This, I believed.After all, I'd seen his vehicle pulling out of his garage with barely enough time to spare. As for myself, I'd followed after him notfiveminutes later, but only two, because I hadn't wanted to be late for whatever this was.
A date?
Well, I guess I'd find out, wouldn't I?
On the snow-covered pavement behind his vehicle, I spotted a long wooden sled, the old-fashioned kind with a festive upward curve in the front.
At the sight of it, I smiled. "Nice toboggan." In fact, it was so nice, it looked like a family heirloom. "How long have you had it?"
"You want the truth?"
I gave a happy nod. "Of course."
"Let's see." He paused as if thinking. "I've had it for…" Suddenly, he grinned. "Three hours."
I laughed. "No way. You bought it just for this?"
"You might say that."
Whether justified or not, I felt obscenely flattered. "But where did you get it?" Sleds like these weren't easy to find, especially on short notice.
Cole shrugged like it was no big deal. "I made a few phone calls. It wasn't hard."
For some reason, that last word,hard,got me thinking, not about anything in his pants, but about him in general. During those awful two weeks I'd spent working for him, I might've called him the hardest person I'd ever met.
Hardandcold.
Tonight, he stilllookedhard, but only in body. I mean, yeah, he was wearing a ski jacket, so it's not like I could see his muscles, but Ididcatch a nice glimpse of his firm backside when he reached down to grab the rope attached to his sled.
As far as his demeanor, I wouldn’t call it soft exactly, but itwasa lot warmer than I might've expected. And he was shockingly considerate as he guided us toward the hill, walking slow enough for me to keep up even though his stride was a lot longer than mine.
As we tramped through the snow, Cole dragged the sled along behind us, using the bright yellow rope that was looped through reinforced holes in the sled's front-facing curve.
I asked, "Do you want me to help?"
"With what?"
I pointed. "The sled."
In a voice tinged with amusement, he said, "I think I can handle it."
I gave him a long sideways glance. There was something about him, whether it was the way he moved or the way he looked, that suggested he could handle just about anything.
Funny, I'd thought the same thing while working for him, except back then, I always figured that I would be on theotherside of any trouble – working against him rather than with him.
As I considered this dynamic, select words lingered in my brain.Against him. And with him.If I combined these two motions, it conjured up quite an image, and I tried not to blush.
When I briefly lost my footing, his hand reached out to steady me so quickly, I wondered at his reflexes.
Huh.Maybe hewasa vampire.
By the time we reached the hill's summit, I felt obnoxiously warm – and not only from the effort of walking uphill in the snow.
I watched with interest as Cole positioned the sled so it faced downward on the flat surface of the hill's highest point. We were standing only a few paces away from the guardrail that divided the sledding area from the road leading to the bridge.
But this only added to the charm of everything around us – the sparse traffic on the high bridge, the wide frozen river off to the side, the ice-skating rink far below us, and the falling snowflakes that glistened under the towering lights that illuminated the park. It all felt so wintery that I felt a huge, goofy smile spread across my face.
With a smile of his own, Cole asked, "Front or back?"
