segment in his mouth so he had an orange-peel smile, then turned on them, growling and grinning and causing them to squeal with glee, then scatter as he chased after them.
Finn’s utter delight as he scarpered with the other kids slugged Cole in the gut. He really, really liked the kid. Maybe he could be a father one day.
Maybe…
Chapter Eight
It was raining when Cole wandered out the back door just after seven thirty that evening. The rain wasn’t heavy, but there were small puddles forming in the depressions on the stone steps made by two hundred years of foot traffic. He probably should turn around and go back inside. It was wet, and he was thoroughly rooted from a long day with twenty-five kids hanging on his every word.
Well, the ones not trying to fight trees, catch butterflies, and find cloud animals, anyway.
And maybe Jane wouldn’t come tonight because of the rain. It was hardly the usual breathtaking display of a blazing golden sunset combined with the sultry promise of a summer evening. Although, the light gray mist, the smell of rain, and the pitter-patter of raindrops on the garden foliage was its own kind of wonderful.
And it was dry under the portico.
He glanced to his left. Farther along, an old-fashioned, white, wrought iron love seat sat against the outside wall of the house. It was freestanding, complete with a canopy overhead, and he headed in its direction. Maybe Jane wouldn’t come and kiss him tonight—which was probably for the best, anyway—but that didn’t mean he couldn’t while away an hour or so out here by himself.
Reaching his goal, Cole realized it was a swing, the seat suspended by chains to the canopy supports. He had no idea how old it was or if it could take his weight. It could easily sit three grown adults and was quite deep, the cushions covered in the same white-and-floral canvas-style fabric that was in the canopy.
Choosing to sit in the middle so his weight was evenly distributed, Cole lowered himself gingerly down, just in case. There was some alarming creaking as he sat, the seat swinging as it adjusted to his big frame, but it didn’t suddenly snap and fall to the ground, landing him on his arse, so that was a plus. After a minute or so, when the seat still remained intact, he relaxed, lowering his stick to the ground and setting the swing into gentle motion with his good foot.
Taking a deep breath, he sucked in the sweet fresh air laden with petrichor and wet grass and listened to the chorus of frogs who seemed very happy about the wet weather. He tried not to think about Jane, about whether she’d show tonight. He forced himself to think about tomorrow instead. About the different activities he could do with the kids in the park and how he’d organize a bit of a game in the afternoon so they could see how the exercises he’d been making them do came together to give them the skills they required to play rugby union.
When he was done strategizing that, he thought about today and grinned to himself. It had been controlled chaos with his kids, and he couldn’t deny he’d been pleased when it’d been over and their parents had collected them. But the other participants had been much easier, and Cole had felt unexpectedly thrilled by their obvious enjoyment, especially considering it was literally something he and Arlo had just thrown together.
The fact so many of the kids were coming back for more tomorrow spoke volumes about how well it had been received.
Austin’s words came back to Cole. I’m going to take a wild guess here and say you don’t have any kids of your own. Sure, his little charges may have been a bit unruly, but they’d had a good time, and Finn seemed to think Cole had done okay.
But thoughts of Finn lead to thoughts of Jane. Jane, who was usually here by now, supplying him with beer before kissing him silly. And then suddenly Cole heard a noise to his right and rolled his head in its direction, spying Jane as she stepped out of the doorway carrying two beer bottles in one hand. He watched as she walked forward two paces, then faltered, obviously realizing he wasn’t in his usual spot, turning her head and scanning the yard several times.
“Hey.” His murmur was soft, but she heard it, her head swiveling abruptly in his direction.
“Oh…hey.” She hesitated