Fast & Loose by Elizabeth Bevarly (the giving tree read aloud .txt) 📕

“Sorry,” he murmured in a voice that was once again bereft of apology. And when her eyes met his…

Oh, damn. What had she been thinking about? For some reason, she suddenly couldn’t remember…

He took a step backward when he could, something that allowed her to think again. Unfortunately, mostly what she was thinking was that she wanted him to bump into her again. Only this time, without the inconvenience of…oh, she didn’t know…being vertical.

No! She didn’t want to be horizontal with Cole Early! Bree did! Lulu actually much preferred a different position, one that required the man to be standing behind her while she…

Well, this probably wasn’t the best place to be thinking about that right now.

“So who is the friend?” Cole asked, bringing Lulu back to the matter at hand—and, coincidentally, hands played a big role in her favorite position, which was…

Where was she? Oh, right. Remembering that Bree hadn’t had a chance to introduce her and Cole. Which was just as well, since Bree would have introduced Lulu with her real name, and something about Cole Early knowing her name didn’t sit well with Lulu just then. Once a person had your name, they had ways of finding out other things about you, and she just didn’t want a man like Cole having that kind of access to her. So maybe, since she wasn’t going to have anything more to do with him after tonight, she’d just give him a phony name. An unattractive phony name at that. Anything to make Bree look better and put her at the center of attention.

Hah. Like Bree wouldn’t be the center, right, left, front, and back of attention the minute she walked into any room.

“I’m, um…” She scrambled to think of an unattractive name, but all she could come up with was her aunt Hortense, who lived in Waddy and would likely smack Lulu upside the head if she ever found out Lulu had used her name because she thought it was, um, unattractive.

“Hortense,” she said anyway.

Cole’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Hort…ah, Horten…uh, Hortense?”

“Hortense,” Lulu repeated. “It’s an old family name.” She bit back a smile. He was trying so hard to be polite about the fact that he thought her name was hideous. That was actually kind of adorable.

No! Not adorable! she told herself. Rude. How rude to not cover that immediately. Miss Manners would be appalled.

“Hortense Waddy,” she said further.

He looked flummoxed for a moment, then stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Hort…ah…tense Wad…dy. I’m Cole Early.”

Lulu took his hand, thinking she’d give it a good, hard, unladylike shake. Instead, she melted a little at the way his fingers closed so confidently over hers and held them. Not shaking. Not moving at all. Just holding. And feeling really good.

No, not good! Intrusive. Yeah, that was it.

“It’s nice to meet you, too…ah…” Strangely, Lulu realized she was having trouble saying his name aloud, too. Which was weird. Hey, it wasn’t like he had a name like Hortense Waddy or something.

“Cole,” he said, helping her.

“Cole,” she finally managed to get out.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.

Before Lulu could think about it, she said, “A beer. They have Bass on draft here.”

Cole lifted a hand to signal…Oh, God, Bree, who looked at Lulu like she’d just betrayed the most sacred trust in the BFF Handbook. In spite of that, she returned to their end of the bar. “A Bass Ale for the lady,” he said. “And for me…” He hesitated for a moment, then smiled. “I’ll have a Bass, too,” he finally told Bree.

Lulu did her best to convey through her expression that she was standing at the bar drinking with Cole Early for Bree’s benefit. Her friend must have gotten the message, because she smiled in relief and said, “Coming right up, Mr. Early,” and turned to pull a couple of drafts. When they were sitting on the bar, tall and frosty, Cole told her to start a tab and then handed one to Lulu.

“What should we drink to?” he asked.

Lulu started to say, To panties and silver platters, but stopped herself in time. Instead, she said, “To your horse winning the Derby.”

He smiled in response, and she thought it was because he liked the toast. Then he asked, “Do you know the name of the horse I’m running in the Derby?”

Lulu opened her mouth to tell him what it was, then realized she couldn’t remember. “Um, no,” she said. “I’m afraid I don’t.” But that was good, right? she asked herself. The fact that she had no idea who his entry in the race was would just make her look like an idiot, something that would only serve to make Bree look better, since Bree had learned everything she could about Cole since his arrival and would surely make that clear once her shift ended and she joined them.

“Do you know anything about me at all?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’ve seen you on the news and everything, but, uh…” Might as well be honest, she told herself. “I haven’t really paid attention.”

Oh, right. Like that was honest. She’d heard every word he uttered when she’d seen him on the late news nearly every night since his arrival. But only because Bree turned the volume up so loud. And after the news went off, Lulu had replayed every moment of their encounter at Eddie’s office. And then she’d been offended all over again by his behavior.

Really. She had. She had.

Instead of being put off by her admission, Cole smiled even more broadly. “Silk Purse,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes in confusion. “I’m sorry?”

“That’s the name of the horse I have running in the Derby. Silk Purse.”

“Oooooh,” she said. “Gotcha. Well, I promise to bet on him.”

“Her.”

“What?”

“Her,” he repeated. “Silk Purse is a filly.”

“Oh, well, I’ll definitely bet on her,” Lulu said. “I always root for the women.”

Although she wouldn’t have thought it possible, his smile grew