Talk of the Town by Suzanne Macpherson Read Free Book Online Page A

the path of the extremely good-looking Sam Grayson, who, she’d been carefully told, stopped at Cora’s every morning for coffee and a bear claw, whatever that was, at exactly 8:45 A.M .
    She hummed as she turned toward the main section of town. Three blocks down, she crossed the street and passed Red Miller, smiling as she passed, handing out his usual g’mornin’s. She’d gotten one every morning for three days now.
    And there he was, rounding the corner headed straight toward her on his way to Cora’s. He waved at her. She waved back, plowing smack into Mr. Miller, who steadied her, laughing a deep short laugh. Sam was really exceptionally handsome in his slate gray suit, white shirt, and arty tie.
    “Why don’t you two just get it over with and talk?” Mr. Miller asked, continuing his sweeping.
    Kelly realized what a total idiot she was being.She steeled herself and marched down the street, pushing Cora’s steel and glass door open. Sam was standing at the counter with a newspaper and a white paper bag in his hands. Fabulous. Tall. Structural. She was being a very, very shallow girl. She tried to feel bad about it, but he was so yummy.
    He turned to look at her when she entered.
    “Hello.” Sam smiled at her.
    “Hi.” That was it, huh? Date with destiny. She sat down and asked Renee, Cora’s number one waitress, for Mrs. Palmer’s scones, unable to face Mr. Destiny without her speaking ability.
    Sam got his coffee and slowly walked by her, with a very odd look on his face. After he went through the door, she thumped her head on the counter facefirst. Renee set the bag of scones down beside her.
    “Lost something?” Renee started to giggle.
    “Yes, my mind, and stop that! I know what a fool I am already.” Kelly started to laugh, and so did about three other people close by. Renee set down a white to-go cup of coffee with a sugar packet on the lid.
    “I already put cream in. It’s on the house, honey. Invite me to the wedding, will you?”
    “Sure, sure. Thanks, Renee.” Kelly made as graceful an exit as possible, as the whole counter full of people said in unison, “G’bye!”
    Oh, brother. Group humiliation was always fun. The joke about the wedding—that was a good one. Particularly with the luck she had as a bride. Oh, yes. Which reminded her, she was definitely going to have to call someone and see about divorcing Raymond. He’d probably already drawn up a divorce and just didn’t know where to send the papers. If she were even going to think about this Sam character, she’d have to deal with that first.
     
    If Sam could just figure out what it was about Miss Kelly Applebee that drove him crazy, he could ignore her and live a normal life. This Kelly girl just seemed to derail him from his steady track. Part of him had danger signals going off like emergency bells inside his head. The rest of him wanted to grab her up on his horse and ride bareback together into the sunset, find a field and…caution be damned.
    Okay, just because she appeared to be trouble didn’t mean she was. Appearances could be deceiving. Maybe underneath that wild hair and that tight red skirt and those luscious…oh, shit , he was screwed.

Chapter 4
    PALMER’S EMPORIUM was painted in black letters on the plate-glass windows of the double storefront. Kelly pushed the swinging door open and stepped inside.
    Several people were already hard at work, and the fans were running to keep the temperature cool. She shivered in the breeze, pulling her coat around her. The last swallow of the coffee warmed her up.
    After Mrs. Palmer discovered her vast retail merchandising skills Kelly had been put in charge of the women’s and junior’s clothing areas. Ah, yes, ten years in the L.A. fashion district can teach you a lot about clothes. Of course she’d been a little vague about her actual experience, but the fact that she was living with Myrtle seemed to fling most doors wide open around her.
    In the three days she’d