Sparks Fly with Mr. Mayor by Teresa Carpenter Page B

Cole’s campaign committee were packed into the mayor’s office.
    Cole controlled the urge to snap that the endowment issue wasn’t a game and that the opposing camp was entitled to their own opinions and the corresponding strategies to bring about the vote they were looking for. It didn’t matter that he’d said nearly the same thing to Dani on Sunday. That conversation had just been between the two of them. And truthfully the topic was more an excuse than a reason for stopping at her place.
    He’d told her she wasn’t his type, which couldn’t be more true. He was loose and easy and she was tightly wound and overcommitted. But Lord, he did enjoy pushing her buttons.
    Sunday night he’d wanted to push a few buttons free on her pale blue blouse, reveal her creamy loveliness, touch her baby-soft skin.
    She tried so hard to fight him, and then she’d stopand call his bluff. He loved it when she stood up to him.
    Whoa, wait. He shifted restlessly in his chair. Love had nothing to do with his feelings for Dani. She was fun, that was all.
    So he enjoyed having her at Gram’s for Sunday dinner. He could admire a pretty woman sitting in the shade of an umbrella on a hot afternoon simply for the beauty of the moment. It didn’t mean he was ready to pick out china patterns with her.
    And so what if he’d blown the winning question of the trivia game because he was distracted by the way her teeth bit into her plump bottom lip while she anxiously awaited the answer. There was no harm in looking.
    â€œI didn’t even notice my wife had stopped cleaning.” Palmer adjusted his tie. “I was just glad not to have the vacuum running during the game.”
    â€œWhat about the no cooking?” Julie Barnes, his office manager, asked. “You didn’t notice that?”
    â€œSure.” Palmer shrugged. “But I didn’t marry her for her cooking, if you know what I mean.”
    Cole blocked out the debate. Man, he should never have kissed Dani. Not even a little peck on the lips. Because now he knew how sweet she tasted, and he wanted more.
    He’d been insane to kiss her in church. That was too close to the altar for comfort.
    Not to mention Gram had seen the whole thing, leaving him wide open for a lecture about theinappropriateness of his actions during their weekly stroll around the garden. Church was not the place to make a move on a woman. And what were his intentions anyway?
    Good question. Or not. He liked Dani, enjoyed her company. Neither required a commitment on his part. Or hers. A good thing, because from the way she had closed the door on him last Sunday, clearly she wasn’t going to give him a chance.
    He liked being his own boss, thrived on being a free agent, on not answering to anyone. Sure he loved his family and he considered them a close bunch, but he made his own decisions and his relationships were his own business.
    Cole was a puzzle enthusiast; he thrived on the challenge of finding pieces to form the big picture, which was why he loved landscaping. And was probably what made him so good at playing the stock market, and had helped him warn the family when the economy crashed. More his obsession of puzzles fed his other great passion.
    He loved women, always had, always would. From little beauties like Faith to his grandmother’s oldest friend, Miss Betty, he found women enchanting and mysterious, an ever-present puzzle wrapped in lovely packaging. They were such a contradiction of traits, soft yet fierce, strong and resilient, prone to laughter and tears, often at the same time. In any given moment you never knew what you were going to get from them.
    Women were the ultimate puzzle.
    Yeah, he loved them. In the plural. He enjoyed their company, some more intimately than others, their intense emotions, their hare-brained reasoning, and all varieties in between. But he didn’t get serious with any of them.
    And he didn’t