A Late Thaw Read Free

was crying, but trying desperately to hide it. Cole frowned and climbed out of his truck.
    “Hey.” The crunching of the gravel beneath his boots seemed especially loud amidst the thick quiet of the night.
    She jerked as she looked up. Her pale blue eyes widened with surprise before she glared at him. “What are you doing here?”
    He nearly sighed. It just didn’t feel like all that long ago that he and Kil ey had been inseparable.
    “What happened?”
    “Nothing.” She turned and started stalking away.
    He took two large steps toward her and grasped her shoulder. “You shouldn’t be walking home alone this late. It’s not safe.”
    She snorted. “Not a problem I’ll have again since I was just fired.”
    “What? How did you get fired?”
    Kiley pulled her shoulder away. The humor in her eyes faded. He should have phrased the question differently. She was deploying her defenses.
    “Don’t worry about it.” She stopped for a second and frowned. “Don’t you have a date tonight?”
    “Not really. What happened, Ki?” he asked as gently as he could.
    She looked down at her feet. “I just lost my temper. It’s fine. Buddy’s right. I wasn’t any good at waitressing anyway.” Her sniffle belied her words, but when she looked back up at him, she was smiling just a little. “I dumped a mug of beer over this one jerkwad’s head.”
    The icy tentacles of rage slithered up Cole’s spine. “He touch you?”
    “Smacked my ass as I walked by and called me Sweet Cheeks. Not even the first guy to get grabsy tonight. Or even the first person I left wearing a beer. It’s a real classy place, huh?”
    The world blurred at the edges of Cole’s line of sight. He grabbed her hand. “We’re gonna go have a little talk with Buddy.” He barely grated the words out from behind his clenched jaw.
    She pulled back. “Stop. I mean it, Cole.”
    He glared back at her, bewildered. Why couldn’t she just let him help? When did she decide that caring about her made him the bad guy? “He can’t expect you to put up with that shit. I’d have given the bastard a broken nose.”
    “Which also would have been an unprofessional way of handling it. I should have told Buddy and gotten the asshole sent home.”
    “He can’t fire you for that.”
    She sighed. “I really don’t want to talk about it. This was a sucky night even before I got fired. All I want is to go home and shower for an eternity or two.”
    “You said you needed this job.”
    Her eyes filled with tears again. He wished he hadn’t pushed.
    “I do,” she said. “I’m not really sure what I’ll … There has to be something else. I’ll find something else.” She sniffled again but squared her shoulders. “I’ll find something else,” she repeated with renewed determination.
    Kiley was stronger than she looked. It was a trait he admired, even if it drove him crazy. “You could work for me. I could use a housekeeper, a little help in the vegetable garden.” The words were out before he’d given them much thought.
    She shook her head. “I’m not going to be your housekeeper, Cole.”
    “Of course not. Too good for that, right?”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    “Isn’t it?”
    “No. I just …it would be too weird.”
    Her eyes were still glossy with tears. He’d come back to yell at her, to get off his chest a few of the perfect insults he’d come up with over the past few years, but he couldn’t do it with her crying. “Go get in the truck. I’ll bring you home.”
    “I can walk. It’s not far.”
    Cole closed his eyes and exhaled slowly through his nose. “I’m not letting you walk home alone after you’ve been parading around in front of a bunch of drunk asses wearing that.” He pointed to the low cut front of her dress. Some jerk had put his hands on her. He could barely think through the red haze of his anger.
    Kiley’s eyes flashed. “It’s not your place to let me do anything. I make my own choices. I don’t