Rumor Has It Read Online Free PDF Page B

Southerners are just naturally nosey. If we were in New York, you'd probably tell me it's none of my business. And it's not,” she added hastily. Turning to look out the window she rolled her eyes and cursed her sudden lack of tact.
    Nick took pity on her and himself and decided to give her at least a portion of the truth. “I've been a waiter, a chef, a busboy, a cabdriver—all while I was trying to become a star on Broadway.”
    “You're an actor?” She was genuinely surprised because she'd never met an actor.
    Nick grimaced. “That's a matter of opinion. I am a dancer—formal schooling, the whole bit.”
    “How wonderful!” And how envious she was. Since her accident, dancing was something she could only dream about. “Why wouldn't you want to tell anyone?”
    He shifted his big body in the low car seat and shrugged uncomfortably. “ ‘Cause I didn't makeit, and I don't want to make a big deal out of it.” And because the kind of dancing he'd been doing over the past two years was done
way
off Broadway, he added mentally.
    They took care of their business in Charlottes -ville quickly and lunched on deli sandwiches in a park. Nick recited all the guidebook facts he'd learned about the town and told Katie he was going to come back one day to tour Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. She told him about her brother attending college there, at the Uni versity of Virginia, until their father's death had forced him to return home to run the family farm.
    On the drive back Katie marveled at how she'd loosened up with Nick. He was so easy to talk to, it seemed she'd forgotten that she didn't want to get to know him—was afraid to get to know him, she amended. Five years previously she had realized there could never be a Nick Leone in her life, a man who made her feel warm inside, as though he had let the sun in to fill all the dark, empty places. She had resigned herself to the fact that she could never have such a man because she could never be the kind of woman he deserved.
    Yet here he was, close enough for her to reach out and touch.
    “Have dinner with me tonight,” he said as they pulled up in front of Primarily Paper.
    “Oh—Nick—” she stammered while her heart hammered in her chest. She shook her head. “I really should—”
    “—say yes and go out with me.” He grinned engagingly, his face much too close as he reached in front of her to open her door.
    Katie scowled at him. “You have the most annoying habit of finishing my sentences for me.”
    “I'll pick you up at seven,” he said, giving her braid a playful tug.
    She stepped into the store just as a customer was leaving. Her polite professional smile for the woman quickly melted into a look that was almost comically distressed.
    “I like him,” Katie said woefully.
    “Oh, no,” her partner whispered dramatically, leaning over the counter. “We'd all better dress in black.”
    “It's not funny, Mary Margaret.”
    Maggie sighed and came around the counter to lead her friend to a chair at the oak trestle table.Sitting down across from Katie she said, “What's so terrible about liking Nick Leone—except of course that he's a retired mercenary just back from the jungles of Central America?”
    “Where'd you hear that one?” Katie asked, laughing.
    “Stella Watkins, the food- sample lady at the supermarket,” Maggie said with a chuckle, her eyes twinkling merrily.
    Katie sobered. “He asked me to dinner.”
    “A fate worse than death. I'm sure I don't know how you'll be able to stand sitting across from that handsome man, gazing into those gorgeous brown eyes of his for a whole evening.”
    “ Mag- gie!”
    “ Ka- tie! He asked you to dinner, not to have his baby. There's no reason you shouldn't go and enjoy yourself. Actually, it's your duty to go with him. You were duly elected to find out all about him. What's the problem anyway? You like Michael Severs. You go out to dinner with him.”
    “That's not the same,” Katie