“Yes, ma’am.”
As Cole walked the short distance to the library, he hoped Josie wouldn’t shut and lock the window in his face. Maybe if he helped her with her program, she’d be grateful enough to go out with him on a real date. He smiled and quickened his pace.
*
Josie sat back and kneaded the aching muscles in her neck. It had taken hours to get the network operational again this afternoon. She’d been testing the catalog portion of the program, but every time she thought they might be ready to test it with the Internet portion of the program, the system crashed. The problem was that these computers just couldn’t handle the amount of information they’d been inputting. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen when they tried to process the graphics in the website. If she could only get the two portions to connect. For the last couple of hours, she’d been back to doing what she should have been doing all day—trying to figure out was wrong with the programming.
This time the tapping on the window didn’t even surprise her. She turned to see Cole standing outside with a big grin on his face. She rolled over and unlocked the window. After she opened it, he swung himself up onto the sill.
“Hey, Josie Lee. Working late again, I see.” He leaned back against the window casing and gave her a look that had probably just melted her hard drive.
With her elbow on her desk, she propped her head in her hand and stared at him. Mrs. McKay would have a fit if she could see this. The knowledge gave Josie perverse pleasure. Didn’t every good girl have a secret longing to be bad? Looking at Cole, all the naughty possibilities that could fill a girl’s fantasies seemed limitless.
Refocusing, she said, “Yes, I’m always working. What do you have there?”
He held a white container aloft. “Coconut cream pie.”
“How is it you know all my favorites?”
He shrugged and kept smiling. “Just lucky, I guess.” He handed her the container. “Still havin’ trouble with your program?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “I was just about to throw in the towel for tonight.”
“Aw, don’t do that.”
“I’ve never been so frustrated with anything in all my life.” She set the pie aside and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m so tired.”
“Sounds like you need a helping hand. First things first.”
Cole shifted and stood, then approached her in measured steps. He moved with the natural rolling gate of an athlete, filling the room with his presence. Disquieted by his nearness, Josie dragged in a deep breath. Her nostrils filled with the enticing scent of his cologne, and her heart jumped and hammered against her rib cage. He was a full-blown, living, breathing fantasy.
“Oh my,” she whispered, then swallowed hard.
He’d changed into clean blue jeans and a red polo style shirt. His blond hair, damp from the shower, was tied back with a thin piece of leather. He’d shaved, too. She had to admit, as good as he looked, she’d liked the more elemental Cole she’d had in her office earlier. Hair down, stubble shadowing his jaw, the smell of the outdoors and his own natural musky scent clinging to his skin.
He pivoted her chair to face the computer screen, then rested his warm hands on her shoulders. When he began massaging the kinks, Josie flinched. The muscles were so tight, just touching them was painful.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Just give it a minute.”
After that moment passed, she moaned her pleasure. He possessed magical fingers.
“How’s that feel?” he said softly, his lips brushing her ear.
“Heavenly.”
With one hand on the arm of her chair and the other running lightly from her shoulder to her wrist, Cole kept his head on the same level as hers. She was more aware of him than any man she’d ever known. His face was so close to hers, she’d only have to turn her head slightly to run her lips up the column of his throat.
“You know, I’m pretty good at fixing things, and I did promise you yesterday we’d tackle this. So, why don’t you tell me about the problems you’re having?”
He stared at her computer screen. It must seem like Greek to him, she thought. Sure, he was good at fixing things, but this was a state of the art computer program. Not something for a handyman to fix. Besides, the last thing she wanted to think about with him this close was work.
She turned her head and spoke softly near his ear. “It’s complicated, Cole. Technical.”
“Hmm,” he murmured, then swung his magnificent blue-eyed gaze in her direction. “Too complicated for someone like me, you mean.”
“Cole, no. I—” Josie immediately began to apologize for insulting him, but he just smiled and turned back to the computer.
“The purpose of the program is to catalog just the books?” he asked.
Josie frowned, trying to concentrate on the words when all she wanted to do was feel. “No. It’s all inclusive,” she managed. “Periodicals, research titles, genealogical material and the town archives, newspapers—”
“With Internet access?” Though he continued massaging her shoulders, his gaze was fixed on the screen.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Internet. Everything in the catalog will be accessible through a website, so it has to interface.”
“That’s the problem, then.”
“Excuse me?”
“The loop to include Internet access isn’t complete.” Cole pointed at the screen into the maze of programming language and pinpointed the area Josie had isolated as the source of the problem.
Josie tore her attention away from the man next to her and slid her glasses onto her nose. She leaned forward.
“The way it’s written now would cause the program to freeze when it hits this string of commands.”
“Exactly, and since I wasn’t hooked up to the Internet during the trials I did with the program, it didn’t matter before now,” Josie breathed.
“May I?” he asked.
“Certainly.” When Cole reached around her from behind to type something into the keyboard, encircling her with his strong arms, Josie’s skin tingled where his arms brushed against hers. She watched in fascinated wonder as he added a simple string of commands to the area he’d indicated, then pressed “Enter.” Another string of commands appeared on the screen, and the program scrolled to the end.
He typed in a few more commands to close the loop then said, “Why don’t you try running it now?”
Amazed and speechless, she ran the program. It worked like a dream. She took off her glasses and looked up at him. “How did you do that?”
He shrugged and slid his hands into his back pockets. “It was simple, really. Sometimes you just need somebody who can see things fresh.”
“But I don’t understand.”
“You mean you don’t understand how a guy like me could know anything about computers?”
That’s exactly what Josie was thinking, and she hated herself for it. She was making surface assumptions about Cole based on the town’s perception of him. Again. She didn’t want to turn into a bitter, old prejudiced woman like Mrs. McKay. Of all people, she should know better than to pigeonhole a human being when she’d been caged all her life.
“Where did you learn how to do this?”
He shrugged. “I took a couple of courses at the community center in Maryville. Then, I learned a few things on my own by playing around and reading a few books.”
Josie smiled and turned back to the computer. “Let me just run a few tests.”
While she ran her tests, Cole stood back and watched. The program performed in every way that it was designed to perform. Now if she only had the computer power she needed to really make this thing cook . . . After a few moments, she stood and faced him. “It’s perfect. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Aw, it was nothin’.” He looked away, embarrassed.
Josie touched his arm. When their eyes met, she said, “Cole Craig, you are truly an amazing man. In two days, you’ve managed to help me avert di
saster at home and at work.”
He took her hand in his, and she felt the familiar heat course through her.
“Plus I saved you from starvation. Don’t forget that.”
“How could I? Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.”
With the old-world charm of a gentleman, he brought her hand to his lips, and without breaking eye contact, kissed it. Josie willed her knees to work, but gave herself a little help by grasping the edge of her desk. Again, she wondered what would happen if he pressed those magical lips to hers . . . .
“How ’bout I walk you home?” he asked, his voice soft and low.
“I’d like that,” she said without hesitation. Mrs. McKay could take a flying leap. She was fascinated by this man who’d never finished high school, but could repair a flaw in a complicated computer program as easily as he repaired a pipe under her house. She wanted to know the real Cole Craig, because he clearly was not who he appeared to be. She wondered what she would find if the layers were peeled away and the real Cole revealed.
Chapter Five
“Another beautiful Angel Ridge night,” Josie said. She lifted her face to the sky.
“Beautiful,” Cole agreed. He’d never seen anything as lovely. Looking at her, he understood what inspired Lord Byron to write, She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies; and all that’s best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes.
Above all, Cole wanted a chance with her. He knew that wouldn’t happen as long as she was preoccupied with that program. So, he’d fixed it. He’d taken a risk revealing his knowledge to her the way he had. And he’d lied to her about how he learned to use computers. He hated lying to her, but he really had no choice.
He knew what people on the ridge thought of him. That he was only good for repairing what needed fixing with people’s homes and businesses and such. Never once had anyone stopped to consider that he might have a mind. Hopes. Dreams.
He could honestly say that none of that had ever really mattered to him. He’d come to terms with people’s prejudices early in life and had tried not to let that define who he was as a person. But he was finding that what Josie Allen thought of him meant everything. When he looked into her eyes, he saw an openness. Her mind, though colored by the town’s preconceived notions of those who lived below the ridge, seemed open to finding out who he really was.
Beside him she smiled and whirled in a circle. He couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m so happy the program is working that I could just sing!”
“What’s stoppin’ you?” They turned off Main Street onto Ridge Road. Tall, old Victorian homes played peek-a-boo with large trees standing in front yards. “Everyone’s tucked safely inside their houses. Nobody but me and the crickets are listening.”
Lord, she was a thing of beauty.
She chanced a look at him and confessed, “I can’t carry a tune.”
“Me neither,” he confided, “but that don’t usually stop me.” And with that, he launched into a rollicking off-key rendition of Chantilly Lace that had Josie giggling until they walked up the steps to her wide front porch.
Without giving it a thought, Cole wrapped an arm around her waist and swung her in a wide circle. When he stopped spinning her and set her feet back on the ground, she smiled the sweetest smile up at him. He didn’t know if he was light-headed from the spinning or that look on Josie Allen’s face.
A golden-red curl had fallen out of its coil and lay against her cheek. He brushed it back in a perfect moment that seemed suspended in time. Then, he leaned down and did what he’d dreamed of doing since she’d returned to Angel Ridge.
He kissed her.
But this was no young boy’s fantasy of a girl that seemed just out of his reach. This was as real as it got.
After a moment’s contact with Josie’s lips warm and soft beneath his, Cole wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close up against his chest. His heart filled near to bursting with longing for her, but he cautioned himself to take it slow lest the dream in his arms vanish. Still, he nearly lost all control when she pulled the leather tie out of his hair and sank her fingers into it. Before he could recover, she gently sucked on his bottom lip.
A slow burn started in his gut and spread lower as he touched his tongue to hers. She sighed and melted against him. He buried his hand into the knot of hair at the back of her head. Hairpins bounced across the porch as it tumbled down his arm in a silken curtain. He pulled his lips from hers then and pressed his mouth to the pounding pulse at the side of her throat. A smell like roses in the heat of July filled his senses until he was intoxicated with everything about her.
“Josie,” he groaned as he swept his hands down the curve of her back.
Somewhere in the muddle of his mind, he realized that she was pushing against his chest. Pushing him away. Cole relaxed his hold on her, then stepped back.
Letting go of her was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. He just stood there and looked at her. What a glorious sight she was with her hair hanging loose down her back and across her shoulders; her lips red and wet from his kiss.
She touched a hand to her mouth . . . tried to smooth the tangle of her hair. “I think you should go.”
“Josie . . .” He reached out to touch her, but she moved back. Out of his reach. Oh man, had he read the signals wrong? Had he stepped over the line with her?
“Please. I . . .”
She began to pace. She seemed totally confused. Definitely agitated. He wasn’t about to leave things like this. “Josie,” he coaxed, “let’s sit down over here and talk.”
“No. No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not sure what’s happening between us, and I’m not sure it should. Happen,” she added for clarification.
“What makes you say that?”
She’d drifted toward the back corner of the porch.
He followed. “We’ve been having a good time together, haven’t we?”
“Well—I suppose,” she agreed, if a bit cautiously.
“So we had a little kiss.” He shrugged. “It seemed natural. What’s the harm in it?” What they’d just shared had by no stretch of the imagination been just a simple kiss. But, he thought it best to downplay things for the time being. At least until she’d had time to sort it all out.
But then she tossed back at him exactly what he’d been thinking. She turned and hit him square in the face with, “That was no simple kiss, Cole Craig. That was—was—”
“Incredible?” he supplied.
She raked an unsteady hand through her hair. “I didn’t expect this. Didn’t mean for it to happen.”
Okay, it seemed like she’d shifted to the big picture now. He chose to ignore that, keeping to his game plan. “But it did. And there’s no need in gettin’ all upset over it,” he said softly. Downplay. Keep it light.
She still faced him, all five feet nothing of her, determined fire lighting her eyes. “How can you say that? You and I have no business kissing each other that way.”
“Why not?” Cole ground his teeth together. Had he read her wrong? Was she about to tell him something that interpreted meant he wasn’t good enough for her?
He was already forming a counter-argument when she surprised him by saying, “We hardly know each other.”
Cole smiled and breathed a bit easier. “We’ve known each other since we were kids, Josie.”
“Before yesterday, I hadn’t really spoken to you since we were kids. Which proves my point. We don’t really know each other.”
He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. “What better way to get to know a person?”
“Cole!”
Time to get serious . . . for a moment anyway. “I enjoyed kissing you.” He paused to let that sink in, and then added, “If you’d let yourself, you’d have to admit you enjoyed kissing me, too.”
“You’re changing the subject.”<
br />
She began pacing again. He definitely had the town librarian out of sorts. He smiled. It was a start.
Cole crossed his arms then rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb. It still tingled from her kiss. After a moment, he softly asked, “Does it bother you that I come from the back side of the ridge, Josie?”
She stopped pacing and looked up at him. “No.” Her response had been immediate. Emphatic. “No, it doesn’t bother me.”
They were moving in the right direction, but Cole knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. “You worried about what people will say?”
“No. Well, maybe a little . . . Oh, I don’t know.”
She pushed her hair back from her face and turned away from him. He walked up to stand close behind her. “Is that all it is?”
“No.”
He touched her shoulder. “Tell me.”
She turned back to him, then looked away again. “This is just a little sudden, Cole. I guess you could say my behavior with you has been, well, out of character. This just isn’t like me. I mean, I don’t do anything without thinking it through. And I certainly don’t go around casually kissing men I hardly know, or haven’t seen in years. Okay, I don’t go around casually kissing men period.”
He stepped forward, pleased to see that she didn’t retreat. “It wasn’t something I planned, Josie. It just happened. That’s not to say that I’m sorry it happened. Still, there’s no need in reading more into it than there is.”
Josie nodded her agreement, but worried her lower lip with her teeth.
After a moment of silence, he added, “I wouldn’t mind gettin’ to know you better, if you’d be agreeable.”
“What if we find out we have nothing in common? I mean, we come from such different backgrounds.”
“No worries.” He wrapped a long red curl around his finger pulling her incrementally closer as he did. “I’ve always had a soft spot for pretty girls with curly red hair.”
A slow smile turned her serious expression into a look that started his pulse back racing.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Cole said. “How ote bout I pick you up around three and we drive out to Vonore?”
Only You Page 7
