were a match, especially if she liked everything he didn’t.
A twinge of guilt pulled through him that his phone buzzed a few more times and he didn’t answer. But now he had that headache he’d experienced the last couple of years, and he didn’t want to say something beastly he couldn’t take back.
Chapter Three
Berlin didn’t hear from Cole again until one-thirty on Sunday. She’d texted him several times, and it was like he’d just shut off. A thread of trepidation pulled through her as she brushed out her hair after church.
Wren had invited her to lunch, and Berlin had said she wasn’t feeling up to it. She loved her oldest sister Wren, who had the cutest little girl named Etta. She and Tate were expecting again, as were two other women in the Fuller family.
Cora and Brenn
an lived in California, and he’d finished his landscape architecture degree two months ago. Cora worked as a hotshot, but she’d be taking a leave of absence once their baby came in November.
Dawn also had a baby bump these days, due in December just before the holidays. Out of all her sisters, Berlin had thought at least she’d never have to worry about Dawn living up to their mother’s standards. She’d been telling everyone for years that she didn’t want to be a mother. Ironic, considering she became one the moment she married McDermott, five years ago.
Berlin noticed she was making a face, and she derailed the thoughts about her family members. Fabi and Jazzy had only been married for a couple of years, but Berlin expected them to announce pregnancies any day now.
“And I can’t even get a date.” She turned away from her reflection, hating how light her eyebrows were. Starlee had asked her if she should dye them too, but Berlin had panicked and said no. She liked the dark-haired look, but it felt…odd with the eyebrows. Like something wasn’t quite right.
She stared at her phone, at Cole’s message that said, Am I picking you up? and wondered if she should just blow him off. She thought of those broad shoulders filling out his police uniform. That sexy cowboy hat. The way he’d devoured her within seconds of looking at her. The man was powerful, intimidating, and absolutely made her heart race with excitement. And if there was something Berlin needed in her life, it was an adventure.
“Sure, you can pick me up,” she said aloud to her two small dogs as she typed the words into her texting app. She added her address and sent the message.
Great. See you soon. Cole didn’t seem like a man of many words, and Berlin’s chest squeezed. What in the world would they talk about? He’d seemed okay with the topics they’d been texting about on Friday night—work, dogs, and their families. She’d been surprised that he didn’t know much about hers, but he was a transplant to Brush Creek, and her father didn’t serve on the City Council anymore.
In fact, her parents were getting older, and her dad had already started to draw up paperwork to turn the company over to Milt. As Berlin worked as the business’s accountant, she was privy to all kinds of insider information the other siblings weren’t. Sometimes she liked that, because as the youngest, she was rarely included in important family decisions. And sometimes she didn’t need to know the minutia of the company.
The minutes slipped by while she thought about the week’s work ahead of her, and before she knew it, Cole had arrived at her house. She knew it was Cole, because he rapped authoritatively three times and called her name, as if he needed to announce his presence so she’d open the door.
She smoothed her hands down her jeans, hoping it wouldn’t be too hot for them wherever Cole was taking her. But she didn’t feel the need to dress up to the nines for an afternoon date, especially when he’d already seen her trying too hard at the summer fair.
So jeans, sandals, and a flowery top would have to do. She opened the door to find him wearing a delicious pair of dark wash jeans too. His polo shirt was the color of tangerines, and had white and black stripes going across it, only accentuating the width of his chest and the bulge of his biceps.
Berlin’s mouth turned dry, making swallowing—and speaking—very difficult.
His close-cropped hair broadcasted his police status, and he hadn’t shaved that day, giving him a rough-around-the-edges sexiness Berlin had no defense against. She wanted to reach out and touch his scruff, cradle his face as she brought it closer to hers, inhale the summery, citrusy, woodsy scent of his skin.
“You look nice,” he said, his smile revealing a beautiful set of white teeth. “Are you ready?” He looked over her shoulder and into her house. “Ah, there are the pups.” He bent down like she had no affect on him whatsoever and started rubbing Brownie and Cocoa. The dogs seemed to wear smiles as his big hands touched them, and Berlin couldn’t blame them one bit.
“I’m ready,” she managed to push past the lump in her throat. This was such a bad idea. He’d probably only agreed to go out with her out of pity, and she added, “You don’t have to do this, you know. I just needed to get a date, and I got one.”
He straightened, his dark gray eyes reminding her of deep, dangerous storm clouds as they rolled over the horizon and threatened to dump rain on the town. “I want to go out with you.” He spoke without a rasp or a hitch in his voice. “And it wasn’t easy finding something to do on Sunday, let me tell you. It’s like this town shuts down.”
Berlin shouldered her purse and stepped out onto the porch with him, leaving her dogs inside. They had a doggy door in the back that let them out into the yard, and she’d already refilled their food and water.
“So what are we doing?” she asked. “Eating isn’t necessary.”
He guided her down her own steps with slight pressure on the small of her back. The touch was light, casual, but it sent fireworks through Berlin’s muscles and she could barely walk. Was she imagining this electricity between them? She cast a glance over her shoulder to Cole, who seemed calm, cool, collected. Utterly nonplussed.
He smiled at her again. “Eating is always necessary. In fact, I don’t think we can call this a date if there’s no eating.”
Somehow her lips curved upward too, and she slid into his muscle car easily. “This is your police vehicle?” she asked when he positioned his tall frame behind the wheel. She’d never seen so many switches and buttons and screens before.
“That’s right.” He put the car in gear and it didn’t take long for her to figure out they were leaving Brush Creek. “So I thought we’d try this place I found in Beaverton a while back. The Crepe Factory?” He cut a glance at her out of the side of his eye, but mostly focused on the road with both hands on the wheel.
“Sure, sounds great.” Berlin infused her voice with as much positivity as she could. But she’d been to The Crepe Factory, and it wasn’t that great. Nothing coming from a factory could be, in her opinion, but she pressed that opinion behind closed lips.
The drive happened in ten minutes, and Cole didn’t say a word. Berlin had never felt so awkward, and she wondered why Caitlyn and Scott had thought this man, handsome and powerful as he was, was perfect for her. Even Gray had made her feel at ease in his presence, and he’d had just as much experience as Cole.
He parked and said, “I thought this would work since you don’t eat meat.”
“I eat meat,” she said.
He turned toward her, his eyebrows up. “Really? You asked if there would be vegetarian options. I guess I just assumed.”
Feeling brave and bold and a little out of control, Berlin said, “Well, that’s your first mistake.” She flashed him the flirtiest smile she could, her spirits dampened when he simply continued to stare at her. A sigh passed through her body and she reached for the door handle. This was going to be the shortest date in her pathetic history, and then she’d have to pray she never ran into the Chief of Police again.
She managed to make small talk while they waited for their order. The crepes were not any better this time than the last time she’d been here with Caitlyn, but Cole paid, and then they got back in the car.
Sure enough, he arrived back in her driveway before an hour had passed. Her chest tightened, and she couldn’t get any words out. Not that she wanted to ask to see him again; she didn’t think he’d perpetuate the relationship either.
He did play the perfect gentleman and get out, open her door, and walk her to the porch. “Okay,” he said. “Thanks for coming with me.”
She nodded, her emotions so close to the surface she didn’t dare vocalize anything.
“I’ll talk to you later?” He made it sound like a question, but he didn’t wait for her to answer. He gave a military nod like what he’d said was now law and he strode back to his cruiser.
She ducked behind the safety of her front door and told herself not to rush to the bedroom window so she could watch him drive out of her life. She did it anyway, Brownie putting his
front paws up on the wall as if he could stretch tall enough to see the police car brake at the corner and then turn left and disappear.
“Worst date ever,” she muttered as she sank down to the ground and pulled out her phone to text Caitlyn.
Monday morning, Berlin arrived at the offices of A Jack of All Trades an hour before she needed to be there. Wren wouldn’t be in for at least another two hours, and that was just fine with Berlin. She needed some time to get settled for the week, and she did not want to talk about her date with Cole.
Her phone rang before twenty minutes had gone by, and Berlin swiped on the call though she didn’t know who it was. It was a local Brush Creek number, so it could be anyone.
“Berlin Fuller,” she said, thinking she could be authoritative and commanding if she had to be. Her job simply didn’t demand that she needed to be.
“Berlin, glad I got you. I was worried it would be too early.”
She cocked her head, trying to figure out who she was talking to. They obviously knew her, but she couldn’t place the voice. “Not too early,” she said, buying herself some time to make the connection.
“It’s Paul Shafer from the City Controller’s office. I’m wondering if you have a few minutes this morning to meet with me.”
Berlin stopped trying to organize her paperwork for the day. “Today?”
“The City Council has approved a budget to do an independent audit of the police department.”
She sat heavily in her chair. “Oh-kay.”
“Come on over to my office, and I’ll give you all the details.” He didn’t wait for her to confirm, didn’t set up a time, nothing. He just hung up, leaving Berlin to stare at her phone and wonder why every man thought what he said would simply be followed.
Her stomach writhed, and her blood heated. But she stood, collected her briefcase, and headed for the door. Though no one ever came to see her in the office, she still wore professional clothes. Dress the part. She believed in that, and today, her navy skirt suit would come in quite handy as she crossed the street and went down a block to the city offices.
