Art-Crossed Love by Libby Rice

Author:Libby Rice [Rice, Libby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spicy Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Gateway Publishing Ltd.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Lissa stared at the kitchen ceiling. Cole had no idea what it cost her to play indifferent. Hopefully he never would. Project Impossible existed to usher in a new era of artistic development, not a new man.

So keep your head on straight and your pants on… period.

She found the toaster moldering in a corner of the cupboard below the island. She’d seen Cole eat toast before. From his demonstration this morning, he’d probably cooked it with tongs over an open flame on a gas burner. She dropped bread into the slots and asked, “When?”

His head snapped up. Cole knew she wanted to know when he’d be giving her—as if the country were his to bestow—the ever-elusive India. “When we’re ready,” he said.

“Fine. Great.” She punched the lever to sink the bread. “Maybe you could elaborate on your special definition of ‘ready.’”

Earlier Cole had carried a look of faint shame. That and his attempt at breakfast had been an obvious peace offering. All his bashful and apologetic fled with her demand, and he hardened into the familiar task master who wouldn’t be swayed. Not by a first-aid kit. Not by a spoonful of Nutella. Definitely not by the memory of coming inside her.

“When we can work in tandem without wasting our time, and thus our trip.”

The simple answer was disquieting. Lissa couldn’t bounce back with a pithy “we’ve trained long enough” when Cole’s logic offered no place to hide. He’d complimented her latest painting and she his photographs. One time each. While a better place than “drivel” and “boring as hell,” a single nod did not a long-term partnership make.

The toaster popped, and she laid two pieces on a plate in front of Cole, along with her Nutella and his peanut butter. “Here’s to tandem.”

Cole carefully heaped toppings on his bread, then placed both pieces side-by-side on the plate and looked up, like he wouldn’t eat the food until they had an understanding, a real honest-to-God meeting of the minds. “I also can’t leave until I have a sense of Kent’s health.”

The acknowledgement reminded her of her dad’s offer, of the shifts of nurses he’d hire for around-the-clock care for Kent if it meant she and Cole might progress the way Lissa wanted. “I know.”

With that, Cole took a bite. Chewed. “Trevor called this morning. Kent’s doing well. He’ll probably be released within a day or two, basically on his own recognizance. The doctors slapped him with additional drugs and a strict diet. Trevor’s calling it the NoLo diet—either no or low everything. Egg whites and Greek yogurt from here on out.”

Lissa dripped honey over her Nutella-Skippy magic, feeling for Kent with every lazy swirl.

“His memory is vacationing.” Cole let out a jerky laugh, as if his breath had caught in the trip down his throat. “Short term is horrible, as in he doesn’t recall whether he brushed his teeth five minutes ago. Long term has holes, but seems to be coming back in bits and pieces.”

Only a nod was possible, unless she wanted to make an unholy honey-chocolate-peanut-butter mess.

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