The Stranger: The Heroes of Heyday (Harlequin Superromance No. 1266) by Kathleen O`Brien Page A

too.
    And was smiling, thrilled at his luck.
    Â 
    T YLER HADN’T BEEN SURPRISED to discover that Rackham Books was the warm, welcoming heartbeat of Heyday’s downtown retail area. The Rackham family’s last business, the Ringmaster Café, had been the same. Comfortably cozy, it had drawn people in, both locals and visitors passing through the little town whose eccentric circus legend guaranteed it at least an asterisk on every tourist map.
    Once in, they had lingered, reluctant to return to the real world, letting Mallory and her mother pamper them with friendly service and fantastic coffee and pie.
    Ironically, that was what had made it the perfect spot for the Heyday Eight. The atmosphere was so wholesome, so full of family charm. Who would ever have suspected those pretty little co-ed customers of propositioning the lonely salesmen traveling to Richmond, or the tired truckers a thousand miles from home?
    Watching Mallory now, Tyler saw that, even after all her losses, even after the shame of seeing her café’s picture in a dozen newspapers and the tragedy of nearly losing her mother, she still had the same magic.
    All morning long, people had entered Rackham Books through the musical door, but they didn’t ever seem to leave. They browsed through the neatly ordered bookshelves, chatted with other customers, listened to the ballerina read stories to the children. Sometimes they took books to the armchair niches Mallory had created between stacks, and sometimes took them out the side door to the reading garden.
    But Tyler knew that what they were really waiting for was a chance to talk to Mallory. They asked her for book recommendations and updated her on everything from their surgeries to their nasturtiums. The little kids gave her hand-drawn pictures of their new kittens, and the older kids confided about their rotten report cards.
    And, amazingly, she seemed to care. Tyler, who hung back by the magazines, which were centrally located and gave him a panoramic view of the human circus, was amazed. Tyler had no idea what his own secretary’s birthday was, though she’d worked for him for five years, but Mallory knew that little Erica Gordon’s puppy’s birthday was coming up in three weeks, and that Harry Wooten’s fifteenth anniversary had been celebrated at Bennini’s last night.
    Apparently the only person in the shop she didn’t like was Tyler.
    And yet, even he was allowed to linger quite a while. She had eyed him coldly several times, but he’d been there nearly an hour before she finally got fed up.
    It was right after Mindy and her glossy fiancé left to get some lunch at the diner down the street. Mallory had seen them off at the door, and then, squaring her shoulders, she’d made a beeline for Tyler, who was all alone by the magazines.
    â€œFinding everything all right, Tyler?” She made the classic shopkeeper’s line sound poisonous. Her smile wasn’t a millimeter smaller than it had been for the other customers, but it was as cold as if she’d just dug it out of the polar ice cap.
    â€œI wasn’t really looking for anything special,” he said pleasantly. “Just browsing, getting acquainted with the shop. You seem to be the center of social activity for the town.” He smiled. “As always.”
    She bristled, of course, though he actually hadn’t meant to be sarcastic.
    â€œOh, yes,” she said. “We try to provide plenty of excitement for visiting investigative journalists. Have you found the bookies in the bathroom yet? The still behind the Dumpster? The drug deals go down in the poetry section every Wednesday at eight.”
    â€œMallory.” He reached out to touch her arm. “I know how angry you are. It was rotten luck that the Heyday Eight chose to work out of your café. But be fair. I couldn’t sit on a story that big just because it would embarrass you.”
    â€œ Embarrass