Only You Read Online Free PDF

with her order pad. “Everything served here is fresh.”
    “ Ow .” He rubbed his shoulder. “You know what I mean, Dix.”
    “ Uh-huh. What can I get you folks?”
    “We’ll have the special with sweet tea.”
    Dixie looked at Josie for approval.
    “Sounds good,” she agreed.
    “Nice apron, Dix,” Cole said.
    Dixie, who was known for her unusual outfits, wore a bright neon green sleeveless dress with vibrant pink polka dots. Her apron was the reverse. Pink with green polka dots. Anyone else would have looked like a clown, but Dixie pulled it off.
    “You here to critique my wardrobe or are you hungry?”
    “I’m here to eat.”
    Dixie nodded. “Two teas and two specials. Comin’ right up. And welcome home, Josie. It’s good to see you around this old town again.”
    “I’ll second that,” Cole said.
    “Thanks,” she said to both.
    “So, how many years has it been?” he asked.
    “Well, I’ve been away at school for seven years, but it’s been longer than that since I saw you.”
    A particularly vivid memory came to mind. “It’s not been that long.”
    Josie frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “There was one Christmas you came home from college. I saw you at Christmas Eve services with your folks.”
    “Really?”
    “You were wearing a black dress and your hair hung loose around your shoulders. You looked beautiful.”
    She tipped her head to the side and gave him a sheepish look. “I talked my parents into having Christmas here that year. I hated Christmases in Florida at their condo. For some reason, I was incredibly homesick that year. For the town and the library, anyway. I never had any real friends here.”
    “That why you never visited during breaks?”
    She unrolled her silverware and smoothed her napkin in her lap. “I don’t remember seeing you at services that year.”
    He didn’t miss that she had neatly avoided answering his question, but he let it go. “It was pretty crowded.”
    She nodded. “Always is.”
    That had been the first time he’d noticed her. Really noticed her…as a woman. That little black dress had hugged her body in all the right places and her thick long hair had spilled down her back and over the pew. If he’d died on the spot, he’d have gone straight to hell because he’d fantasized about seein’ it spread out on his pillow . . . .
    He blinked and brought his thoughts back to the present. Petite and thin, that boxy suit she wore today hid any shape that might lie beneath it. But he could imagine. She still had that flame red hair. Wonder if it still reached her waist?
    Looking at Cole now, Josie couldn’t imagine overlooking a man as handsome and magnetic as Cole even in a crowd. She tried to remember the last time she saw him. “You know, I came home for a whole summer after I graduated from college. I don’t think I saw you once in the nearly three months I was here.”
    The vinyl creaked as he shifted his position on the seat of the booth. He looked uncomfortable. Cole lowered his head, but not before she saw a crimson blush stain his high cheekbones. He must be embarrassed by the fact that he had to drop out of school when she had gone on to explore all that higher education had to offer. She wanted to put him at ease, but she couldn’t resist reminding him of that time in middle school.
    “I seem to recall you defending my honor on the playground. Remember? I was in sixth grade. You were in eighth, I think. The kids were always teasing me about reading during recess instead of playing.”
    “I remember.”
    “That day, Bobby Jones was throwing rocks at me. One hit my leg and made it bleed.”
    “Jones had a mean streak in him a mile wide.”
    Josie nodded. “You took him aside and said something to him.”
    “I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to read instead of play, but I figured if that was what you wanted to do, you oughta be able to do it in peace.”
    “He never bothered me again after that, thanks to you. I always