.

to the fan, he said, “Good luck with that,” and left.

      Just left. Which was exactly what she wanted him to do.

      She turned off the fan in time to hear him lock the front door and thought about checking to see if he’d actually gone out before locking it, but didn’t. Instinct told her that she didn’t have to worry about him. Instinct wasn’t much of a reason, but the way he’d held her gaze and seemed offended when she’d implied that he’d stolen Jimmy’s key worked for her.

      There was a lot of psychology involved in selling bridal gowns and the most successful sales associates became shrewd judges of character and experts at figuring out subtexts. Lia’s instincts had served her well and she had no reason to think they wouldn’t this time.

      Moments later, she heard J.C. in the Tuxedo Park dressing room. And that was that.

      Except that wasn’t that. In spite of herself, she strained to hear what he was up to when she should have been concentrating on her computer disaster.

      

      JORDAN CHRISTIAN UNROLLED his sleeping bag on the padded bench in the back fitting room. Going next door to see what Lia looked like had been a bad idea. Bad, bad idea.

      Bad, because he liked what he saw. Bad, because she did, too. Bad, because she wasn’t going to admit it. Bad, because he was going to make her admit it.

      Yeah, he was. Assistant Manager Lia had issued a challenge with her I’m-all-about-my-work attitude and her you-don’t-do-it-for-me expression. It had been a long time since Jordan had encountered a challenge he felt like accepting.

      And Lia of the red cheeks, the slicked-back ponytail and the buttoned-up shirt all the sales associates wore was one heck of a challenge.

      Jordan had used his best stuff on her, too. Little songs—women had fainted over his little songs—the smile, the drawl…none of it’d worked.

      ’Course, she was mad about frying her computer, but Jordan figured his best stuff wouldn’t have worked anyway. Either he was rusty, a very real possibility, or she’d convinced herself that men were a distraction from her career. Maybe both.

      He lay back on the sleeping bag and crossed his arms behind his head. When he’d first seen Elizabeth Gray, the owner of the salon, he’d thought she was so tightly wound that when she finally did spring loose, he’d hear the twang wherever he happened to be at the time. As her assistant, Lia was trying to be exactly like her. That was just wrong.

      Because he was spending nights here, he’d overheard them talking the past few days, long after the place had closed down and regular folks had gone home to their families. He’d learned that the wedding-dress business was deadly serious, when he figured it would be all smiles and giggles and happiness. That seemed wrong, too.

      There had to be a song in there somewhere.

      Jordan got his musical inspiration from traveling around the country, working odd jobs and observing people. It kept him grounded and connected to his audience.

      He might spend a day or two somewhere, or he might spend a couple of months, depending on whether he was recognized or not. No timetable, except that he was due back in Nashville next week to start his new CD. If he had a relative to visit, as he did here in Rocky Falls, so much the better. Since he was performing on most holidays, he liked connecting with family when he could.

      During his travels, he’d slept in barns, his truck, lots of bed-and-breakfasts, campgrounds and more than a few tacky motels, but he’d never before slept in the dressing room of a store. It was now one of his favorites. He could work on his music without bothering Jimmy in his apartment, and until everybody left, he enjoyed listening to the women talk.

      Jordan liked women, but contrary to his ladies’-man image, he avoided the groupies and the singing hopefuls who wanted to latch on to him. That didn’t mean he wasn’t tempted, but early in his career, he’d learned that one-night stands left him broody and hollow. Women were too often dazzled by Jordan Christian, the singer, and forgot about Jordan Christian, the man.

      To be honest, part of Lia’s appeal was that she not only didn’t recognize him, it wouldn’t matter if she did. She wasn’t the dazzled type. She also wasn’t the type to pull up stakes and follow him back to Nashville thinking he had more time to give to a relationship than he did.

      Which made her just about perfect.

      Shoot. He wished he had more time here, but he’d have to work with what he had. Music helped him think and he needed to think about what he wanted to do and how he was going to do it. Reaching for his guitar, he propped it on his chest. China. Lia had mentioned China.

      Jordan feathered his fingers in a chord and then altered a note that added a vaguely eastern sound. He liked it. As he plinked the strings one at a time, a word faded into his mind. Butterfly.

      Butterfly

      In a cocoon…

      They were all about butterflies here. Girls would come, find their dream dress, and for most of them, it would be the most expensive, elaborate and just plain biggest dress they’d ever wear. And afterward, they’d be changed. They’d emerge beautiful, glowing women. Butterflies.

      Jordan turned out the light and softly strummed in the dark.

      

      LIA WAS ON HOLD, racking up international long-distance charges. Even worse, she’d stretched the phone base and receiver as far as she could so she could hear J.C.’s voice.

      For international calls, she had to use the salon’s corded phone, or she would have been sitting in the dressing room instead of standing in the hall outside it.

      But she could hear. He was only singing bits and pieces as he worked out his song, but that voice of his just wrapped itself around her and wouldn’t let go. She hadn’t thought she liked deep voices, but his had grown on her in what? A couple of hours?

      And now that she had come to like his voice, she admitted that the rest of him wasn’t so bad, either.

      Lia groaned. She was not going to get hung up on an itinerant musician. She wasn’t. She wasn’t going to think about the one-sided dimple or the large hands or the nose or the confidently amused gleam in his eye. She was not going to be attracted to him. Okay, she was going to be attracted to him, but she was going to ride it out, that’s what she was going to do.

      He sang another phrase, a little louder this time. His voice sounded just like dark syrup and she wanted to lick it up, preferably off him.

      She whimpered.

      4

      LIA WAS ONE determined woman. Jordan had listened to her spend the better part of an hour working her way through a frustrating maze of people to reach her contact, only to discover that her contact had been waiting at the main switchboard ever since she’d discovered they’d lost the computer connection.

      He did love a determined woman, especially one who was about to bust with frustration.

      Generally, he preferred that a woman was about to bust from another kind of frustration, but until then, he enjoyed hearing Lia talk sweet as anything and then cuss like a cartoon sailor when she was on hold.

      He’d never heard someone say “Fudge brownies!” with such savagery before. That was his favorite—fudge brownies. It could make a good song title. Most of her silly curses could. He was keeping a list.

      “Lily of the valley!”

      A new one. That was a goodie. On his laptop, Jordan switched from his music-notation program to the word-processing file and added “lily of the valley” to such expletives as “dreamsicle” and “shantung.” She said “shantung” like two words with the emphasis on the second syllable. If she was really mad, she added “silk” to the phrase, starting quietly and building, “Silk shan-TUNG!”

      Damn. He was lying here, writing a new song, and falling in