Dangerous by Suzannah Daniels Page A

didn’t he tell Dara? Now that I’d like to see. Dara wasn’t the confrontational type, but in my experience, females didn’t typically like it when a guy tried to tell them what to do.
    I tossed the curled piece of paper on my dresser. I’d already spent way too much time entertaining Chance’s I’m-too-chicken-to-say-it-to-your-face note. I had to get to work.
    When I arrived at the bookstore, Dara was dusting the shelves, and I found Tom working on spreadsheets at the front counter. “Got the sales numbers for last week?” I asked over his shoulder.
    “Yeah. They’re slightly better, but still weak.”
    I ran my hands through my hair. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.
    Dara approached us from the opposite side of the counter with a dust cloth in her hand. “Hey, Stone. How’re you this morning?”
    I glanced up to see her eyes locked on me. Crap. I knew it’d be coming. Her question sounded innocent enough, but I had a feeling it was geared more towards how I felt this morning after our conversation led to a rather touchy subject last night. Girls like Dara always wanted to talk about feelings and peek into a guy’s brain. I wanted no part of that. She waited for an answer. “If I was any better, the girls wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off me. Oh, wait…they can’t.”
    “Conceited much?”
    “Very much.” I leaned over the counter and whispered, “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    I turned my attention back to Tom who was watching us with interest. “We need to work on the Fourth of July promotion. It would be nice to start the month off with a bang.” I paused. “Pun intended.”
    “Speaking of bangs. I’ve been thinking about the promotion,” Dara said.
    “Have you?” I asked, studying her lips and then forcing myself to focus on her eyes and await her answer.
    “What do you think about a Beauty with a Bang promotion?”
    “Go on.”
    She glanced from me to Tom and continued. “Customers can have their nails painted for ninety-nine cents with any twenty-dollar purchase, and they get a free box of snap ‘n pops.”
    “Painting nails is fine for the female customers, but what do the guys get?” I asked, not sure how many customers could be enticed with that promotion.
    “Did you hear me say customers get a free box of snap ‘n pops? Like grown men don’t get into those just as much as kids do?” She rolled her eyes as if I had asked a silly question. “Besides, I could also line up the reigning Miss Quail Mountain for an appearance. She always draws in a crowd. Most of them are males.
    “We could also have face painting for the kids, and we could put a grill out front and sell a hot dog combo meal for about a dollar and a half.”
    I had to admit that she had given it a lot of thought, and her ideas were just as good, if not better, than any of the ones that I had come up with. “Tom, what do you think?”
    “Sounds better than any ideas I could come up with. I’ll take a look at the budget and let y’all know how much we should spend.” He turned back to the computer and began pulling up spreadsheets.
    “Dara, do you want to handle the whole promotion?”
    “Me?”
    “Well, it sounds like you already have it planned out in your head. Tom can give you the numbers. Just call Quail Mountain News and place an ad in the paper and have some flyers printed up. Tom can give you the name of the printer that we normally use. When you have everything in place, we can go over the details. In the meantime, if you need any help, just let me know.”
    “Sure,” she answered, shaking her head in agreement, her golden locks brushing across her shoulders with the movement. “I can handle that.”
    “Great.” I went to grab boxes of inventory that needed to be shelved, leaving her with Tom.
    This would work out well for my own purposes. The promotion should keep Dara busy, which would put some space between us. And just to make sure that I kept with the plan,