In other words, he’d been hoping to get away without seeing her at all.
A smile broke out across her face as she ignored his lack of welcome.“You don’t need to do that.”He was clearing the area behind her car so that she could back out safely.
He scraped the shovel against the cement and threw the snow aside.“I know that.”
“Were you afraid that if I got snowed in, I’d be around to pester you all day?”
He paused momentarily.“You could say that.”
That was a rotten thing to say.For days she’d taken pains to stay out of his way.If he didn’t want to see her, that was fine.At least, that was what she’d been telling herself.
“Cole?”With an innocent lilt to her voice she called his name, mischief glittering from her eyes.
He glanced up expectantly just as Lesley threw the snowball and hit him squarely in the chest.
“How could I possibly bother you?”she challenged.“I haven’t seen you in weeks.”Her hands rested defiantly on slim hips; her eyes sparkled brightly.
For an instant Cole looked stunned.“So much for Christian charity,” he murmured and tossed the shovel aside.
Lesley couldn’t keep from laughing.Stooping over, she packed a second snowball.“You seem to think I’ll let you get away with insulting me.Ha!”
Cole leaned over and formed his own snowball as a smile slowly made its way across his face.“How did I insult you?”he asked in a dangerously calm voice.
Her bare hands were freezing and she tossed her threat to the ground and rubbed the warmth back into her frozen fingers.“Peace?”she asked hopefully.
“Oh no, you started this.”
“But...I don’t have any gloves on.”
“You knew that when you threw the first snowball.”
“But...”For every step he took toward her, Lesley took one in retreat.“Would it help if I apologized?”
“It might,” he said and advanced another threatening step.“And then again, it might not.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t challenge me, Lesley.”His mirthful eyes pinned her.
“But you shouldn’t have said that.”
“Said what?”
“That I pester you.”
“You haven’t stopped since the day I first saw you.”
“That’s not true,” she cried indignantly.
“You have no way of knowing, my blue-eyed temptress.”
With bubbling laughter, she reached down, grabbed her snowball and threw it at him with remarkable accuracy.Intense satisfaction raced through her when she saw she’d caught him completely off guard.Pivoting sharply, she ran toward the house.Ten steps from her front door, Cole caught her.
Lesley let out a squeal as his hands gripped her upper arms and flung her around.Somehow she managed to elude him, but Cole made a diving catch for her that sent them both crashing to the snow.
Laughing and breathless, she tossed her head to and fro as Cole attempted to hold her face.“I’m sorry,” she cried with bubbling exhilaration.
“I just bet you are.”
