For Love of Charley by Katherine Allred

will
follow Channing’s lead?”
    “He thinks they will. See the older
gentleman, white hair, standing to Channing’s left? That’s Jess Bennett. He’s
on the Merchants Association as well as the City Council. With the members of
the association here, he’s going to be under a lot of pressure to go along with
us.”
    She smiled up at him smugly. “It’s a good
thing you invited the merchants. From the reactions I’ve heard in town, the
City Council must have wanted to keep it quiet.”
    “I’m sure they did. Channing would have
loved to make it an executive session to keep people out.” Cole caught the eye
of a reporter, who winked at him. Cole grinned back. The man had been
instrumental in seeing to it that the council didn’t hide behind closed doors
for this. He turned back to Kristy. “Is everyone here?”
    Her eyes swept the audience again, looking
for familiar faces. “I think so.” Suddenly her gaze locked on something to
their right. “Man, if looks could kill, I suspect I’d be toes up right about
now.” She turned back to face the front. “For both our sakes, you’d better hope
Charley doesn’t have a gun in her purse.”
    Cole threw back his head and laughed. “I’m
afraid to look. But don’t worry, she’ll know who you are before the night is
over.”
    “Good, because I just reconsidered
volunteering to make her jealous. I’m too young to die.” She took another quick
peek. “Who’s the brunette with her?”
    “Probably Frannie, her cousin.”
    As the council members took their places,
the Mayor pounded his gavel on the table in front of him. Charley was only
dimly aware of the noise, and missed his opening remarks completely. Her eyes
were fixed on Cole and the blonde with him.
    “Who’s that with Cole?” Frannie whispered.
“She’s gorgeous!”
    “I have no idea,” Charley whispered back.
“I’ve never seen her before.” She suddenly felt Frannie’s gaze on her.
    “Are you gritting your teeth?” She grinned.
“I think a light just came on. You don’t want him, but you don’t want anyone
else to have him either.”
    “Maybe I changed my mind,” Charley
muttered.
    Frannie stared at her. “You and I are going
to have a long talk, cousin.”
    Charley sighed. They could talk all they
wanted to, but if the blonde was someone special to Cole how could she hope to
compete with the original California Golden Girl? Her gaze swung to Cole’s
broad back as he stood and moved to the projector, the dull ache in her middle
all too familiar. Why had he reacted to her like he had that morning? She might
only have experience from that one occasion, but there were some things a man
just couldn’t fake.
    As slides of scale models, studies, and
location shots flashed across the screen at the front of the room, Charley
replayed Cole’s kiss in her head. He had said he wanted her, and there was no
doubt in her mind that he had been telling the truth. But he’d also said he was
going to continue fighting those feelings. She hadn’t thought about why at the
time, but maybe she’d just found the reason. Her eyes went to the blonde, then
returned to Cole just as he faced the audience. Even as he continued to talk,
his gaze found hers and held.

Chapter Seven
     
    As Kristy took his place by the projector,
Cole let his gaze rest briefly on the spot where Charley sat, and cursed under
his breath. She looked upset as hell, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out
why. Kristy. No matter how badly he wanted to explain, he couldn’t. The only
thing he could do was hope that his plan from this morning hadn’t been ruined,
and make sure she was introduced to Kristy before this night was over. It was
beginning to feel like he couldn’t do anything right where Charley was concerned.
He looked back toward the front, waiting while Kristy explained the plans for
Duncan Mills to the council.
    When the lights came back up, Cole stood.
“As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, CJE, Inc. has a