One More Kiss by Kim Amos Read Free Book Online Page B

life-threatening one. But maybe, you know, gout or something.”
    “Gout?” Betty laughed. “Next you’ll tell me he has scurvy from not eating enough limes while his pirate ship is at sea.”
    “Or rickets from hiding out in his cellar,” Anna said, giggling.
    “Or he’s carrying a top-secret government virus that could wipe out humanity if he’s with a woman,” Audrey said.
    “Maybe he’s just impotent.” Betty shrugged.
    Willa snorted. “I don’t think so, Betty. I’m sure his spirit rises when he’s around you.”
    The whole group exploded into laughter, Betty included. They slapped the red table and belly-laughed, and Betty’s heart swelled at the sound of it. She might never find a husband, but she had found a sisterhood, and that was no small thing.
    “You know,” Willa said, wiping away a tear of laughter, “when scientists want to find the answer to something, they do experiments. How about if you do the same thing, Betty? To get an answer once and for all about Randall?”
    She blinked. “What, like take blood and hair samples and test them somehow?”
    “No, nothing like that. But why not wear something sexy next time you see him, and gauge how he reacts? If he doesn’t notice then, fine, you have your answer. He’s not into you. But if he rises to the occasion, so to speak, then you’ll know he likes you and there might be something more to the story. Like what Anna was saying happened with Sam.”
    “I don’t know,” Betty said. She gestured to her jeans and work boots. “Have you met me? I don’t exactly do sexy.”
    “Oh, I can help with that,” Willa said. “I have a closet full of clothes that could do the trick.”
    “It seems overly complicated for something that’s probably quite simple,” Betty said. “I could just ask him, you know.”
    What she didn’t add was how the simplest truth was almost always the easiest one. And in this case, she pretty much figured that Randall Sondheim had seen her goods up close and decided he wasn’t buying. Nothing more than friendship anyway.
    “You could,” Willa acknowledged. “Or you could do something a little daring and see what happens.”
    Betty chewed her lip. Outside the back room’s windows, golden light slanted through the trees, setting the leaves blazing with color. A dog barked in the distance. She wasn’t so sure about this. Dressing sexily to tempt a pastor seemed like becoming precisely the dark woman the townspeople were afraid she already was. Then again, maybe it would be fun to figure out where Randall stood with her. Once and for all.
    “All right,” she said to Willa. “Maybe I’ll give it a shot. I have a meeting with Randall tomorrow at four o’clock. Can you work your magic by then?”
    Willa grinned. The whole table leaned forward in anticipation.
    “Honey, by four o’clock tomorrow, Randall Sondheim won’t know what hit him. Mark my words.”
    Willa lifted her glass. The liquid looked magical in the low light—like a potion or a spell of some sort. What the hell , Betty thought, and clinked glasses in a toast.
    To trying something new , she thought, and slammed back the rest of her drink.

Chapter Four
    E verything was wrong. It was all terribly, horribly awry, and at five minutes to four o’clock, there was nothing to be done about it.
    “I look like a hooker,” Betty moaned, pulling desperately at the hem of her skirt. “What have you done to me?”
    Willa pressed her mouth into a hard, straight line. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I never took you for a drama queen, Betty Lindholm. You’re overreacting.”
    “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one standing here like you’re headed for a brothel.”
    Betty turned in front of the full-length mirror that Willa had brought to the Knots and Bolts back room, craning her neck to make sure her ass wasn’t hanging out of the back of the skirt.
    Oh, what had she been thinking? But an hour ago, with the windows thrown wide and the