Taming the Country Star: A Hometown Heroes Novella (Entangled Bliss) Read Online Free PDF Page B

pushed him away with a laugh. “And you’re a pain in my ass. Go on. Get cleaned up, call it a night. I’ll text you the address as soon as I have it.”
    …
    Kylie opened the door to Cowbelles early the next morning. Her headache was no better than it had been the night before when LeeAnn dropped her off at her house.
    At the back of the store, she pushed open the door to the stockroom, then rinsed out the coffeepot and filled it up. She was going to need a lot of caffeine today, she suspected.
    But not even the coffee helped, even though she drank several cups of it. She blew across the top of the latest one, staring at the display of bejeweled crosses at the back of the store.
    “Kylie.” LeeAnn’s voice echoing over the jingle of the door opening startled Kylie out of her reverie. “You here?” Her voice was hesitant.
    “In the back,” Kylie said, stepping out.
    “So. You okay?” LeeAnn asked.
    “Fine,” Kylie answered shortly.
    “Um. Have you seen this yet?” LeeAnn held a paper out to Kylie—a tabloid with a bright-red headline. Kylie winced. She hadn’t seen it, but she could guess what it was.
    “No.” She took the tabloid, then spread the paper out over the counter. This was weirdly reminiscent of her friend’s visit yesterday. But at least this time LeeAnn wasn’t doing handstands in the back.
    “Let me see the other one again?” LeeAnn asked. Kylie sighed and pulled out the older tabloid, already open to the page with her pictures. LeeAnn smoothed it down next to the new one.
    The new pictures of Cole showed the two of them leaning in toward each other across the barricade—there were images from several angles, highlighting Kylie’s wide-eyed gaze and Cole’s slightly parted lips.
    There was also one of Cole reaching over the concert barricade, arms outstretched, eyes pleading as she pulled away.
    There was a clear one of her, too, this time—taken as she walked by someone in the audience, Kylie guessed. Lines bracketed her pinched mouth. Had she really been radiating that much misery when she left?
    “So,” LeeAnn said. Kylie waited, but her friend didn’t continue.
    “Yeah?” Kylie finally said
    “Want me to show you some breathing techniques?” LeeAnn closed her eyes and began chanting. “Ommmm.”
    “No,” Kylie said through clenched teeth. “I don’t want to learn any breathing techniques.”
    LeeAnn opened one eye. “It might help you relax,” she said. “Ommmm.” When Kylie didn’t respond, she opened her other eye, too, and said in a normal tone, “So what are you going to do?”
    “Do?”
    LeeAnn flicked her fingernail against the tabloid headline. “Cole’s Long-Lost Love?” it asked in a hysterical font. “You’ve got to talk to him. See that face? That’s the face of a man who wants to see you again. He could barely finish the show last night.”
    Kylie rubbed her eyes. “I can’t, LeeAnn.”
    “Why not? It’s clear that you really like him.”
    “Well, yeah. When I thought he was Cole no-last-name, businessman and random rebound hookup guy. But Cole Grayson, famous singer? I don’t know if I can deal with that.”
    “Why not?” LeeAnn asked. “Why does it matter if he’s famous or not?”
    Kylie’s eyes flickered up to the image of her father on the wall, but instead of answering directly, she glanced back down at the paper in front of her. “I hate these things,” she said, her lip curling. “And I don’t want to be just another pickup for him. Do you have any idea how many tabloid pictures there are of him with different women?”
    But her friend was no longer listening. Instead, she stared over Kylie’s shoulder toward the entrance. “It’s almost a hundred degrees outside,” she said. “So why is that guy all wrapped up in a serape?”
    Turning to follow LeeAnn’s gaze, Kylie caught sight of a man standing outside the door, peering in. He was draped in a Mexican-style blanket, a dark-brown Stetson pulled low over the