Free SunnyWithAChanceofTrueLove by Jessie Evans

her head back with a sigh, giving him easier access to her soft skin. “About claiming the bad stuff, owning it until it doesn’t have power over you anymore. And that gave me an idea how we might be able to turn things around.”
    Ross pulled away, knowing he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on a serious conversation if he kept kissing her. “I’m listening.”
    “What if you change the name of the restaurant?” Elodie said, cautiously.
    “To what?” Ross asked, still not understanding where she was going with this.
    “To the Roadkill Café,” she said, a hopeful expression lighting up her pretty face. “I know it sounds crazy, but I was thinking… I have a lot of contacts in the arts and entertainment world in Austin and Houston. We could redecorate the place with my best new pieces, have a show, and invite the critics for dinner. That will give you lots of free publicity and maybe, by embracing the name, we can defuse the negative effect it seems to have on people.”
    “Turn a negative into a positive,” Ross said, nodding. “Or at least show the gossips we don’t give a shit what they have to say.”
    “Exactly!” Elodie shifted her legs until she was straddling him on the floor. “And it would be so fun. I have a few pieces I haven’t dressed yet. I could get them all decked out in a chef’s hat and a waitress apron and we could use pictures of them on the new menus. It wouldn’t cost much to print out a new front page for the sleeves.”
    “I say we go for it,” Ross said, warming to the idea as quickly as he was warming to the idea of getting Elodie out of her little blue dress. “It’s not like I have anything to lose. If I don’t turn things around soon, I’ll be out of business anyway.”
    “You’re not going to go out of business,” Elodie insisted. “I refuse to let that happen. Your dream isn’t going to die on my watch.”
    “I don’t want to close down,” Ross said seriously. “But if I do, I’ll be fine. I’ve got other dreams and the best girlfriend a man could ask for.”
    Elodie sighed as she dropped her forehead to rest against his. “I adore you, Mr. Dyer.”
    “The feeling’s mutual, Miss Prince. Now let’s get upstairs before we put on a show for the night owls of Lonesome Point.” Ross threaded his fingers through her hair, pulling her in for a kiss before he rose to his feet with her legs wrapped around his waist and carried her up to their apartment.
    It was really starting to feel like theirs—a shared space where the first sparks of their love had been kindled into a flame. But as Ross laid Elodie down on his bed, pulling off her knee high socks as he kissed a trail down the inside of her thigh to each perfect little toe, he knew that if they had to leave this room behind, they would find happiness elsewhere. What they had didn’t live in a specific place, it was carried in the air between them, fueled by their mutual dream of a life filled with love.
    And as long as they kept dreaming their dream together, no one would ever be able to drag them down, no matter how hard they might try.

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Elodie
     
    Elodie had never pulled a show together so quickly, but a mere five days later, Ross’s Place reopened on the Friday night before Valentine’s Day as The Roadkill Café, complete with a new sign, new décor, and a new menu featuring Ross’s signature mix of southern and south-of-the-border flavors renamed with kitschy titles like Awesome Possum BBQ Short Ribs and Semi-Flattened Flat Iron Steak with sweet potato chili fries. Only about half of the art and restaurant critics who’d been invited had been able to make it on such short notice, but almost all the tables were full, and as Elodie hustled from one table to the next, clearing dinner plates to make way for the dessert course, there was no doubt in her mind that the guests were enjoying the food and the art.
    Now she just had to hope the positive reviews, The