Free Big Girls Don't Cry by Cathie Linz Page B

really have more than enough?” Cole countered. “I don’t think so.”
    “No, you wouldn’t, would you? You’d think the more the merrier.”
    “Now you’re making it sound like I’m hosting orgies with multiple partners. I feel the need to remind you that my aunt is a nun.”
    “She must be so proud,” Leena mocked.
    Far from being insulted, Cole’s expression softened with affection before he bent down to rub Misty’s ears.
    “Yeah, she is proud of me. Go figure. So is my other aunt, Nancy. She owns Crumpler’s Auto Parts. Both of them will probably drop by to see you soon.”
    This got Leena’s immediate attention. “What? See me? Why?”
    “Because they like to look after my best interests.”
    “Which involves me how?”
    “You said it yourself. You’ve come to town to save me. It’s only natural that they’d want to meet the woman who would make such a bold claim.”
    “Yeah, well, I was only kidding . . .”
    “Never kid a nun. They don’t take kindly to it.”
    “I find that hard to believe.”
    “Not believing . . .” Cole shook his head. “Something else I wouldn’t brag about to a nun.”
    “You’re just trying to make me nervous.”
    “Is it working?”
    It was, but no way was Leena confessing that to him, or to his aunt the nun.
    “You don’t have to answer that,” he said.
    “I don’t intend to,” she assured him.
    “One more thing . . .”
    “I have no interest in anything else you have to say,” Leena loftily informed him.
    “Are you sure? I really think this is something that would be of great interest to you.”
    “I am so totally not interested that I can’t even begin to tell you.”
    “Okay.” He shrugged. “So you’re not interested in the fact that I can see through your dress? I thought you might want to know, but hey, it’s your call.”
    “What?!” Leena immediately looked down.
    “Your dress,” Cole repeated. “I can see through it.”
    “Where?”
    “Pretty much from the waist down.”
    She lifted her head to fix him with a narrow-eyed glare. “You’re just trying to freak me out.”
    “I’m telling the truth.”
    “Oh yeah? Then what color is my underwear?”
    Only after Cole focused his attention on that intimate part of her anatomy did Leena belatedly realize that this line of questioning wasn’t prudent.
    “Never mind,” she quickly said.
    “Pink. Your underwear is pink.”
    “A lucky guess.”
    He squinted a bit, highlighting the crinkly laugh lines at the outer corners of his eyes. “Pink with polka dots.”
    Damn. She knew she should have changed lingerie. One of the premier rules of fashion was to make sure your lingerie enhanced your outfit—not sabotaged it.
    Pink polka-dotted underwear didn’t go with this wild outfit. She should have worn something nude.
    That seemed to be the word of the day.
    Appropriate lingerie didn’t solve the dilemma of her apparently semitransparent dress. Sure the material was kind of sheer, but when she’d looked at herself in the bathroom mirror it had seemed okay, aside from the how-low-can-you-go bodice.
    So what had happened? Had she inadvertently pulled a Princess Diana by standing with the sun behind her like a giant spotlight?
    She looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, that was the problem.
    Leena quickly changed positions so the sun was at her side instead of behind her.
    “Is that better?” she asked before remembering who she was speaking to.
    “Depends on your point of view,” Cole replied.
    “Is this point of view as revealing as the previous one?”
    “If you’re asking me if I can still see through your dress, then the answer is no.”
    She heaved a sigh of relief.
    “But now you’re on the verge of going topless.”
    Leena frantically looked down.
    Cole laughed. “Just kidding.”
    “Idiot!” Infuriated, she smacked his arm . . . hard.
    “Ouch!”
    Misty the Pekinese barked protectively, leaping up and down at their feet before taking a mouthful of Leena’s