"Do you really have to do that first thing in the morning?" Ashley questioned her older brother at the table. "At least eat before you search for hook-ups, you child." Cole had already inhaled most of his scrambled eggs and hash browns when he looked up to see Zach in his phone, looking at various pictures of women. Zach was a hard worker, and an even harder player unfortunately. He'd left a string of broken hearts in town and most nearby ones as well. He hadn't always been terrified of monogamy. In college he was so serious with a girl from Canada that she spent some time at the farm when they were on breaks. He didn't know what happened, he just knew that one day Zach came home a wreck and never spoke about her again.

"Don't have much else goin' on. Latest guiding job cancelled so I need something to pass the time." Zach was a hunting guide when he wasn't helping around at the farm. He pretty much baby sat rich people who couldn't hunt on their own. It paid well and sometimes it included at nice group of ladies who wanted a bed buddy for a night or two and he couldn't pass that up.

Although Cole wasn't a fan of Zach's behavior, he wasn't going to judge him on it. Not like their sister who was constantly berating him for being a womanizer. Like Ashley, Cole did think he would settle down one day. He just hoped he didn't burn too many bridges with the amount of women he left scorned.

"You know, I can't even keep friends with you being the way you are. Your disgusting behavior doesn't only affect you, y'know," Ashley stormed off, most likely to wake up her kids and get them ready.

"Love you too, sis," Zach said sarcastically while still eyeing his phone. When Cole rounded the table and passed him he looked at his phone to see who we was currently looking at. What he saw had him nearly drop his plate. He stopped right behind his brother to gawk at the screen with him. It couldn't be...he had to be losing his sight. But when Zach moved on to the next picture in the woman's profile, it confirmed that he wasn't in fact losing his vision.

It was Noelle. Noelle on some dating sight that his brother is on. His heart felt an ache he hadn't quite felt before. Why was she there?

"What app are you using now?" Cole said in a snappy tone he wasn't used to hearing come from himself.

Zach, not seeming to notice looked over his shoulder then back at his phone. "Some new dating app. It's mostly for people looking for something serious, but there's a few here and there that slip through the cracks." He was still on Noelle's profile and it made something in Cole ignite. He wanted to tear the phone out of his brother's hands and throw it out the window. Another side of him wanted to find Noelle and ask her why she's on there, but he had no right. She was an adult woman with her own choices to make. It still made his chest tighten. Before he could move past his brother, the man had to open his mouth again.

"This one says lookin' longterm commitments only, but I bet I could sway her. She looks too good to scroll by." Cole saw red. Never had the jealousy been so strong and so fast to hit him, but it did and his target for attack was his poor, unaware brother. Yeah they had a fight here and there growing up but it had been decades since they had any type of quarrel. Leave it to the woman he couldn't get off his mind to turn him into a wildebeest.

"You should respect their boundaries," he spat at his brother. Before he decided to hell with self control and physically stop his brother from talking to her, he made it to the sink and dumped his plate with more force than necessary. His mind was racing and heart was pounding in frustration and anxiety. If he could control things, she wouldn't need that app and they would have bumped into one another again. The next time it happened, he would have tried to talk to her more. Find out anything he could about her. Heck, as of right now, his brother probably knew more thanks to her profile. He suddenly realized he had the opportunity to find out more. He just had to talk about his feelings with his brother. That could go really well or the opposite and with Zach being who he was now he was worried it would be the latter.

"Wait," he said to his brother before he knew it. "Can you show me that profile. There's some things I need to tell you..."

His brother looked more confused than anything gave a small shrug and held his phone out to him. The relief that filled Cole was appreciated and he wasted no time in grabbing the phone and looking at the profile.

Noelle W. 26 - Female looking for a partner

Cole was glad she didn't share her full last name. There's no being too safe on the internet. He wanted to stare at the few pictures she shared for hours and hours but it wasn't his phone and his brother probably had more ladies to stalk. He learned of some of her favorite movies, shows, and books. He read about her ideal first date. He even learned about her most ridiculous fear: swimming in the Colee water as fish. That made him chuckled and the tension in him eased a bit more. Her entire profile was sweet and nice and gave just enough information to intrigue you. There could be endless amounts of other men right now reading it and swooning and he couldn't do a thing to stop that.

Unless he could make her fall for him first. With that idea, he gave the phone back to his brother and dug his own out of his pocket to call Max Walters and put his heart on the line. He prayed to whatever gods were listening that Max didn't think he was crazy or creepy because he needed his help.

This was all he wanted for Christmas.