Fast & Loose by Elizabeth Bevarly (best classic books to read txt) 📗

pillow fluffer. Or a turkey stuffer. Or maybe he wanted her to be gruffer, or rougher, or tougher.

Because what woman would want to be told she’d make a great buffer keeping sexy, beautiful women away from a guy, something that suggested—no, designated—that the guy didn’t think she was particularly sexy or beautiful herself? Especially if the guy telling a woman that was Cole? The only thing worse would be if he offered to pay her money to be a buffer.

Just to reassure herself that that wasn’t what he was asking, she hurried on before he could reply, “You want to pay me money to be a buffer?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I want.”

Ah. Well, then. Good that they had that cleared up.

She lifted a hand to her forehead to rub away a headache that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Okay, I think I’m having a little trouble here grasping certain, ah…nuances of what you’re saying.”

He looked nonplussed. “Which nuances?”

“The nuance about you wanting to pay me money to be a buffer.”

He looked even more nonplussed at that. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

Lulu wasn’t surprised. It was hard to follow someone who had no idea where this was going. She tried again. “Although I get the part about wanting a buffer—”

“Needing a buffer,” he interjected.

“Needing a buffer,” she conceded, “I don’t understand why you feel like you have to pay someone to go out with you. Unless you’re expecting way more than someone to just, you know, go out with you.”

“See, I knew you were going to think that,” he said.

Oh, good, she thought. Because it would make things so much easier if he was trying to solicit sex from her. She could just throw her scalding tea in his face, stomp on his foot with her steel-toed work boot, call him something that wasn’t fit to print and be on her merry way.

“There are actually several reasons for why I need to pay someone for that,” he told her.

Hey, Lulu wasn’t greedy. She’d settle for one.

“First,” he began, “because I don’t know anyone in town except you. And Bree. But I feel like I know you better, since I met you first.”

For now, though, she only said, “I understand. But considering the way women flock to you when you’re out, I can’t see that being a situation that will last very long.”

“And that’s reason number two,” he said. “Those women who come up to me when I’m out are the reason I need someone else. Those are the women I need to keep away. Because they’re all…” He blew out a restless breath. “Well, they’re all…gorgeous. And built. And hot. And way, way too distracting.”

“And that’s not what you want,” Lulu said.

“Right.”

“So you’re asking me to go out with you, because I’m not gorgeous, built, hot, or distracting.”

“Right,” he said. Then, “No!” He quickly backpedaled when he realized what he’d just implied. Implied hell, Lulu thought. He’d flat out told her she was unattractive and off-putting. Then she reminded herself that she was sitting in front of him wearing filthy overalls and a worn-out bandanna, and that she was probably, ah, redolent of her day’s work. That was beside the point. The point was she wasn’t gorgeous, built, hot, or distracting even when she was at her best. And that wasn’t something a woman liked to be reminded of. Especially by a guy who was gorgeous, built, hot, and distracting.

“That’s not what I meant at all,” Cole assured her. And although Lulu told herself it wasn’t possible, two faint spots of pink appeared on his cheeks. He was embarrassed, she marveled. Or maybe it was just the heat from his coffee. Yeah, that had to be it. “You’re…you’re lovely,” he added.

Uh-huh.

“Really.”

Yeah.

“You’re just not…”

Go on.

No way was Lulu going to help him out of the hole he’d dug for himself. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms over her midsection, and raised one eyebrow in silent inquiry.

He expelled another frustrated sound. “You’re just not the type of woman I usually go out with,” he finally said. “And I’m not your type, either,” he hastily added. “You’ve made that clear.”

She had?

“That’s why I think this could be a perfect situation,” he told her. “You and I can go out and enjoy ourselves, and neither of us will risk being distracted by the other. Naturally, though, what I’m asking you to do will take up a lot of your time. So it makes sense that I would compensate you for it.”

Well, when he put it that way…

He wasn’t her type, Lulu told herself. That didn’t mean he wasn’t gorgeous and built and hot. It just meant he wasn’t the type of guy she went for. So there was no reason she should feel insulted by anything he’d just said. If she were looking to ward off an unwanted romantic entanglement—or, as was Cole’s case, a sexual entanglement, because she couldn’t imagine a guy like him even being capable of romance—what he was proposing would be what she would do, too, she told herself. She’d avoid the kind of guys she usually went for—bookish, gentle, quiet, safe—and find a guy who was arrogant, mouthy, brash, and dangerous. Just like Cole Early.

So why was she thinking it would be a bad idea to go out with Cole Early for money she could put to good use on her house or business when he was perfectly right—there would be no chance of anything happening between them? More to the point, why was she thinking she’d do it, even if he didn’t offer to pay her?

“How much?” she heard herself ask, surprising herself. She honestly hadn’t even meant to consider it. Even if she was no longer insulted by Cole’s offer—well, not much—there was no reason for her to accept it. She had a busy week coming up, too. And she wasn’t the partying, socializing type. On the contrary, she was the sort of person who always showed up late for functions,