The Curl Up and Dye Read Online Free PDF Page B

up at her, then purposefully ignored the tears and opted for upbeat.
    “Hi, honey. Great to see you. However, unless you were planning to go straight to a funeral from here, ‘Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning’ is not exercise music. Be right back.”
    She watched him walk away with her iPod. A few moments later he came back, dropped her iPod, without the earbuds, into one of her pockets and put a different iPod in the other pocket and popped her earbuds back in her ears.
    He stood there, waiting for her reaction. It was an old country song, but it was one that wouldn’t send her back into mourning the loss of her boyfriend. George Jones singing “White Lightning” always made him laugh, and he and LilyAnn had the same sense of humor. He hoped it would hit her the same way.
    One moment she’d been wallowing in a song that had been an anthem to Randy Joe’s war, and now this. She looked up at him and grinned.
    He pulled an earbud out of her ear. “My job is done here,” he said, then poked it back in, tweaked her nose, and went to wait on a customer.
    Lily upped the treadmill speed to keep up with the rhythm, moving in a much happier frame of mind, and before she knew it, it was time to get back to the pharmacy. She stopped the treadmill and hurried to the counter.
    “Thanks for the music,” she said, and slid Mike’s iPod back across the counter. “Gotta hurry or I’ll be late.”
    “Good to see you here, honey,” he said softly.
    She paused. “It’s a start,” she said, and ran to get her things out of the locker, leaving the key on the counter as she headed for the door.
    Rachel Goodhope was coming in as Lily was going out. She saw the beads of sweat on Lily’s upper lip and the pink tinge to her cheeks. When Rachel realized the woman had been working out, the look on her face was nothing short of shocked.
    “Well, uh… hello, LilyAnn.”
    “Hi, Rachel. ’Scuse me. I’m going to be late.” Lily pushed past her and kept going.
    Rachel’s eyes narrowed as she watched the tall blond duck into the pharmacy next door, then shrugged it off and headed toward the counter.
    “What’ll it be today?” Mike asked. “Spinning or treadmill?”
    Rachel tossed her red hair and gave Mike a brilliant smile.
    “Spinning, I think.” She stroked her hand up and down her leg in a suggestive manner. “I need to work on my thighs.”
    “Then spinning it is,” Mike said, and handed her a locker key. “There’s a bike open now. I’ll put a towel on the seat so they’ll know it’s taken.”
    Rachel wiggled a finger at Mike and smiled. “You’re the best. Be right back,” she said, and headed into the women’s locker room to lock up her purse.
    Mike knew she was flirting, and she wasn’t the first woman in town to do it. He ignored her, just like he ignored the others. His heart was taken. Even though they didn’t know it, they were beating a dead horse.
    He grabbed a clean towel and laid it on the bike seat, then moved over to the weights to spot a local who was lifting. He knew the guy was a loner and tried hard to fit in, but he seemed at ease in the gym. Here, the guy didn’t have to compete against anyone but himself.
    He noticed Rachel come out of the locker room and climb on the bike, then forgot she was there.
    Had Rachel known that, she would have been irked. She came here on a regular basis because she’d marked Mike Dalton as a possible candidate for husband number four. The fact that Mike didn’t know it was of no consequence. Rachel operated on the principle of “what Rachel wants, Rachel gets,” and somehow it always fell into place.
    ***
    Lily was busy putting up new stock, mostly oblivious to the customers coming and going. She opened the top on another box of painkillers, checked to make sure the unit price was the same as the shelf price, and then began sliding the bottles into place. She heard footsteps coming down the aisle and absently stepped to the side to let them