Free The Pretty Lady and the Cowboy (Songs from the Heart) by Dana Lee Page B

a bunch of backyards and ran across the highway, I should be able to make it to the store in fewer than twenty minutes.
    Twenty minutes. And wasn’t I going to look great by the time I got there! Well, it was that or give up and tune into The Bachelor again tonight.
    No way
, I thought. I stuffed my princess shoes into a backpack along with my purse and took off running.
    All I’ve got to say is that if you’re ever tempted to try to run in a strapless underwire bra and a tight sheath dress, don’t do it. Or if you really must do it, don’t top things off with a backpack, however light.
    I couldn’t run at anywhere near my normal pace. The backpack strap cut into my bare shoulder and the pack itself smacked into my shoulder blades with each step. And you don’t even want to know about the beating my boobs took, bobbing uncomfortably in the lacy underwire. Strapless bras were a pain at the best of times but now this one was slipping down somewhere around my rib cage. Well, there was no way I was going to stop and try to pull it up out here in front of the whole town.
    As I ran, I started to sweat. Sorry about the dress, Jess! My grandmother had once told me that horses sweat, men perspire, and ladies “dew,” but no, I was sweating.
    I was navigating from a sort of mental version of Google Earth, cutting across backyards and open fields, praying for breaks in the traffic as I sprinted across the highway and main streets. I might have found it amusing if I wasn’t so mad at Old Ray—and at myself for cutting the timing so close. Would Levi wait? Or would he have told his limo driver to take him back to the hotel long before I came panting up to the store?
    At least I managed not to fall this time. I slowed to a walk when I was about half a block away, but I was still breathing pretty heavily by the time I reached the front of The Finish Line. By some miracle, Levi was there, sitting on the sidewalk in front of the store, eyes closed, head leaning against the store window. I smiled. He was wearing the Finish Line cap I’d given him and the disguise seemed to be working since there was no crowd surrounding him.
    He must have heard my footsteps approaching. He opened his eyes and his amused glance took in my wind-tousled hair, my pink silk dress, and of course, the ultimate accessory, my sexy-as-all-get-out running shoes.
    “You know, JK,” he said, “I would have been happy to pick you up.”
    JK—Just Kitty. I guess that meant we were getting friendlier.
    “Hey, that’s okay,” I said. “I’m the local running store owner, so I feel like I ought to run everywhere I go. Good for the environment, too.”
    He gave me a slightly disbelieving look as he stood up and helped me remove the backpack. The slight touch of his hand against my bare shoulder sent shivers of delight up my spine. The run seemed to have heightened all my senses. I could detect that aftershave of his, subtle, understated. He looked dazzling in a black collarless shirt and dress jeans—and the Finish Line cap, the must-have item that always makes a brilliant fashion statement.
    “Yeah, okay, my car wouldn’t start,” I confessed. I unlocked the door and led the way in. I really needed to freshen up. “Doggone it,” I said as we walked in, “here I was hoping to dazzle you in my princess shoes. Best laid plans and all that.”
    “Gang aft agley,” he said. Wow, the English major in me was impressed. He picked right up on the quote from the Scottish poet Robert Burns.
    “Now, don’t look so surprised—my last name
is
McCrory,” he said with a grin. “My granny even used to dance the Highland fling for me when I was little.” He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips. Be still my heart!
    “I just need a few minutes to—um—powder my nose,” I said, turning toward the back of the store.
    But he pulled me to him. “How can I let you go without even a kiss good-bye?”