Page 55 of Not Exactly a Small-Town Romance

“Sure.” I push myself to seating, staying well away from him.

“Nervous about possibly meeting your future husband? It’s too hot for flannel, sadly. Will you recognize him without his signature look?”

I’m tempted to throw a pillow at him, but the room has a fair amount of china that might end up in the line of fire. “Of course.”

“Will he be blond like you?” His grin is infectious. “Or brown-haired like me?”

“It feels like you’re about to break out into song.”

“What would be the perfect one?” He starts the first line of “Till There Was You.”

Dang it. The man can sing. I can’t help but feel my heart squeeze. “You old-soul romantic.”

He leaps to his feet. “How do you solve a problem like Miss Kelsey?”

“Hey now!” And I’m up, too.

He launches us into a lively dance around the room as he starts the next song, insisting he’s going to take me out on a “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.”

And I let him lead me across the wood floor. I wonder why he never sang in anything, although of course, musicals are rare, and he got stuck in gross-out comedies. As the song continues, I realize I was jealous. Jealous of a woman in a green dress on a carriage.

And here Zach is, fixing it.

Maybe the other women get the flirts and the photos and the press and, probably, the sex.

But I get the best of Zachery Montgomery Carter. The pizza and movies. The coffee rushed down Hollywood Boulevard.

And the show tunes as I’m led into a dance in a Victorian mansion in Dillville, Colorado.

Chapter 18

ZACHERYHATES ON AMEET-CUTE

I shouldn’t do that.

Sing to her. Dance with her.

I keep those parts of myself tamped down. Breaking them out feels wrong for someone who is a notorious rake. I generally aim to woo women just enough to keep them on my arm, but not so much that they mistake my attention for real feelings.

Those I keep to myself.

And yet, as I change into jeans and a short-sleeved button-down for the festival, I realize that behaving that way comes naturally with Kelsey.

I’m not trying to convince her to enjoy her time with me. We just do.

I don’t have to overcompensate for my lack of recent IMDb entries. I can simply be Zachery Carter, employee to Desdemona Lovechild. Just like her.

It’s easy.

But the next part won’t be. Unlike the first time she forced a meet-cute at the beaver lodge, I’ll be nearby to witness this one.

And I’ll have to let her succeed.

If he’s worthy of her.

No, that’s not going to happen. Nobody is worthy.

But at least I can protect her from the bad ones. The creeps, the stalkers, the assholes, the entitled.

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