Venus in Blue Jeans Read Free Page A

sickly.”
    Docia massaged the back of her neck again, willing the headache to go away. “Iguanas always look sickly. It’s part of being an iguana.”
    Janie pushed her empty wine glass back across the bar toward Ingstrom. “Well then, why don’t you take your cat in for shots?”
    Docia sighed. “Right. Even assuming I could wrestle him into the cat carrier, that’d be a great way to get the vet’s attention. Bring in the Konigsburg Devil. There is no Plan B, Janie. There wasn’t even a Plan A. Guys who look like that never turn out to be as good as they look. And they never work out. Believe me, I should know.”
    “For a hard-headed businesswoman, you sure give up easily.” Janie grinned and patted Docia’s shoulder. “Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.”
     
     
    In the doorway, Cal turned to look back at Venus one more time. She still leaned against the bar, her rosy hair shining in the dim light above the cash register.
    For a brief moment, he could swear their gazes connected. He felt a quick jolt of pure adrenaline. Then Venus looked back down at her margarita.
    He heard it then, deep inside, so soft he might have missed it.
    Zing!

Chapter Two
     
    Docia brought her breakfast coffee into the bookstore at nine the next morning. She’d managed to banish all thoughts of gorgeous vets from her mind, if you didn’t count that dream about chasing the neighbor kid’s iguana through a particularly long, dark tunnel.
    Opening time wasn’t until ten, but she needed to do several things before then, including figuring out what to do with the offending CD rack in the back. It looked to be around an inch too wide for the space where she’d originally planned to put it.
    Nico twined himself around her ankles, purring, his yellow eyes glowing against his sleek, black fur. He mewed, plaintively.
    Docia kept walking. “You’ve been fed. I can’t help it if you’ve forgotten already.” Nico’s short-term memory—or lack thereof—was a continual trial.
    She scanned the interior of the shop on the off chance some ideal spot for the CD rack might reveal itself. The front was already full of promotional displays and tables with Konigsburg-related books.
    Nico hopped from a table onto the checkout counter, batting aside a pile of brochures for the Liddy Brenner Festival.
    Docia caught them as they slid toward the edge of the counter, raising an eyebrow at the cat. “Don’t you have lizards to catch?” she asked.
    Nico glanced at her without much interest, then curled into a loose ball against the cash register, closing his eyes against the bright morning sunlight flooding the front of the shop.
    Docia considered the back wall. Right now, she had two small bookcases setting off the antique wallpaper that could be seen above them.
    She was particularly proud of that paper. It was the one original idea she’d managed to slip by the professional she’d hired to lay out the shop. She’d found the stack of antique newspapers, magazines, advertising flyers and road maps when she’d moved into the building, and turning it into vintage wallpaper had been a full-time job. Now it covered most of the back wall and part of the sides, rising above the brown-and-tan mesquite paneling.
    The gray, pressed-tin ceiling in the dimness above her was original construction, although she’d had to patch it and find a few tin pieces to fill in. All in all, the shop looked just like she wanted it—old, warm, lived in. She sighed. Now if she could only get a few Konigsburgers to wander in and check it out along with the tourists.
    The townspeople didn’t exactly seem hostile to her, except for a few like Margaret Hastings. They just seemed…cool. Like Docia still had a ways to go to prove herself.
    Maybe she could put the CD rack against the back wall and move one of the small bookcases alongside the antique dry goods display cabinet at the side. All she had in the cabinet was collectible Texana, and only a handful of people ever