Dead Heat (19 page)

Cole waved to her family and came around the car to open her door. He had dressed in khaki pants and a French blue dress shirt that made his silver eyes look ice blue. She smiled as he helped her out of the truck and wondered why it was her hands that were sweaty and not Coles.

“Thanks for inviting me to dinner, Mrs. Davies.” Paige watched as her mother flustered as Cole gave her his full smile before turning to her father. “Mr. Davies.” He shook her father’s hand.

“Nice grip, son. Not one of those pansy handshakes. Come on and take a seat. We were just about to have a beer. Would you like one?” Her father gestured to the long row of rocking chairs on the front porch.

“Sounds good.” Cole turned and gave her a quick look to make sure he didn’t need to stay with her. When she gave a slight nod, he took the offered beer and had a seat amongst her father and brothers.

Paige set the table and called the men in to dinner. Her mother had made fried chicken and sweet potato casserole for dinner along with bread and a salad. Everyone hurried in and took their customary seats. Her mother had set an extra place next to Paige and she watched as he moved comfortably around her family to take his seat.

Her mother led Grace, and Paige threw in an extra prayer for good luck. As soon as the Amens were said, the moment Paige had been dreading happened. Her father set his fork down on his plate and laced his fingers together. He stared right at Cole who was innocently taking a bite of his chicken.

“So tell me, Cole, what are your intentions with our Paige?” Paige groaned and sat back in her chair. It was no use trying to fight it. She was just going to watch the evening go down in flames and prepare herself for the inevitable ‘it’s been great, but’ speech from Cole tomorrow.

“Well, I intend to keep her safe until this man is caught.”

“It seems that your job may be at an end, Cole. With the indictment and it being quiet for over a week now. I bet you’re itching to get back to your life now – and your own apartment.” Miles took another bite of dinner, never taking his eyes off of Cole.

“You all should know better than that. It’s the quiet times I worry about the most.” Cole looked at her mother and smiled. “These potatoes are really great, Mrs. Davies.”

“Thank you, Cole. You can call me Marcy.” Well, at least he had gotten her mother’s approval. That was more than Bill had gotten.

“I have an idea. Did you know my big sis is a great shot? Why don’t we have a tournament after dinner, just like we used to.” Pierce smiled at her so sweetly that she narrowed her eyes. What was he up to? She was an excellent shot and very competitive. She would excel at this, so what was his point?

“I like it a lot. We’re pretty inexperienced this season, but with Will coaching I think we’ll do pretty well. Have a couple of Seniors that are getting a lot of looks from colleges. Paige here is one of our biggest fans. She doesn’t miss a game. She’s kinda competitive. If I was less of a man, I might be embarrassed.” Cade winked at her.

Yea! Cade approved. She blushed at his teasing though. Okay, so she really got into the game, but that didn’t mean all her brothers had to laugh at her like they were doing now. Snickering behind their napkins. Oh, she’d show them after dinner.

“Come on, Pierce, let’s go get the targets set up.” Her father placed his napkin on the table and headed out to the back yard.

“Marshall, get a rifle for Cole. I am going to get one of my extras from my room.” Paige stood up from the table and put down her napkin.

“Extras? Where’s your primary one?” Cole asked.

“In my truck. Where else?” She turned on her heel and headed up to her room.

“Sorry little bro. Maybe you’ll beat me when I am old and my eyesight is gone.” Miles patted Pierce’s head and laughed.

“Too bad the military didn’t teach you how to shoot.” Paige crowed to Marshall. The first round was five shots at one hundred yards with no scopes. All five of her rounds were bulls-eyes.

“Sorry, Mr. Davies, but a tournament’s a tournament.” Cole smiled and shook her father’s hand.

“You can call me Jake. Good luck, you’ll need it.” Paige smiled. Now if only her brothers could get on board.

“Cade, you take Paige. Miles you and Cole go together.” Her father moved the targets back fifty yards and moved far off to the side. At his signal Miles shot, then Cade. Her father collected the targets and put new ones up. Paige shot and then Cole.

“Sweetpea versus hot shot FBI Agent,” her father shouted as he moved the targets back another fifty yards.

“Good shooting, Parker. You’re the first one to knock Miles out besides Paige. Where’d you learn to shoot like that?” Paige smiled, Marshall was on board now.

Paige took her aim and gently squeezed the trigger. She made a minor adjustment and gently squeezed off four more shots. Cole stepped up to the line and waited for her father to wave the all clear. He aimed and squeezed off his five shots.

“I would love too, but I really need to run to my apartment and get some things. Can you all watch Paige and I will be back in an hour to take her home? I figured that would give her enough time to rub it in that she beat us all.”

Chapter Fourteen

Paige hugged her parents and waved goodbye to her brothers as she got into Cole’s Explorer. She watched as Cole shook her father and brothers' hands, and then gave her mother a hug before walking around to his side of the car. If only she knew that tonight had a future, she’d be the happiest person alive.

“No. I loved it. You’re a great shot by the way. How did you become so good? I was at the top of my class at the Academy and you beat me.” Paige was slightly embarrassed by the praise, but was really proud. She had worked hard and her brothers had supported her all the way. But most men were intimidated and didn’t like being beat by a girl.

“I followed my big brothers around everywhere. I wanted to be just like them. I started shooting as soon as I was big enough to hold a rifle. My father started taking me to target practice with them when I got big enough. My brothers were nice enough to let me tag along. They encouraged me and taught me how to read the wind and the physics of shooting.

They also got a kick out of challenging their friends and watching me beat them. They didn’t take it as well as you did, especially when they were between fifteen and seventeen years old and I was just ten. They told me to play my own game and take my own shot. It never bothered me until I was older and wanted to date guys. They were intimidated by my being better than them at shooting, football, and basketball. You add very overprotective brothers into the mix and you get a very boring social life.”

Cole pulled into the back of her shop and opened her door. He held out his hand and she slipped hers into his. His thumb traced small circles over her pulse point on her wrist as he led her up the stairs.

Paige awoke to the banging of pots in the kitchen. She reached over looking for Cole, but only encountered a furry, snoring Chuck. What had she done? She’d had amazing sex, duh. But, no! She had made a deal with herself not to do that anymore. It would only make it harder when he left. She was already in over her head with her feelings. She didn’t need fabulous sex to cloud her judgment.

“Okay. No more sex. No more kissing. No more really, really, really great sex,” she told Chuck who just thumped his tree trunk of a tail.

She tugged on a pair of olive shorts and pulled out a white ribbed shirt from her drawers. She pulled open her door and headed down the hall for the kitchen. When she walked through the living room, she spotted boxes piled up and the kitchen door open.

“What’s going on?” She asked Cole as he carried another box in from his car.

“Morning sweetheart! I brought some things from my house.”

“But, those are pots and pans. And that box is labeled linens. I have all those things. I don’t understand.” Paige looked at the box marked kitchen and found a blender and some Tupperware.

“Well, I didn’t know how long I would be here for this case, so I decided to bring some of my favorite things from home to use. And, guess what. I got you something!” Cole reached behind the island and pulled out a red vacuum cleaner. “Isn’t it great? It even picks up dog hair.”

Paige stared at the red vacuum, speechless. Lingerie, flowers, chocolates, a picture frame. Those would be acceptable gifts. But, a vacuum? For as long as the case goes on? Oh.No.He.Didn’t.

“What do you think?” Cole asked. She looked away from the vacuum and saw him move over her toaster and plug in his blender. Her pots were being stacked up to make room for a skillet and a George Forman Grill. “Well?”

“You got me a vacuum? What was wrong with the vacuum I had?”

“Well, this one picks up dog hair. I thought you could use it on the couch and then we wouldn’t have Chuck hair all over our clothes.” He smiled as if he had just given her a diamond ring.

“You are? I don’t remember having this discussion. I don’t recall you asking me if this is what I wanted. Actually, come to think of it I don’t recall us even having a real relationship.”

“Of course we have a relationship. What do you think we’ve been doing for the past month?”

“Well, as far as we have talked about, you’ve been protecting me and acting in a fake relationship.” She felt her face flush in anger over his presumptions.

“But we’re sleeping together,” Cole said as if that explained the whole situation.

“Oh, I know we’re sleeping together. Having sex doesn’t mean we have a relationship and that you can just move all your stuff in without talking to me about it!” Paige threw her hands up in the air. “And then you get me a vacuum. A vacuum!”

“What’s wrong with the vacuum? It picks up pet hair.” Cole bit out.

“Arg!” Unbelivable! He just didn’t get it. You can’t go from never talking about a relationship to moving in without asking and then to bringing a vacuum as a gift.

She was speechless. But the words working their way out of her mouth were lost. She grabbed the keys to her truck, and with a glare ran past Cole down the back stairs to her truck. She needed to get away. She needed a moment of quiet to think this over and to scream at the top of her lungs. She ignored Cole as he yelled at her to stop from the top of the stairs. Paige unlocked her truck and shoved the key in the ignition.

“Paige! Stop! Don’t you dare leave here. Get back here this instant!” Cole yelled as he raced down the stairs.

“Oh, I double dog dare you…you vacuum gifter!” She cranked over the key and slammed the truck into reverse and laid rubber.

Angry tears streamed down her face as she drove towards her parents’ house. A vacuum! As if she was the happy little woman of the house cleaning up the dog hair so it wouldn’t get on his shirt. Nooo, that would imply they had a talk to determine she was the woman of the house.