Page 16 of The Cowboy's Surprise Return

“It’s a tip. It’s not every day a man my age gets to enjoy such a beautiful view.”

Mrs. Fisher pursed her lips, but Cole noted the hint of pink that had appeared in her cheeks at the compliment.

Realizing he’d been hunched on his stool for at least twenty minutes, Cole arched back and stretched out his arms, then clasped his hands behind his neck and twisted from side to side. Years of rodeo hadn’t done his body any favors, but some yoga moves he’d picked up from nature guide and yoga instructor Jen Kulak, over in Blueberry Springs, Colorado, had helped. When he remembered to do them.

“Mmm. You been working out, Cole?”

The sweet female voice had him twisting toward the stool on his left. He lowered his arms as Daisy-Mae Ray licked her lips; her gaze doing a slow crawl over his biceps and shoulders.

“What’s up, Daisy-Mae?” He hunched back over his coffee, wishing he could hide. He was getting tired of the attention. There’d been a time when he’d have rolled around in it like a dog that had found something that smelled particularly appetizing.

“Not much.” She crossed her arms and leaned her elbows on the counter, pressing her impressive cleavage against the V of her shirt.

Cole cleared his throat and looked the other way. A woman had slid in on his other side, as well. Myles’s girlfriend, Karen Hartley, the town librarian. She was the opposite of Daisy-Mae, with her dark hair, and blouse buttoned to her collarbone. She was cute. Pretty. And oh so serious.

“The library is having an auction,” she announced.

“We need bachelors,” Daisy-Mae cooed, lowering her lashes and batting them twice when Cole glanced back at her.

“It’s not like that.” Karen had set a clipboard on the counter, pen poised above a list. “Would you help us?”

He opened his mouth to decline, but she quickly carried on. “On Friday the thirteenth”—she gave a tiny shiver—“we’re having an auction as well as a wine and cheese social. Free admittance.”

“Free? I didn’t hear that,” Mrs. Fisher said, strolling past. She paused, smoothing her half apron over her hips before picking up the full coffeepot.

“If more than fifty county residents participate we’re eligible for a nice-sized grant.”

“So we need to get people in the door,” Daisy-Mae explained.

“We also welcome donations, but I’m sure the auction will more than cover the cost of the wine and cheese,” Karen said crisply, her spine straightening as she adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses.

“People make poor decisions when they’ve had a few drinks,” Daisy-Mae said, stroking her neck with her long, lacquered nails.

“We aren’t promoting bad decisions,” Karen warned her.

“It’s a bachelor auction,” Daisy-Mae pointed out.

Karen raised her voice, her exasperation clear. “It’s not like that, Daisy-Mae. We aren’t auctioning dates. This is different. And it’s done blindly.”

“Do you like to be blindfolded?” Daisy-Mae asked Cole, giggling. The woman was incorrigible.

He stared at the small window to the diner’s kitchen. He would offer to scour that greased-up grill for free for the rest of the year if he thought it might get him out of this conversation.

“Nobody is blindfolded,” Karen muttered tersely.

“You get so wound up,” Daisy-Mae said playfully. She leaned over and snagged a clean cup, then flagged down Mrs. Fisher, who had moved along the counter with her coffeepot.

“You want one, Karen?” Mrs. Fisher asked, as she returned to fill Daisy-Mae’s.

The librarian shook her head and smoothed a hand down the sheet on her clipboard. Cole held out his cup for Mrs. Fisher, receiving a top up.

As the waitress moved away, he realized he would have been smarter to ask for his tab so he could escape before he got roped into saving the library or some such thing.

Then again, that’s what the old Cole would have done—escaped.

He was kind of missing that guy right now.

Karen adjusted her glasses again and pivoted to face him. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but they almost shut the library down a few months ago.”

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