Her Perfect Match Read Free Page A

projected at school. He’d calmed her, taken care of her, told her sweet lies about how she was just the same as she’d always been. Then he’d taken her home where he’d foolishly thought she would be cared for by her parents.
    Had he not seen her running along the road later that night and stopped her, she might have done something foolish and changed her life forever. She’d gone out that night looking for trouble, hoping to publicly embarrass her parents with a deliberate act since they were embarrassed by one she’d had no control over. Somehow Cole had convinced her that she was only hurting herself.
    “I am your friend,” Cole said now. “Have I ever told a single soul you were with me that night I stole the police car? Have I even admitted anyone was with me? I just didn’t see any harm in not continuing to deny a relationship when they wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
    “But that’s probably why they don’t approve of me.”
    “You don’t know that. Just because they’re married doesn’t mean Hope’s forgiven you. You have to see that she’s still jealous because she thinks you and Jeff were involved. It’s why they all assume we are. I don’t think anyone but you, me and Jeff believes you’ve only been friends to the two of us. And my aunt Meg actually likes you a lot. She just doesn’t think we suit each other, and we’ve both agreed that’s true. Right? You do still feel only friendship toward me?”
    She noted the panic in his brown eyes. “Don’t get that worried look. You aren’t about to break my heart.” Then an idea occurred to her. “Oh. But you have broken that nice CJ Larson’s heart and you used me as an excuse to do it. Am I right?”
    Cole gave her a soulful look. “I didn’t mean to.”
    She wasn’t buying the innocent act for a second. “Oh? Did someone else put the words in your mouth? A fairy snuck in here and cast a spell on you?”
    She was satisfied with the color that invaded his cheeks. He explained that he’d been trying to discourage CJ because he was a disaster with relationships and didn’t want to hurt the pretty trainer even worse later on. Cole was basically a nice guy with issues of his own to deal with. So Elizabeth decided to let him use her as a smoke screen until he had himself straightened out, though she felt she needed to attach a condition.
    “Okay, but you have to get your family to believe I’ve never been more than a friend. Your father practically choked trying to describe our relationship to Jack Alton at dinner the other night. Now I know why ‘friend’ was so hard for him to say.”
    “I’m sorry. I’ll do what I can as soon as I can.”
    Elizabeth nodded. “Now about Jack Alton,” she said, taking the opportunity to change the subject. She was really bothered by the new Laurel Glen hire. Were they all wearing blinders? After the trouble with their former foreman, who was in prison for murder and several counts of attempted murder perpetrated at Laurel Glen, it boggled her mind that no one wasquestioning Jack Alton’s suspicious resemblance to the entire Taggert family. She had to believe her extreme reactions to him were a signal that he was up to some sort of mischief. “Tell me about your new foreman,” she demanded.
    Cole nodded as if on her wavelength. “Jack Alton. Spooky, huh? Dad and Amelia seem to think it’s coincidence. I think as good an influence as Amelia has been on Dad since they met and got married, she should have left a little of his cynicism intact. At least Hope and Jeff are suspicious.”
    “What do you know about him?”
    “He’s from Colorado, not far from Greeley. He attended the University of Northern Colorado there. Grew up on a ranch called the Circle A. He’s not getting along with his father so he decided to strike out on his own. His personal and business references checked out.”
    “But what’s he doing here?” she asked. The resemblance was just too coincidental.
    Cole shook his