The Pretty Lady and the Cowboy (Songs from the Heart) by Dana Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

like pink lemonade or maybe iced tea. I closed my eyes and imagined sinking into my favorite chair, glass in hand. Of course, that’s just the kind of moment when some perverse force in the universe will drive a customer into the store.
    Against the late afternoon sun streaming in my front window, I could see the silhouette of a guy in shorts and a tee-shirt who had just walked in. With my luck, he’d probably have a bunch of special foot problems like corns or calluses or fallen arches that would require lots of extra attention and many exhausting trips to the stockroom.
    I walked toward the front of the store, sighing. What wouldn’t I give not to have to measure one more set of feet, not to have to watch one more runner on the treadmill today. Well, I told myself, one benefit of being the store owner was that I could decide when business was over for the day. I’d just ask the guy to come back tomorrow.
    Right. Tired as I was, I knew I’d never turn a customer away.
    I turned to straighten some of the shoes on my display wall to give myself a chance to get my game face on. Then I turned with as cheerful a “How can I help you?” as I could muster.
    “Well, Miss Kitty, you already did help me. So I wanted to see what I could do about returning the favor.” Levi McCrory held out a soft drink cup to me. “Thought you might need a little pick-me-up at the end of a long day.”
    Part of me thought I must be dreaming this. I honestly never thought I’d see him again.
    He looked so different from the way I’d first seen him yesterday afternoon here at the store and also very different from the way he had been on stage. He looked like just an ordinary guy.
    Well, okay, an ordinary gorgeous guy.
    I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I took a sip of the drink he handed me. Carrot apple juice. Where could he possibly have gotten it? Nowhere nearby, I knew that for sure.
    “Not here to return your shoes, I hope.” That’s the usual reason a customer returns the day after a sale. I felt like my heart was beating faster than when I do sprints.
    “Actually, I was hoping you’d know of a good place to run along the shore. I’m not from around these parts.”
    “Gee, really? Here I thought you were the boy next door with that Connecticut Yankee accent and all.” Keep it light, I thought to myself. He’s just another customer.
    But that explained it, I thought. He only needed advice about running trails. I showed him some maps that I kept behind the desk and gave him directions to various shoreline roads, trying all the while to get my heart rate back to normal.
    “And I thought maybe you could explain to me who y’all thought I was yesterday.”
    I stammered something about mistaking him for a friend of a friend and said that I hadn’t known he was
the
Levi McCrory, hoping I was making some kind of sense. It had been easy to flirt and banter with him yesterday, but that was before I knew who he was, before I knew he was famous. Why should that be, I wondered silently. He was still the same person, wasn’t he?
    “Well, you know, Miss Kitty,” he said, “I confess that it was kinda nice to be treated like a regular fella. I don’t get to be just plain me very often these days. And I almost never get to be just plain me flirting with a gorgeous girl.”
    I felt a blush begin to creep up my face on that last line. Me? Gorgeous?
    “I really enjoyed the concert last night,” I said, trying to shift the subject. “Thanks for sending the tickets!” I kept my eyes focused on the map, willing myself not to look at him.
    How did he manage to unsettle me so completely? I’m usually a pretty outgoing person—you have to be when you’re in business for yourself. But there was something about him… something that made my heart race, something that filled my head with romantic fantasies. I knew I wanted to feel his touch again.
    “You’re welcome! I’m