“Keep your trousers on, Axsel,” Sin said. “Dash is straight, and I brought him along tonight to meet Amber, not to hook up with her brother. Dash wrote a book, and he’s doing a signing with her in a couple of weeks.” He motioned to the brunette, who was staring at Dash again. “Dash, this is Amber Montgomery. Amber, this is Dash Pennington.”
It’s my lucky day. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Amber.” Dash held out his hand. “Shea had wonderful things to say about you.” Shea Steele was his publicist. She’d told him that Amber ran the busiest bookstore in the area, and she was sweet, cautious, and definitely not his type. Shea couldn’t have been more wrong.
The blond woman standing next to Amber, wearing about a dozen necklaces and a blouse with flowing sleeves, nudged Amber with her elbow, startling Amber out of her trance. Amber blinked repeatedly and shook Dash’s hand. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”
Her hand was soft and warm, her voice as sweet as honey, and her gorgeous hazel eyes were as lost in him as his were in her. “I hear you own a great bookstore. I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”
She continued shaking his hand. “I…yeah. Books…in the shop.”
She was too damn cute.
A tall woman with thick and wild dark hair trailing over her shoulders from beneath a cowgirl hat stifled a laugh, and the blonde nudged Amber again.
“Bookstore, sorry,” Amber said quickly, dropping his hand. Her fingers landed on the dog’s head. “I own a bookstore. But you already know that. Oh my gosh. I better…” Her eyes darted around them. “Nice to meet you. I have to…do that thing. Over there.” She pointed into the crowd. “Sorry. See you in the bookstore. Come, Reno.”
As Amber hurried away, a thin blonde lowered her voice and said, “So much for flirting lessons.”
Flirting lessons? That piqued his interest.
“You’ll have to excuse my sister,” the hippieish blonde said. “She’s had a long day.”
Dash watched Amber moving through the crowd. “No excuse necessary. She made a remarkable first impression.” And he couldn’t wait to see what her second impression was like.
AMBER HURRIED THROUGH the crowd until she was sure Dash couldn’t see her and finally stopped to catch her breath. Reno, her seizure response dog, whined, and she petted his head. “I’m okay.” She was trying to convince herself as much as Reno, who sensed her anxiety. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure she was in the clear and rose onto her tiptoes, leaning to the right to catch sight of that shockingly gorgeous muscled man talking with her mother and siblings. Great. They were probably joking about how flustered she’d gotten.
I have to do that thing? Ugh.
She was a total rambler when she was nervous. Even her brother, Axsel, had flirted better with Dash than she had. Everybody knew it, too. When her youngest sister, Brindle, and her besties, Lindsay Roberts and Trixie Jericho, found out that she’d been asked to host a book signing for Dash, they’d not only talked her into it, but they’d decided she needed flirting lessons. A man finally caught your attention. You need him, Amb…Once you learn to use that to your advantage, he won’t stand a chance, Brindle had insisted. Lindsay had been dragging her out in the evenings, trying to teach her how to flirt. Last week she’d taken Amber to a meat market of a bar forty-five minutes away, where she hadn’t known anyone. Talk about a fish out of water. Needless to say, Amber had drowned in embarrassment, while Lindsay had come home with two phone numbers and a date for the weekend. Their plan had become the bane of Amber’s existence.
She was a professional bookseller and businesswoman. There would be no flirting with Dash Pennington, no matter what her friends thought.
She moved deeper into the crowd, wondering what Dash Pennington was doing in town so far ahead of schedule. She’d been looking forward to the jam session for weeks, and she’d been having a great time. Now she was a nervous wreck. She knew not everyone loved the nuances of small-town life, but it was the only life for her. Amber loved being surrounded by the people who had known her forever, had weathered the storms of her epileptic seizures, and had cheered her on when she’d opened her bookstore. Nothing compared to the safety of living in a community where everybody knew her name and her medical background.
Except maybe love…
Not that she had any firsthand experience with that. She reached down to pet Reno as the lights dimmed and the barn quieted. At least I have you.
Amber moved so she could see the stage just as a spotlight hit Nick Braden, Trixie’s boyfriend, who lived in Peaceful Harbor, Maryland. Nick stood center stage in a black button-down shirt, jeans, and his ever-present cowboy hat. Trixie’s four brothers were also onstage. To his left, Trace and JJ held their guitars, and to his right, Shane sat behind the drums, and Jeb was at the piano.
Even though Amber knew what was coming, she already had tears in her eyes.
Nick spoke into the microphone as he came off the stage, looking at Trixie like she was his entire world. Amber sighed, longing to be loved like that, wondering when it would be her turn. She was the middle child of seven, and in the past year and a half, three of her five sisters had gotten married, and Brindle already had an adorable little girl. None of them had even been looking for love, much less dreamed about a white wedding, a house full of babies, and building a life rich with family traditions, the way Amber had. She was happy for them, but she’d couldn’t shake the niggle of jealousy.
Amber held her breath as Nick dropped to one knee in front of Trixie, professing his love for her. The barn erupted in congratulatory cheers. Tears slipped down Amber’s cheeks, and she pressed her hand over her heart as Trixie and Nick kissed.
“That was pretty magical,” a man said from behind her.
“It sure was,” she said dreamily, wiping her eyes. “It was perfect. I want that so badly.” She turned, and her mouth went dry at the smoldering dark eyes and panty-melting grin aimed directly at her.
Dash raised his brows. “So, you’re a romantic.”
She was not going to embarrass herself again. She wasn’t a giddy girl, and he was…too darn good-looking. But he was still just a man. She touched Reno’s head, centering herself as she straightened her spine and lifted her chin, hoping she wouldn’t sound as nervous as she felt. “A proud romantic, thank you very much.”
“A beautiful woman like you must have lots of men romancing her.”
Laughter fell from her lips before she could stop it. “Hardly.”
“I don’t believe that.” He cocked a brow. “Unless you run away from all men.”
“I don’t run away from all men.” Amber had never needed thrills the way some of her sisters have, and in an effort to control her epilepsy, she avoided anything that created too much excitement or stress—like the ex-footballer turning her body into an inferno with nothing more than a little charm.
Amusement rose in his eyes. “So, you only run away from the men you Google?”
She was going to kill her gabby sisters. “I had to research you before I could accept the invitation to host.” And she’d found out all she’d needed to know about him. He lived in New York City, had retired from football last year to pursue motivational speaking and launch the book he’d written, and from the many pictures she’d seen, he enjoyed partying with high-profile celebrities and gorgeous, leggy women. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Delicious was better suited for Sable, who loved a good challenge, than Amber, who had always preferred books and low-key gatherings to rowdy men and the drama that seemed to come with them.