Love Songs Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the parking lot, parked, and killed the engine. She grinned wide.
    “Ever eat here?”
    “Steve’s B-B-Q Pit and Beer?”
    “Another Keller staple.”
    He let the tension slide off his shoulders and now he was smiling. “You introduce me to your entire family and now bring me to a Keller hang out? And here I thought you were just going to steal my song.”
    The smile on her lips disappeared. “You thought I was going to steal your song?”
    “Hey, my track record with beautiful women isn’t very good. Most women in my life either abandoned me, tried to ruin me, or have used me to meet someone in Nashville to kick start their career.”
    “First of all, thank you for thinking I’m beautiful.” She smiled. “But I don’t work that way—I don’t use people.”
    “I see that.” There was a gnawing sense of guilt rising in his chest. “Before we go inside and you somehow convince me to spill to you, I just want to thank you for taking the time. I’ve spent the past few years with people already having formulated opinions on me because of some…well some…”
    “She doesn’t influence my decisions.”
    Warner swallowed hard. “That means a lot.”
    Clara reached across the Jeep and rested her hand on his thigh. “You’re good people, Warner Wright. I’ve been surrounded by good people my whole life and I know one when I see one.” She patted his leg and then retracted her hand. “C’mon. I’m starving and you’re right,” she said as she opened the door. “I’m going to make you spill your story.”
    As Clara climbed out of the truck Warner took in a deep breath. Fate must have stepped in and given him a shove. How else could he explain the fact that he’d met the only person in Nashville without an agenda of their own?
     
    The restaurant was packed with patrons. The fragrant smell of barbeque and stale beer permeated Warner’s senses. The hostess guided them to a table for two in the corner. Clara took her seat before he could even attempt the gentlemanly maneuver of pulling her chair out for her.
    Warner sat across from her and looked over the extensive menu.
    “I’ll order if it’s okay,” she offered.
    He closed the menu and nodded.
    Clara ordered their meal and then leaned forward on her arms when the waitress left and looked Warner in the eyes.
    “Okay, so I know your dad was once married to Patricia Little. Tell me who you really are.”
    There shouldn’t be any reason to be nervous. Clara didn’t make him nervous. He just hated talking about his life. Really, who wanted a thirty-year-old sob story?
    “Born and raised in Memphis. In fact, I could see the back yard of Graceland from my bedroom window.” He started to bounce his leg under the table, which he did when he was nervous so he willed himself to stop. “I suppose that was where I got the bug. How can you not live that close to Graceland and feel the spirit of rock and roll, gospel, and the true roots of music as we know it?”
    There was an enormous smile on her lips. “That has got to be the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard.”
    This girl didn’t get out too much. “I lived there until I was ten.” His heart rate kicked up a notch and his knee was bouncing again. “That was a year after my mom took off and my dad met Patty.”
    “Patty?”
    “Patricia Little.”
    “Oh,” she sighed the word and he knew it was out of pity.
    “They were married a few months after my parents were divorced, or so he said they were. I don’t have any proof that they actually did get divorced.” He waved his hand in the air as if to discount what he’d said. “Anyway he married Patty and we moved just outside Nashville.”
    “Your mom just up and left you?”
    “Yep.” His mouth had gone dry. Where was that waitress with their pitcher of beer? “One day she and dad were fighting, then she told him she hated that she’d gotten pregnant with me and he’d made her stick around. So he told her she didn’t have to and