Page 56 of With Stars in Her Eyes
The door opened again, and Marshall walked through it. He was even showered and dressed and looking at least 40 percent less depressed than he had during the last couple months since he was cut from his team. At least I had made progress in one area of my life if romance was going to be stalled out completely. Marshall was doing so much better.
“Why don’t you just call her?” He peered down at the scratch paper where I had been doodling little hearts.
I crossed out my doodles. “Because I still don’t have her number.”
“Ah… okay. I think I know what’s happening.” He shook his head ruefully. “So…”
“Don’t say it, Marshall.”
“Let me guess.”
“Stop talking…”
“You must have given little Courtney Starling your”—Marshall assumed a posture and voice that was evidently supposed to be an imitation of her but that sounded more like Sally Field inSteel Magnolias—“I don’t do digital dating—”
I hid my face beneath the book that Courtney had left for me yesterday. “Shut up.”
“—talk. You hadn’t bargained on her being incredibly patient. But now you’re dying inside because you’re horny as hell from all your reading of sexy, smutty books…” He grabbed the book out of my hand, so I had nowhere to hide. “Andnowyou want to tell her to hurry the hell up, but you think if you do that, you’ll fall back into a pattern you don’t want to repeat.”
I had only recently learned the termslow burn, and I didn’t think it was clear enough that being in a slow burn made the slow burner feel like she could combust at any dang moment.
“Why are you so mean to me when all I’ve ever done is to love you like a brother?”
Marshall chuckled. “Because you never miss a chance to giveme shit and didn’t let me wallow. All I’m saying is that maybe you need to figure out a way to woo her.”
“Woo her?”
“Isn’t that what they used to call it in the days of corsets and ballrooms?” He held up the historical romance book like he was Vanna White, and I’d just asked to buy a vowel. Andyes, the vowel probably would have been anO.
Damn it.The two women on the cover were in Regency dress. My mouth went dry at the idea of Courtney wearing a suit and pushing me up against a dark corner and reaching up under my dress… or maybe we would both be in suits and there would be suspenders pushed over shoulders and torn-off ties or both in dresses with fingers ripping through lace and thigh-high stockings and bending Courtney over a…God,the possibilities were endless.
Marshall’s enormous hand waved in front of my face. “Hey, horndog. Stop drooling because of whatever fantasies you got going on in your brain. You’re at work.”
I licked my lips. “I need a plan.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You’re still coming to my first book club with me on Thursday, right?”
“Yep.” Marshall checked his watch. “Did you still need my help in your studio tonight?”
“If you have time. Putting the final touches on some things, and I want to get out that camera I told Sam I would set up for the book fair and make sure it still works… hm…”
“Hmm?”
“Oh…” I grinned. “I may have developed the beginnings of an idea for how to woo the mysterious bookseller next door.”
“Finally.”
I looked up at him. “Finally?”
“Yes, finally. I was on the verge of taking bets with Samantha.”
“What?”
“You can’t keep thinking every person is going to run off after you actually make a move, Thea. She obviously likes you.Everyone around here sees it. But she’s shy. The woman still won’t talk much if I’m around. You can be brave.”
“Speaking of brave, Ms. Jeannie stopped in yesterday looking for you. I forgot to tell you when I got home last night. Did she ever find you?”
