Untangling The Stars by Alyse Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t like her to fixate on one encounter so much. It was a bit absurd really. She’d spent a whole five minutes chattering with some who-cares TV star. A little bit of googly eyes shouldn’t be nearly enough to knock her off her game this badly.
    Every time you think of Guy Wilder, I’m going to pinch you , Andie scolded herself. If Pavlov could use reinforcement training on dogs, then she could use it on herself. That was one pathway to self-control.
    “Besides….” Andie pulled herself back to the present and flashed a grin at Scott as she lapsed into her best puppy voice. She bent to pet Oz, who had ambled over and rubbed up against her leg. “Who could ever quit loving this sweet face?” The sweet beastie was such an old man at heart no one would ever guess he was only a two-year old pup. Decked out in his bright orange vest, Oz’s calm demeanor was a testament to his station as a post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, service-dog. Scott was barely two years out of the marines, and he’d come a long way in leaving whatever horrors he’d experienced while deployed in Afghanistan behind him over the many months that Andie had known him. Most of that progress, Andie believed, was directly because of the gentle giant nuzzling her thigh. Sometimes, dogs really were man’s best friends. On second thought, maybe she’d get a dog instead of cat.
    “Sweet face? Oh, you must mean this sweet face,” Scott chided good-naturedly as he swept from behind the counter, carrying a steaming mug of something thick and warm in his hand. He handed her the mug and gave her a tight, squeeze with one arm and quick peck on the cheek. He stroked the top of Oz’s head with his free hand. “Because it’s the one bringing over your morning latte, little lady.” With his cocked fedora, thick-rimmed glasses, and layers of scarves and a cardigan, Scott looked remarkably like a younger version of Johnny Depp. He had that same endearing quirkiness, too, that made Depp so mysterious and captivating. It worked for him. When he wasn’t tending the coffee counter, Scott was one of the area’s most celebrated indie photographers. He was famous in local photog circles after he’d won an ICON award last fall for a very emotional self-portrait he’d taken with Oz. Andie had been Scott’s date to the award ceremony, and it had been without a doubt one of the best nights she’d had in Colorado. Of course, even though their date had been totally platonic, she’d still earned herself a few glares from some of the more territorial members of Scott’s fan club by being the girl on his arm that night, but that didn’t matter to Andie. She was just proud to be a part of his special night—he’d deserved it. And it had been a lot of fun too.
    Mmmm. Andie inhaled a lungful of cinnamon, nutmeg, and something else that she’d given up trying to figure out. Scott clung to his top-secret chai tea latte recipe as if it were a national treasure. Whatever it was he added, his lattes were nothing short of magical. She took a small sip of the hot milk, swooned a little, and moaned. “Scott, you know the way to a woman’s heart is through her morning beverage, right?”
    “So they tell me, but so far you’re the only one who gets weak in the knees from chai.”
    “It’s so good it’s almost scandalous.” Andie sank into one of the ragged club chairs on the library side of the café. She tugged up the tops of her tall brown riding boots over the ridge that sitting had made in her dark jeans. The knee-high boots were a much better choice than the ankle-booties, but it really was a shame she couldn’t wear more than one pair of shoes at the same time. First world problems, she mused.
    Humming along to the music absently under his breath, Scott checked to make sure they were in no danger of customers walking in before settling into the armchair beside her. He lifted a tattered copy of a magazine from the side table and thumbed through the