Free His First and Last (Ardent Springs #1) by Terri Osburn Page A

them have reasons not to think much of me. Seems only fair you know that before giving me a job. I’m serious when I say I don’t want to cost you any business.”
    With narrowed eyes, Snow studied Lorelei. She looked to be weighing the pros and cons of the situation. If the scale came down on the side of the cons, Lorelei wouldn’t blame her one bit.
    “I appreciate your honesty,” Snow said with a nod. “If you’re available during the festival, the spot is yours. But in the meantime, if you have something I can sell, bring it in.”
    Lorelei blinked. “To sell?” Could she part with a few of her meager belongings?
    “Sure,” the woman answered. “Do you make anything? Jewelry, hats, crafts of any kind?”
    She’d been called crafty more than once, but not the way Snow meant. “Afraid not. I used to sew back when I was in high school, but I haven’t threaded a needle in a dozen years.”
    “Then maybe it’s time to get back to it,” Snow said as the bell over the door jingled. “Got a customer. Feel free to look around. Maybe you’ll get an idea of something you could make. Fill a void, as it were.” Without waiting for a response, the owner was off to help the newcomer.
    Lorelei took the offer to wander around the store, racking her brain to think of anything she could make that Snow could turn into money. She’d dabbled in making a skirt or two in home ec, but she’d never been very good at it. Watching someone else make jewelry didn’t mean she had the skill for it either, but then there was no lack of pretty baubles in this establishment.
    The more she pondered, the more Lorelei realized the mistake she’d made chasing a worthless dream for so long. Her twenties were the decade she was supposed to find herself. To get good at something.
    Lorelei had gotten good at one thing—slinging plates. And if anything, she’d lost herself instead of the other way around. This might as well have been her first day out of high school, and she had about as many answers as the clueless eighteen-year-old she’d been back then.
    Maybe the pizzeria was still an option.

Chapter 7
    Spencer pulled his truck up to the garage door, relieved the day was over. Between his run-in with Grady, faulty measurements on the Leeds house, and the missed delivery of semigloss varnish at the workshop, the afternoon had sucked. But it was nothing a cold beer and a happy dog couldn’t cure.
    Though some quiet time with Lorelei would be even better.
    Imagining an evening with Lorelei tucked against his side put a smile on Spencer’s face as he climbed the stairs to his apartment. He expected Champ to rush through the door, but when he pushed it open there was nothing but silence to greet him. That was strange. If Rosie had let the dog out early, Spencer would have been rushed by seventy-five pounds of black Lab as soon as he stepped out of the truck.
    Concerned and confused, Spencer traveled back down the stairs and headed for the house. Halfway across the yard he spotted Lorelei sitting on the porch swing. She met his eye as he reached the top step.
    “I think you’ve been thrown over for a pretty girl,” she said, gesturing toward the black Lab leaning against her knee. She was scratching behind his ear, and the dog looked to be in ecstasy. Spencer tamped down the punch of jealousy.
    “I don’t blame him,” he said, ambling down the porch. “I’d fall at your feet, too, if rubbed the right way.”
    Lorelei gave him a stern look. “Don’t start the flirting already. I’m in a weakened state and don’t know that I can fend you off.”
    That sounded positive to him, but her eyes told him she wasn’t kidding. Looked like her day wasn’t much better than his had been.
    “Want to talk about it?” he asked.
    Lorelei chewed her bottom lip, her eyes focused somewhere near her orange-tipped toes. “I tried to get a job at the diner,” she said, her voice so quiet he had to strain to hear her.
    He could see how well