Some Like It Ruthless (A Temporary Engagement) Read Free Page B

him, who tried to knock some sense into him and prepare him for life in shark-infested waters.
    And he’d never realized what he’d had until he’d thrown it away.

    Twenty years ago
    Cole had been too busy looking through his binoculars to hear her footsteps. When she nudged him with her shoe, he jumped and shrieked, spinning on his toes and raising his fists.
    Maggie looked at his raised fists as if she’d never seen one pointed her direction before and said, “My daddy shoots trespassers.”
    Cole puffed out his chest. “This is my land. This is Montgomery land.”
    “It’s Caldwell land.”
    He sneered. “Better check your map, baby.”
    Even at ten-years-old, Maggie knew how to raise an eyebrow just so. It was nearly as fearsome as a pair of fists. “My daddy says any man calls me baby, I should kick him in the balls.”
    Cole protected himself reflexively. “My daddy says your daddy is a bad loser. Empress.”
    He would just file that no baby rule away for future thought. He wasn’t willing to test it again on Maggie.
    Maggie took a step forward and shoved him. “I told you, don’t call me that.”
    Cole raised his hands to shove Maggie back, then remembered. You didn’t shove a girl. You didn’t hit a girl. You didn’t call a girl baby.
    There wasn’t all these rules in his before-life and it took effort to take a step back. He said, “My daddy says someone shoves you, they better expect a shove back.”
    His father had never said anything like it. If Cole had to guess, his father would say if someone looked like they were going to shove you, you’d better shove first. And Cole had never in his life called Rich Montgomery daddy. But Maggie had a daddy. It only seemed fair that she think he had one too.
    Maggie sniffed. “I guess we’re even then.”
    “How you figure?”
    “I should have kicked you and you should have shoved me.”
    Cole thought about that for a few minutes, then decided Maggie probably knew what she was talking about. Maggie was pretty big on fair.
    He finally nodded. “Even.”
    “Daddy saw the reflection off your binoculars. You’ve got to remember to keep the sun behind you.”
    Cole’s stomach dropped. He didn’t mind running into Maggie when he might or might not be on Montgomery land; he sure as hell did not want to run into her father.
    He nodded again and before he could even think of anything to say she said, “Ginny says Martha says Gayle says she heard her brother talking about a fight Friday after school.”
    “Michael and Jonah.”
    They’d set it up with him like they were scheduling a piano lesson. He’d never get used to the warnings . How stupid do you have to be to tell your prey when you’re going to attack?
    Maggie narrowed her eyes. Cole had known she wouldn’t like it.
    He said, “I’ve told you. Two against is fine. I can take two sissy boys who’ve never been in a real fight before.”
    “It’s not fair,” she said and Cole rolled his eyes.
    “Two of them equals one of me. It’s fair.”
    “What about three?”
    “Depends on the three.” Cole puffed out his chest but it was wasted on her.
    She said, “How will I know if three is too many?”
    Cole had hated the first time Maggie had come to his rescue, especially since it had only been two boys swinging at him like they was swinging blind-folded at a piñata. But since then he’d realized there was an endless wave of them and only one of him.
    Sometimes a man had to take help where he could get it.
    And he knew exactly what his father would say about that.
    But some days, most days, Cole liked Maggie better than his father, and she made a lot of sense when he was nursing a black eye, fat lip, and sore ribs.
    Cole said, “Maybe we need a signal or something. But it can’t be too obvious.”
    “Like you curled up in a ball on the ground?”
    He narrowed his eyes. She was never going to let him forget that.
    He said, “Sometime before that would probably be okay.”
    Maggie