Free Rediscovery by Ariel Tachna Page A

“Twenty to thirty-three percent off the list price.”
     
    Before he could ask another question, two small children, no more than two and four, came running past him. “Edward! Patricia! Wait for me!”
     
    The children paid no attention, running behind the booth and into the arms of the bookseller. “Aunt Kelly!”
     
    She hugged them both before handing them crayons and paper to draw on. They settled for the moment on the floor between the book table and the leather booth. Michael glanced toward the leather seller, sure he would be annoyed by the children’s presence, but he waved at them with a bright smile, and the kids waved back before resuming their drawing.
     
    “Sorry for the interruption,” the other woman said, joining Kelly at the table. “My child care fell through at the last minute, so they got to come with me.”
     
    “It’s fine,” Michael said, glancing toward the next booth again. “I think I’ll browse a little more before I decide what I’m buying, but I’ll definitely be back.”
     
    “We’ll be here,” Kelly said.
     
    Michael moved on around the room, but he found his eyes going back to the leather booth. The warm smile the vendor had given the children didn’t fit at all with his expectations, and it unsettled him.
     
    Then he heard his name called, looking up to recognize one of his acquaintances from the previous year’s con. Forgetting entirely about the leather seller, Michael followed Drew out of the dealers’ room and into the game room to play Risk .
     

     

     
    When he was alone in his room later that night, the image of the leather dealer popped back into Michael’s head. He couldn’t get that smile out of his mind. He hadn’t spent a lot of time looking at the man, but enough to see that he was undeniably handsome. The leather vest he’d worn had revealed strong arms with a thorny vine tattoo around one bicep. His face had been average, evenly spaced eyes, slightly crooked nose, average mouth, until he smiled. By whatever magic, that smile had transformed his face from ordinary to spectacular. Michael had always found laughter extremely sexy, and that smile had hinted at a wealth of humor, the smile lines around his mouth suggesting he spent a lot more time smiling and laughing than not.
     
    Shaking his head at his own foolishness—it didn’t matter if he found the man attractive, nothing was going to come of it at a weekend con even if he could deal with getting involved with a leather guy—he turned off the light and tried to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be a busy day.
     

     

     
    Michael ran into the booksellers and the leather man again the next morning at breakfast. The two women and two kids were at one table, the kids obviously enjoying their breakfast while the two women yawned over their coffee cups. The leather seller sat at the table next to them, dressed entirely in leather today instead of only the vest and a pair of jeans, making faces at the kids, who giggled uproariously. The image was so incongruous that he found himself staring. The younger of the two children, who was walking but didn’t look like he was more than two, was dressed in a yellow shirt and blue plaid shorts-overalls. Michael couldn’t think of anything more clean-cut or middle class, yet the boy laughed and played with the leather man like they were best friends. Even more interestingly, the boy’s mother seemed perfectly content with the arrangement. It made Michael stop and reconsider his own ingrained reaction. The guy might dress in leather sometimes, but he also entertained little kids like he knew how they would react, something the dom at the club he’d visited that one time would never have known.
     
    The waiter brought Michael’s food, the vendors at the other tables left, and Michael’s thoughts turned to the panels he wanted to attend that day.
     

     

     
    Before lunch, Michael had a few minutes to return to the dealers’ room. The book table was