Breakfast that morning was a repeat of the day before. Cole and Sydney sat at separate tables ignoring each other as they ate their fill. However, Flora was with Cole, so he had gone back to pick her up either the night before or that morning.

Sydney kept playing with her food as she remembered Cole's kiss. She had replayed their evening over and over in her head, and she was more confused now than she had ever been. He had seemed angry, then forgiving, then angry again. How it had all ended on a kiss was beyond her. What exactly had he meant when he had said it was worth it? She was afraid to ask.

There were a few others in the room eating their breakfasts as well, but they all seemed too be to hungover to pay her and Cole any attention until Sydney stood to leave and Cole told her he would meet her out front in half an hour. Then they did take notice.

Sydney went back to her room and sat on her bed after looking over her appearance in the mirror once more. She was wearing her blue jeans and a cotton t-shirt in a sea green color. She took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself. She had no clue where they were going or how long it would take, but that wasn't why she was nervous. She was nervous about spending another day in his company.

Half an hour passed too quickly, and as Sydney exited her room she saw Cole standing by the truck talking to Theresa. Someone must have told her about Cole's comment and she was checking up on it.

Sydney hung back because it looked as if they were having a serious conversation, well Cole was serious as he talked, but Theresa had a glazed looked and her cheeks had turned a bright red color.

Taking a deep breath, Sydney forced herself to walk toward them and stopped a few feet away, waiting for her chance to interrupt. As soon as she got close enough, Theresa turned to her with a glare and marched away without saying a word.

"I have a feeling that I'm even deeper in no man's land than I was before you two had your little talk," Sydney said as she watched Theresa walk away without looking back.

Cole opened the truck door and waited for Sydney to climb in before shutting it. Sydney, having decided to play nice, had her seatbelt already buckled when he climbed into the cab. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised mockingly.

"I see that you don't need help this morning."

"No," Sydney said after clearing her throat. She waited until they were on the highway before she asked the question, "What were you and Theresa talking about?" At his continued silence she sighed, "I think I have a right to know since it concerns me."

"How do you know that it concerns you?" Cole sounded bored.

"I'm not...thick, wasn't that the word you used? I saw the look she shot me as she was leaving. I got the impression that she is going to make sure that my life is anything but easy for the rest of this dig." Sydney forced herself to relax.

"You got all of that from a look?" He asked in an amused voice.

"Yes, just like I get anger and frustration every time you look at me." The words were out before she could stop them.

Cole looked at her questioningly out of the corner of his eye, but he still didn't answer her question.

"Will you at least tell me where we're going?"

"To get you a car." He stomped on the breaks suddenly. "You can drive?"

"Yes, I can drive," Sydney assured him.

He nodded and pressed the gas again. "We'll be there in a little over an hour."

True to his word, after a silent hour hour they were pulling up in front of a beautiful adobe house that Sydney realized looked deceptively small from the outside. They entered a courtyard that held a Moorish style fountain in the center and limited landscaping. Multiple doors were leading off of the courtyard into mysterious unknown places, but Flora charged ahead knowing exactly where she was going.

Cole took Sydney through the courtyard and a massive wooden door in the center of a long wall. It led directly into the main hall that looked like a sound stage from a 1920s movie. There were adobe tiles on the floor, the walls were a warm aged plaster, and there was an ornate black iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The hallway stretched to the left and the right, and straight ahead of them was a pair of massive French doors that led to a walled oasis in the back of the house.

"Where are we?" Sydney asked, following him through the French doors and back into the sunshine.

"My family home," he answered as he walked towards an old blue-haired woman who was sitting at a wrought iron table under an umbrella. She was hunched over and wearing a velour tracksuit in a tangerine color, and she had a pitcher of something icy and refreshing in front of her.

Her sharp eyes zeroed in on Sydney as she stretched up to receive Cole's kiss to her cheek. "Aunt Viola, this is Sydney Mitchell."

The woman remained silent as Sydney stood before her awaiting her judgment.

"Sydney, this is my Great Aunt, Viola Easton."

"Why are you here?" Her eyes left Sydney and shot towards Cole. Sydney followed her gaze and saw that Cole looked amused by his aunt.

"I'm here to see you, Aunt Viola." He held out a chair for Sydney and waited until she was seated before taking his chair.

"No, don't sit down, your father needs you, and I want to talk to Sydney alone. She's not as pretty as your usual girls Cole."

Sydney fought back a blush while doing her best not to be offended as she watched Cole's lips thin in response to his aunt's comment. "He's getting old. He can't afford to be as choosy as he once was," Sydney threw out in an attempt to ease the tension. All it got her was Cole's bad temper directed at her.

Aunt Viola gave a short dry shout that posed as a laugh, "Child, he's rich enough to get any woman he wants, or he will be when I die anyway." She turned to Cole. "Pour the girl a drink."

"Aunt..." he warned.

Viola just nodded towards the pitcher and the extra glass. Cole looked at Sydney as if he was trying to warn her when he handed her the drink, and Sydney got the feeling that it was a test.

Sydney took a sip and felt the cold liquid burn itself down her throat. It was hard lemonade. She swallowed and gave a delicate cough. "thank you, but I never drink before lunch," Sydney said, setting the glass back down.

Viola considered her for a few moments. "I won't hold it against you." She pushed Cole away with a reminder about his father. Cole left them with a resigned sigh, and Sydney directed her attention towards the woman sitting across from her.

"You want to marry my nephew?" Viola asked, getting right to the point.

"I hadn't considered it. I only work for him." Sydney replied knowing it would never happen even though she  that she had imagined that very thing in her deepest fantasies over the years.

"Then why are you here? They all want to marry him." Viola took a deep drink of the lemonade, its fiery burn didn't faze her in the least.

"He said something about a car," Sydney answered.

"Cole!" she shouted, and a few moments later Cole stuck his head through a door on the opposite side of the patio.

"Yes?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Why are you leaving this young lady to do your dirty work!" Viola was talking to him but looking at Sydney.

"Am I?" He sounded confused.

Sydney looked over her shoulder at him and saw that he was holding some papers in his hand.

"You want my car!" It was a statement not a question.

She could hear Cole's sigh from across the patio. "Yes Aunt, I would like to borrow your car for Sydney to use. I know you're not allowed to drive-"

"Not allowed! I'll do whatever I darn well please young man. The nerve of young people today! How dare you tell me what I can and can't do, I can remember a world without you in it." Her look said that it was a preferable world.

"Yes, Aunt, but think about it, won't you?" Cole asked, looking back at the papers before he moved back into the house.

"You know I control all of the money, right?" Viola turned to Sydney. "No one gets any of it until I'm dead."

"How tedious," Sydney deadpanned.

Viola's eyes grew wide as she looked at her then she started laughing so hard she snorted. "I never thought of it that way," she said between cackles.

When the laughter died, she studied Sydney again. "You're in love with him. It's written all over your face when you look at him, you know that, right?"

Choosing silence, Sydney returned Viola's stare without comment.

Viola must have figured that she needed to leave well enough alone because they began a conversation about Sydney's job and exactly what she was doing to help Cole, which eventually led to talking about Viola's many youthful adventures. They had been talking for over half an hour when an older woman appeared from somewhere further back in the garden.

"Hello," she greeted Sydney, sounding a little surprised by her sudden presence.

Sydney stood and held out her hand. "Sydney Mitchell."

"Maddie Easton," she returned, and they smiled at each other while taking stock.

Sydney noted that she wasn't an overly attractive woman. She was tall and thin, but her hair was a wiry grey and much of it had escaped the bun on top of her head. She was wearing a very baggy pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt. If this was Cole's mother she was not what Sydney had been expecting, and Sydney liked her on sight.

"Maddie is Cole's mother," Viola supplied as she watched the two women. "Sydney works for Cole, but I think she is in love with him."

"And is Cole in love with her?" Maddie was taking Viola's comment very seriously.

"Hard to tell, I'll let you know when I figure it out."

"I work for your son, and he brought me here to borrow Ms. Easton's car. If she agrees, I'll need to drive it back." There was an awkward silence, and Sydney felt the need to say more. "Your son and I don't get along very well."

"Then why is he lending you my car?" Viola countered.

"Because I was riding a bicycle on the highway after dark and I fell in a bush." Sydney watched as Cole's mother's mouth twitched.

"Then he cares if you get hurt." Viola nodded.

"No, he cares if I, his employee, gets hurt. He would feel guilty and probably wants to avoid a lawsuit," Sydney said in an attempt to squash the women's theory.

"Same difference," Viola summarized.

"Will you lend her your car, Viola?" Maddie asked as she looked dubiously at the pitcher.

Viola pushed it towards her as if in a taunt. "Maybe."

"I think it would be a good idea. You know that you've decided to stop driving and this would take care of the temptation for you." Maddie showed much more finesse in her reasoning than her son had.

"Sydney, do you like roses?" Maddie asked, motioning towards herself with her hand then linking her arm through Sydney's when she took the hint and joined her.

They walked in silence for a while, towards the back of the garden.

"I love Viola, but one can only take so much of her bluntness," Maggie said, leading the way to a row of roses.

"Do you know my son well?" she asked, and Sydney couldn't hold her inquisitiveness against her. If Cole was her son she would want to know, and Viola had made some fairly dramatic statements.

"No, he was my professor about four years ago, but I switched my majors. I haven't had any interaction with him, other than in passing, in four years. I got a job on the dig site this summer. He doesn't much care for me, he never has. He thinks badly of me because of something that happened a long time ago." She did her best to keep all feeling out of her voice, but she must have failed as Maddie gave her a sharp look.

"Something bad, with you?" Maddie's voice held a touch of concern.

"Yes." Sydney swallowed hard at the memory. Somehow thinking about it with Cole's mother present made it ten times worse.

"Why are you on the dig if you're not one of his students?" Her concern turned to curiosity

"My roommate and best friend's parents bought us both space on the dig. Dhe wanted to go, but her parents wouldn't pay for it unless I went too." Sydney didn't know why she was sharing so much, but she liked the woman, and she wanted to share with someone.

"And Cole knows this?" Maddie's arm was still linked with hers.

"No, he immediately thought the worst, so I let him." Sydney shrugged as if it didn't matter.

"Self-preservation." Maddie nodded her head in full understanding.

Sydney looked at her, her eyes rounded in wonder, and Maddie laughed. "I married Cole's father, and they're exactly alike. If they love, they love with their whole heart but unfortunately, it takes them a while to figure it out, and they tend to make other's lives miserable while they do. Cole's had some bad experiences, one in particular, so he is skeptical when it comes to the motives of women. He also has the horrible habit of being bad-tempered and downright mean when he's confused. He was such a fussy baby."

The thought of Cole as a fussy baby made her smile. "You mean he's not one now?"

Maddie patted her hand, "That's the spirit. Hang in there. He'll figure it out, whatever it might be."