The smell of coffee worked its way into Amber’s consciousness and her eyelids fluttered open. It took her a moment to remember where she was. Josie’s house. Josie’s bed. Josie’s brother. Amber flipped over to stare at the other side of the bed and instantly wished she hadn’t.

It was empty.

But her dreams had been so real. Cole was lying next to her, kissing her, touching her…

It had been a dream.

Of course it had been a dream. She wasn’t about to sleep with Cole. No matter how many beers she’d had and how sexy he was and how much she’d flirted with him the night before. And she had flirted.

She could feel her face get hot with the memory of her tipsy flirting. She pulled the quilt over her head and groaned.

That was it. She was never drinking again.

Thankfully, she didn’t feel bad; she only had a small headache, but it was nothing a shower wouldn’t fix. As quietly as she could, so she didn’t alert Cole that she was awake, Amber opened the bedroom door and tiptoed to the bathroom down the hall. It was bad enough having him in the house with her; he didn’t need to see her in what could only be described as a morning mess.

“Good morning.”

Amber jumped back as the bathroom door opened. A cloud of steam, with a half-naked, still dripping Cole emerged as if she were standing in a Hollywood romantic comedy. She forgot about her own current state of half dress as she stared at him.

She thought he was sexy fully dressed, but she was absolutely not prepared for the raw sex appeal of Cole Price standing in a towel only inches from her, smelling like soap and…man.

“Amber?”

She nodded and closed her mouth and tried—likely quite unsuccessfully—to pull herself together. “Good morning,” she managed to say. “I didn’t think you’d be…I smelled the coffee and…I was just going to…”

“You were going to shower?”

She nodded again. “I didn’t think you’d be up here.”

His eyes traveled up and down her and he grinned. “I can tell.”

Her body exploded in a full body flush and she tugged her t-shirt down as much as she could, which only had the effect of exposing her chest a little too much. In a fluster, she settled for crossing her arms over her chest. “Right. Well, I think I should just…” Amber moved to walk past him into the bathroom. When he didn’t make a motion to get out of the way, she stopped and started again. “Excuse me, Cole.”

“Right.” His smile was wicked and just a little too dangerous. “I’ll be downstairs.” He stepped out of the door, closer to her so Amber had to turn and shimmy past him into the bathroom. “We have a busy day ahead of us,” Cole added just before she closed the door. “I’ll make breakfast. We’re going to need the energy.”

* * *

As promised, Cole whipped up a big breakfast, doing the best he could with the little he found in his sister’s cupboards. He was thankful for the distraction, although try as he might, he couldn’t get the perfect image of a sleep-tousled Amber, in her little t-shirt that only barely covered the top of her thighs, out of his head. Damn that woman. She was the exact opposite of everything he’d ever been attracted to. He preferred his women to be outgoing party animal types, always up for a good time.

Maybe it’s time for a change?

Maybe it was.

He shook his head and laughed before he flipped the pancakes. Even if it was time for a change, Amber wasn’t going to be that change. She wasn’t the type of girl who did flings. And he wasn’t planning to stick around. Even if he was, Josie would kill him if he messed with Amber.

No. A little flirting would be fine, but nothing more. He was smart enough to know when to draw the line.

“It smells fantastic in here.”

He flipped the pancakes onto the plate and turned around to see Amber in the doorway. She was dressed simply in jeans and a t-shirt, with her signature blonde braid down her back. But something about her made his dick twitch. Damn.

“It’s just a little something I whipped up.” Cole put the plate on the table and retrieved the other plates from the oven, where he was keeping them warm. “I hope you like your eggs scrambled. I found some bacon in the freezer, too.”

Amber shook her head and chuckled as she sat at the table. “It looks fantastic,” she said. “And I’m starving.” Cole poured her a cup of coffee before he sat across from her. “Thanks.” She smiled at him and shook her head again.

“What? Why do you keep shaking your head?”

“It’s nothing.” She cut a piece of pancake, but didn’t put it in her mouth. “I’m just really surprised, is all. You don’t seem like the type of guy who cooks breakfast. Or really, cooks at all.”

Cole laughed. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that. “Well, I don’t know why the kind of men you know don’t cook, but I think it’s a pretty important skill to have. Besides, working on the ranches in Australia, it kind of becomes a necessity. At least as far as backcountry cooking goes.”

“Well, I think it’s pretty awesome.” She finally put the bit of pancake in her mouth and closed her eyes as she did. “This is delicious, Cole. Really.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He was really glad. Especially watching how much she was enjoying the food he’d prepared for her. There was something very refreshing about a woman who actually ate. Most of the women he’d cooked breakfast for just pushed it around the plate while chugging their coffee. And that was after keeping them up all night. Amber was different, that was for sure. “Eat up,” he said in an effort to distract himself from his growing erection. “We have a big day today.”

She grinned at him. “Is that right?”

“It is. I spoke to Josie this morning and she gave me her list of things that need to be done, so we’re going to get started with some of the small stuff.”

“Really?” Amber held a piece of bacon poised at her lips.

“Yup. The first thing we’re going to do is pull up some flooring. Are you up for it?”

She chewed her bacon slowly before she shrugged. “Of course. And then later…”

Cole’s mind raced with the possibilities for later.

“There’s a haunted hay ride.”

It took a moment for Cole to catch up. “A what?”

“A haunted hay ride. You did say you’d go to the festival with me, didn’t you?”

He laughed. “I did. But I believe I said I’d pick the activities.”

Amber put a scoop of scrambled eggs on her plate and shrugged. “Well, just in case you forgot, I thought I’d help you out.” She nodded toward his plate. “You better eat something. We have a big day ahead of us.”