Three Little Words (Fool's Gold #12)

“There are advantages to being here. We have a big tourist trade. There are plenty of women in town. Plus, you’ve sold everything from Dellina’s friend you’ve put in the window and that’s without trying.”


Not leave? She’d always planned to leave. To go back to New York. To make her mark. To stay here would be...

What? Settling? It didn’t feel like settling. She liked the town. She had friends she trusted and her family was here. She had to admit that spending more time with her nieces and nephews, not to mention her sister, would be nice.

“I’d have to get my own place,” she murmured.

“Easy enough to do. You said Madeline loves working in Paper Moon. Having her there would free up time to do what you really love.” Patience rose and crossed to her. “You don’t have to decide now, but at least think about it. I know you’re sad, but this isn’t the death of your dream. You’re being shifted into a different direction. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing.”

Isabel hugged her. “Thanks for listening,” she said.

“That’s what friends do. And the second it’s five o’clock, we’re getting drunk. Because that’s the other thing friends do.”

Isabel laughed. She was still hurt and confused, but she didn’t feel so lost. Maybe she would decide to leave after all, but she had options. Choices.

She walked with her friend to the front door and then out onto the sidewalk.

“You’ll be at Jo’s tonight right at five,” Patience said. “That was a statement, by the way, not a request.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Good.”

They hugged again, and then Patience headed toward Brew-haha. Isabel kept on going toward Paper Moon. As she smiled at people she knew, she wondered about the other complication. The one she couldn’t really talk about. Not yet.

If she didn’t leave Fool’s Gold, what was going to happen with Ford? Because she had a bad feeling that whatever she’d felt when Eric had left her didn’t begin to measure up to what it would feel like if Ford walked away.

* * *

CONSUELO STUDIED the collection. “I’m not seeing a lot of romantic comedies,” she said as she looked over the titles.

The neatly lined-up DVDs and Blu-ray movies sat on shelves by the TV in Kent’s basement. There were plenty of action movies and a large collection of kid movies, but little else.

She looked at Kent. “You realize I can’t find a single title that reflects the female point of view.”

“We’re not big on chick flicks in this house,” he admitted. “But if there’s something you want to watch, I can get it.”

“You’re willing to sit through Sleepless in Seattle?”

He smiled. “I’ve sat through worse.”

“There’s an endorsement.” She ran her finger across the spines. “These are okay, but they usually get the action sequences wrong. Or the bad guys are terrible shots. I see that on TV all the time. Our heroes can kill them with a single bullet, but the bad guys fire and fire and nothing happens.”

“Maybe the bad guys need more training.”

She shrugged. “I guess it would make for a short series if the lead guy was taken out in episode two.”

She turned her attention back to the titles. They’d come down here to pick out a movie for after dinner. Kent had invited her over a few days before, all the while making it clear this was a date. Reese was spending the night at Carter’s house. It was just the two of them.

Consuelo was willing to admit to a few nerves, but only to herself. She found dating complicated. Real dating. In the service, she’d occasionally hooked up with guys, but not often. In her line of work, a relationship had seemed impossible, and she was just enough like most women to not love casual sex. There were times when she wanted to be held because she was important to a man and not simply as a means to getting laid.

But this was Kent, which meant a traditional date. As he’d yet to do much more than kiss her, she wasn’t sure what, if anything, was going to happen tonight. She supposed if she wanted things to go further, she could make the first move herself.

Except she didn’t want to. She wanted...to be wooed.

Ridiculous, she thought, scoffing at the weakness the desire exposed. She didn’t need anyone. She was self-sufficient. A warrior.

“Hey, come back.”

She turned and saw Kent standing next to her. His dark eyes were concerned as he studied her face.

“What?” she asked.

“You were looking pretty pissed about something. I knew you’d gone away.”

His ability to read her surprised her. “How do you know I wasn’t annoyed with you?”

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

She smiled. “You’re right. I did go away. Sorry.”

“Want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. There was so much she couldn’t say. Not just the classified stuff. Those secrets were easy to keep. It was the rest of it—what she’d done. He understood the broad strokes, but that wasn’t the same as really knowing. Not that he could, because she wouldn’t tell him, and if she did, they were back to the classified issue.

“Stop,” he said quietly. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop.”