Taming the Country Star: A Hometown Heroes Novella (Entangled Bliss) by Margo Bond Collins Read Free Book Online Page B

rodeo clown—one of the guys who draws the bull away from thrown riders. We knew the same people, went to the same schools. Dated in high school, broke up in college, got back together after.”
    She paused. When she didn’t resume, Cole prompted, “And then?”
    “And then everyone assumed we should get married. Including us.” She tapped her fingertips together, then rearranged the napkin and silverware. “I probably would have gone through with it. Lucky for both of us, Tom figured out it was a bad idea.”
    “Why bad?”
    “Oh, nothing horrible. But there was no…spark. We were comfortable. Too comfortable, I think.”
    “You seemed pretty upset about it when I met you,” he said.
    “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it since then. And I think I was more embarrassed than anything. Dumped at the altar was never in my plans. Even if it was for the best.” She shrugged.
    “And since then?”
    “Since then, I’ve had a lot of time to work on Cowbelles.” She technically answered the question, although she was fairly certain he wasn’t really asking about work. But her lack of a love life since him was none of his business.
    “Your store.” One corner of his mouth quirked up, as if he were reading her mind.
    “Right.” Damn him for noticing her change of topic, anyway. “Cowbelles is small, but it’s something I’ve built for myself, and it means that I’m a contributing member of my community. I can give back a little.”
    Cole leaned forward. “How so?”
    “Well, I joined together with several other shop owners in the Stockyards and we sponsor a couple of Little League teams for local kids. Every couple of months, Cowbelles hosts the midnight food run—some of the local churches deliver food to the homeless and LeeAnn and I help out with that.”
    “So it’s all charity work sorts of things?”
    Kylie laughed. “No. I’m also a member of the Stockyards Small Business Coalition, so some of it gets pretty political.”
    “Like what?”
    “Well, like I said earlier, three years ago, I tried to get the city council to extend the ban on posters and flyers another block.” She tried to ignore the flush she felt climbing up her neck at the reminder of Cole’s defaced advertisement.
    “Why another block?” He sounded truly interested, as if this were more than simply polite dinner conversation.
    “Cowbelles sits at the very edge of the Stockyards, so on the left side of the store, no flyers are allowed. But the wall to the right of the door is always plastered. I think it’s tacky, so I tried to get it banned.” Leaning back in her seat, she watched him carefully. Would he be offended? He relied on those kinds of ads, after all.
    A dimple flashed at the corner of Cole’s mouth. “So do you tear down all of the posters that show up there?”
    She shrugged and the blush crawled across her cheeks. “Some of them bother me more than others.”
    Cole laughed out loud, then sat back in his seat as Benito placed their dishes in front of them with a flourish.
    Watching him dig into his soup with evident enjoyment, Kylie marveled at his reaction to her concert-poster vandalism. She didn’t know that she would be so calm—so amused—if she learned that Cole had ripped up pictures of her.
    Something about that made her feel strangely safe, as if he might always take her actions in stride. As if he would accept even the worst parts of her, help her turn her fear and anger into joy.
    She could get used to the sound of that laughter. “I haven’t been fair to you,” she announced suddenly.
    “Oh?” His tone was mild—but it didn’t match his abrupt stillness, the way his entire body came to attention at her words.
    “You did try to tell me who you were. I didn’t want to know. When I got to the resort, I thought I needed something completely unconnected to the rest of my life.”
    “And now?” Once again, his alert body language belied the calmness of his voice.
    This is important