looked vaguely familiar, to a cyan blue-haired punk granny with glaringly bold lipstick. Apparently not content with letting her bright colors do the talking for her, she also waved her hands frequently while whispering something to a brunette who appeared to be about the same age as Sophie. Whatever she was saying must have been entertaining—and possibly inappropriate, because the young woman kept suppressing her laughter and shaking her head. Andrew’s grandparents were there, too.
But the one he couldn’t take his eyes off of was Sophie. Sophie Grace Davis. Yep, he knew her full name…because the guys at the firehouse had teased him mercilessly about her appearance yesterday morning. Between that and his bit as Santa, they’d not let up with their Santa Cole jokes. Seriously, couldn’t his parents have named him something that didn’t sound the same as coal?
Hopefully, Ben and Andrew wouldn’t start in again when they spotted him watching Sophie. Because no, he didn’t want to take her for a ride in his sleigh, and no, she wasn’t getting him for Christmas.
Cole had no intentions of ever settling into a relationship. His friends knew that, although they weren’t clued in on his reasons why. As Andrew had also sworn allegiance to permanent bachelorhood, they’d become two peas in a pod, avoiding dates together and openly giving their buddy Ben a hard time as he sought out falling in love and starting a family rather than continuing in their bachelor life.
But lately the teasing had turned to him as his friends seemed to consider it their duty to rag him as much as possible about why Sophie had stopped by the firehall looking for him. He hadn’t told them about the journal, or about his telling Sophie he never wanted to see her again.
How many times had those words played through his head?
Too many to count, for sure. Just as visions of Sophie had played through his head too many times.
“Look who’s here.” Andrew gestured toward her table. “You need to say hi.”
If looks could kill, his buddy would need a graveyard plot.
“Hey, if you don’t want to talk to her, maybe I should,” Ben teased, waggling his brows.
Ben could join Andrew six feet under.
Cole didn’t need one of his buddies dating a woman who’d read that journal. He’d hoped his path wouldn’t cross Sophie’s again anytime soon. He should have known better.
He had known better. Pine Hill wasn’t that big.
“I asked her out once,” Ben admitted, frowning as he stared toward the table where Sophie sat. “In high school. I was a couple of grades ahead of her, but I liked her smile. She told me she was busy attending a sew-in, whatever that is.”
Andrew snorted.
Cole frowned. “A sew-in? As in sewing?” he couldn’t help but ask, ignoring how strangely pleased he felt that Sophie hadn’t gone out with Ben back then.
What did it matter whether or not Ben had dated her in high school?
Ben gave a self-derisive laugh. “Yep. A sew-in. I never asked again. I figured her saying she was sewing was akin to her saying she was washing her hair or some other thanks-but-no-thanks excuse.”
“Can you blame her? Who’d want to go out with your ugly mug?” Andrew ribbed Ben, to Cole’s relief. If they were needling each other, then neither one of them were giving him a hard time.
“If you think you’ll have better luck this time, go for it,” he told Ben, secretly hoping that wasn’t what his friend would choose to do.
His friend might be single, but it wasn’t because women didn’t want to be in Ben’s life. It was more that Ben dated women just long enough to decide whether or not they were “the one,” then moved on to the next woman to catch his interest.
“You’re not calling dibs?” Ben eyed him suspiciously.
“I keep telling you—there’s nothing there. I barely know her. She just found something of mine in one of the boxes we brought over to the church, and thought I’d donated it by accident. She tried to return it. It wasn’t something I wanted back. End of story.”
“Yet she wanted to talk to you in private?” Ben raised a brow.
“As private as it gets when standing just outside the firehall in plain sight of anyone who came by or looked out a window,” Cole pointed out, clearing his throat for emphasis on the window part.
“I think she just wanted an excuse to get away from you, Benny boy,” Andrew added with a grin.
Ben tossed a paper wad