Cole For Christmas. Darlene Gardner

picked that moment to slant him another one of those disapproving looks. A shard of guilt speared through Cole.

      She’d spent a good portion of the last few hours trying to make her family understand they weren’t dating, and here he was looking at her with “glowy” eyes and expounding on their non-existent romance.

      It was a terrible way to repay her for the kindness of asking him to dinner with her warm, wonderful family.

      “So when did you change your mind about Anna being cruel and decide you wanted to ask her out?” Grandma Ziemanski asked.

      “He didn’t say cruel, Mom,” Rosemary cut in with an audible tsk. “He said cool.”

      “Alright already. Then let me put it another way.” Grandma Ziemanski peered at him. “When did the cools turn into the hots?”

      Cole was about to point out that he didn’t have the hots for his boss when he realized he needed to face facts.

      A few hours ago, on the sidewalk in front of the house, a definite thaw had begun when he noticed she was nervous about introducing him to her family.

      The notion of Anna being apprehensive about anything had thrown him, and he’d glimpsed a different, softer woman in those moments under the starlight.

      After watching her talk and laugh with her family over dinner, he’d concluded that woman and not the cool, detached one who came to the office every day was the true Anna.

      He tapped his chin with a knuckle while he thought about how to phrase his answer so that it was both truthful and non-inflammatory.

      Yes, he was attracted to Anna. But, no, he couldn’t become involved with her.

      “Anna asked you out first, didn’t she?” Rosemary asked when the moments lengthened without a response. “That’s what you don’t want to say?”

      “No,” Cole said quickly, then thought of the invitation to dinner. “I mean yes, but—”

      “That Anna has always been too straightforward for her own good,” Rosemary said. “Did you know she told Brad Perriman right there in the living room in front of all of us that she didn’t want to date him? Not that he accepted that. But in this case, I suppose we should be thankful.”

      “Look, I should confess something here,” Cole began before the women could jump to any more conclusions.

      “I already know,” Rosemary said. “Don’t you think I noticed the way she’s been glaring at you?”

      “What do you know?” Grandma Ziemanski asked her daughter.

      “That Anna made Cole here promise to tell us he was only a friend.”

      “That’s true,” Cole said. “But—”

      Rosemary patted him on the hand.

      “Don’t worry about it,” she interrupted. “We knew Anna wasn’t telling the truth about you not being her boyfriend as soon as we saw you.”

      WHAT WAS COLE telling her mother and grandmother?

      Anna tried to convey with a long, penetrating look that he needed to be careful of what he said.

      The main reason she didn’t bring home men was that the Ziemanski women seemed to think she needed a husband. Anna wasn’t against marriage but she’d yet to have a truly successful relationship.

      Before unleashing her family on a man, she needed to be sure she not only loved him but trusted him. The way she’d never trust a man who panted after her job.

      She’d had Cole in her sights long enough to notice that teeth were flashing on either side of him. Didn’t he realize things weren’t going well if her mother and grandmother were smiling?

      She’d have to head over there and set things straight but not until Julie and Drew, her sister’s husband of three months, understood the situation. She turned back to them.

      “So now you see why I couldn’t leave Cole all alone in the office on Christmas Eve, right?” she asked.

      Julie giggled, prompting Anna to notice that Drew was nuzzling a spot below her sister’s ear. She frowned.

      “Are you two even listening to me?”

      “Listening?” Julie looked at her blankly, then seemed to register what she’d asked. “Oh, yes, listening. Of course we were listening. Weren’t we, Drew?”

      He peeled his lips off her sister’s neck and nodded sheepishly, like she’d caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. “Yes. Cole in the office. You asking him to dinner.”

      “Only because I felt sorry for him,” Anna emphasized. “End of story.”

      “Would you get me another glass of wine, sweetie?” Julie asked her husband, reaching up on tiptoes to give him a lingering kiss on the mouth.

      When he was gone, she rolled her hazel eyes at Anna. “Would you give it up already, Anna? Don’t you think we can all tell something’s going on between you and Mr. Hunk?”

      “My own sister,” Anna said through clenched teeth, “and you don’t believe me either.”

      “That’s because you’ve cried wolf once too often.”

      “If you remember, a wolf does show up in that fairy tale and eats the shepherd boy’s sheep,” Anna pointed out with heat.

      “Wolves don’t look at women the way Cole has been looking at you,” Julie said, then bit her lip. “Hey, maybe they do.” Her face creased into a wide smile. “Lucky you.”

      How dare he? Anna thought as she mentally reviewed the looks Cole had been giving her. Her sister was right. They did have a wolfish quality.

      “Excuse me,” she said to Julie and headed straight for Cole.

      He was watching her again. Watching her and—she could hardly believe his nerve—smiling.

      But not an innocent smile. His teeth weren’t visible, his lips had a sensuous curve and his eyes roamed over her with barely concealed appreciation.

      Anybody who intercepted that look would probably conclude that he could hardly wait to get her alone, she thought as she stomped toward him.

      “Where you going in such a rush?” Her father stepped in front of her so she had to stop or careen into him. He was in a conversational group that included her Aunt Miranda and Uncle Peter. “I, for one, would like to hear more about Cole.”

      “I’m all ears, too,” Aunt Miranda said. She slanted a cool look at her stockbroker husband. “I think we could all take a break from Peter speculating about which stores in the retail sector are providing the best investment opportunities.”

      “It was more than mere speculation. It was expert analysis,” Peter said, stroking his neatly cropped beard and visibly bristling. “Wonder if Cole plays the market.”

      Cole. If she heard that name one more time, Anna thought she might scream.

      “I really wouldn’t know,” Anna said. “Like I’ve been telling you, I hardly know him at all.”

      “Don’t you two talk to each other?” her aunt asked before taking a long sip from her glass of white wine.

      “Hardly,” Anna said. “If you’d been listening to me, you’d know that—”

      “I say we get Cole over here so we can all become better acquainted,” her father interrupted before beckoning to Cole. “Hey, Cole, the Ziemanski women have had you long enough. Come talk to us Wesleys.”

      Anna watched as Cole slanted regretful looks at first her mother and then her grandmother, as though he’d actually enjoyed talking to them. He walked up to their group and took a position next to her instead of between her father and uncle,